Apple voted Britain's coolest brand

 
Aston Martin has been top of the annual Coolbrands survey for six of the last seven years but this year it has been overtaken by Apple, which released the iPhone 5 last week.

Technology brands were well represented in the top 20, with YouTube coming second, Twitter in fourth - a place behind Aston Martin - and Google fifth.

Bang & Olufsen, Sony, Bose and Skype also made the Coolbrands top 20, which was determined by a survey of 3,000 people and the opinions of 39 designers, style magazine editors and other experts. Judges are asked to rate brands based on their uniqueness, originality, style, innovation, authenticity and desirability.

Stephen Cheliotis, chairman of the CoolBrands expert council, said: "It is interesting that in this age of austerity our perception of cool has increasingly shifted from aspirational, luxury brands to free or more affordable brands that provide us with pleasure."

Those dropping out of the list this year include two technology brands: BlackBerry and Nintendo. Also out of this year's list were Ferrari, Alexander McQueen and Chanel.

New entrants this year include two ice cream brands - Ben & Jerry's and Haagen-Dazs - as well as Virgin Atlantic, the Glastonbury festival and the BBC iPlayer.

The Coolbrands 2012 top 20
1. Apple
2. YouTube
3. Aston Martin
4. Twitter
5. Google
6. BBC iPlayer
7. Glastonbury
8. Virgin Atlantic
9. Bang & Olufsen
10. Liberty
11. Sony
12. Bose
13. Haagen-Dazs
14. Selfridges
15. Ben & Jerry's
16. Mercedes-Benz
17. Vogue
18. Skype
19. Nike
20. Nikon