In the case of Unisys, the company has decided to retain the memorable visual image of the old campaign-people with computer monitors for heads- but with an enhanced message developed by a new agency.

Unisys'new $40-million ad campaign, which launches on Thursday, is designed to make it clearer to top executives that Unisys provides "e-business" services, not just the computer hardware for which the company is better known. The campaign is created by Grey Global Group.

The "monitor-head" campaign was dreamed up four years ago by Bozell Group, a unit of True North Communications, as a quirky way for Unisys to get recognition for its business of installing and managing computers for companies, which comprises about 60 per cent of corporate revenue. Unisys is based in Blue Bell, Pa.

Unisys's new campaign borrows its central visual theme-people with monitors for heads-from a former campaign.

Bozell's print and television campaign, featuring buff young men and women with computer monitors for heads, preached the message that Unisys' dedicated techies "eat, sleep and breathe this stuff."Unisys says the campaign caught industry attention and motivated employees.

Unisys' name recognition inched above 90 per cent among Unisys' target audience-"C-class" officials such as chief executives, chief financial officers and chief information officers, as well as information technology managers. That is important for Unisys, which is dwarfed by competitors such as International Business Machines, which recently launched a $600 million campaign promoting its own e-business services.

Last spring, Unisys officials were shocked to read that Bozell was bidding on competitor Compaq Computer's account, estimated to be about $300 million.

They immediately decided to find a new agency. In addition to Grey, Interpublic Group's McCann Erickson and Bcom3 Group's Leo Burnett competed for the Unisys business. (Bozell eventually won the Compaq account.)Mr Lawrence Weinbach, Unisys' chief executive, who led the company into the services arena, says he told all three competitors that he "wanted their best thinking," for the new campaign. Unisys also shared its research about the effectiveness of the monitor-heads for name recognition. Recent studies had shown that Unisys' target customers knew the brand, but fewer knew it provided computer services.

Mr Steve Blamer, president of Grey's US operations, says the agency developed several new ideas but concluded it would be a mistake to lose the brand identity that Unisys had bought with the old campaign. Unisys says one of the other competitors proposed continuing the monitor-head campaign and the other proposed an entirely different theme.

Mr Dave Tutin, executive creative director at Grey, says the old message about eating and sleeping "this stuff" was unclear. "The problem was 'this stuff,' " he says. Grey also concluded that Bozell had wasted the most valuable space on the page-the monitor's screen. Grey's research also found that CEOs were uncomfortable with the campaign's portrayal of Unisys staffers as workaholics. The employees "seemed a little too obsessed," says Mr Tutin.

The new campaign is designed to make customers think of Unisys when they put out bids for computer services to better use the Internet in their businesses. The theme will be: "We've got a head for e-business." In each ad -which will be black-and-white rather than the bright colors of the old campaign-a text headline is matched by a response on the monitor screen.

In the first ad, which will debut on Thursday in The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and Investors Business Daily, a text headline reads: "They say, in e-business, it takes forever to unify the past with the future." The monitor reads: "Funny, we do it every day." For the launch, Unisys will also "block-buy" banner ads on AOL Time Warner's CNNfn.com financial-news site, so anyone visiting the site during the day will see a Unisys ad.

Unisys says about 60 per cent of its world-wide budget will be spent in print with about 30 per cent on television, where it will air on professional golf broadcasts, the favoured venue to reach high-level executives.

Unisys says less than 10 per cent will be spent online, including the creation of a dedicated Website for the campaign.

The Wall Street Journal