In the world of advertising, an agency is only as good as its next Big Idea. Investment bankers are driven by the lure of the deal, stockbrokers by that of the pick, and advertising professionals by that just-out-of-reach Big Idea.

In 2001, the only thing that seemed to matter about Big Ideas in Indian advertising was how funny they were. Humour, that difficult-to-manage mistress, was the common thread in the best campaigns of 2001.

Best? By what metric? Business Today commissioned market research agency NFO-MBL to survey 50 advertising pros across five cities to arrive at the listing-call it a peer-rating if you will (See The Methodology).

The result is a set of ads that largely address the audience's funny bone. Some, like the Kamasutra ad show a glimpse of wit; others, such as the Saint-Gobain one display a mature handling of situational comedy; and still others, like the Pepsi Hai Koi Jawab promo are downright screwball humour.

The product itself seems to be irrelevant. The campaign that topped our listing is that for a product category where communication was considered taboo not too long ago, condoms; the one that came in at number five, for Saint-Gobain glass, is for a category where consumer-oriented advertising is minimal, if not altogether absent.

That's a change from the days when humour was considered detrimental to advertising effectiveness-a myth that was successfully broken by Bill Bernbach's advertising for Volkswagen.

Talk of effectiveness may seem out of place in an exercise where advertising pros have, in effect, rated their peers. Surprisingly, barring one notable exception-Indya and we all know what happened to that one-all campaigns seem to have worked.

Kamasutra Sport and Saint-Gobain exceeded their desired marketshare objectives and Ponds' Cold Cream saw its sales volumes grow 14 per cent-all after their respective campaigns were aired.

The listing has its share of surprises. One, the ads that were top-of-mind, even for ad pros, didn't really make it to the honours club. Cases in point: Frooti's intriguing Digen Verma thing that did its bit for an ageing brand and Coca-Cola's futile make-believe of Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan as college kids.

Two, big bucks don't exactly translate into a big bang. The campaign that emerged on top, that for Kamasutra Sport had an advertising budget of just Rs 8 lakh. Three, only one consumer durable brand, Toyota, figured in the top 10, at number 10, just edging out Coca-Cola's ad about a bunch of friends making the shift from school to college. And four, all but three of the top 10 campaigns of 2001 do not feature celebrities. Of the three that do, two are for Pepsi and one for Coke. Their campaigns may have made it to the top 10 this year, but will audiences tire of celebrities next year?