Honeywell
When the convicts shook their chains and IBM got rattled.

Case History
When the little pig flew, so did Honeywell ! and

When the convicts shook their chains and IBM got rattled.

The information systems division of Honeywell marketed the identical product range in the U.S. and Canada. In the U.S., the division constantly lost money; in Canada it was the corporation's sole large profit generator. The difference was management, aided by strategic counsel and a Canadian advertising campaign created by Norman Lowe Associates (with the team that now forms The Q Group).

We believe that when you dramatize the problem, solutions appear far more compelling. The problem/solution executions we chose utilized strong visual imagery. We did this before computers were being used to create crazy photographic “reality”, so every time an advertisement appeared in the Globe & Mail, the phones at Honeywell would start to ring. Office pools sprung up around the country; the wager: Is this picture real or not? Not the intent of the campaign, but Honeywell didn’t mind all the attention it generated.

In this case we showed a chain gang with the headline, “You can link them together, but can you make them work together? Another advertisement showed railway tracks of different gauges not able to come together – same premise in terms of Honeywell being able to make multiple operating systems fit together well.

The advertisement that launched the campaign, became its rallying cry. It featured a photograph of a small pig attempting to fly, its wings "grafted" on through film retouching (remember, digital image manipulation had not yet come into being), and a controversial headline: "IT'LL NEVER FLY". Strong opposition from the "let's so it the safe way" contingent was overcome; the advertisements were a spectacular success and keystone of a complete image turnaround for Honeywell computers.

In particular, the “flying pig” advertisement captured the imagination and hearts of the trades. Posters had to be made of the original advertisement because of the demand for copies. Seeing the reaction, we recommended producing stuffed flying pigs to hand tradeshows (which we did). People lined up for ages to speak with Honeywell reps so that they could get one. Sales reps told us that, months later, they would call on clients and find the pigs sitting in their offices. At a meeting of US corporate presidents in March 2003, Jane-Michèle Clark learned that one of those pigs still occupies a chair in a big corner office.

The campaign was hailed as a resounding success. In the States, the I.S. operation stayed number five of five divisions; in Canada it became number one. Exactly the same product... very different advertising.