The ad, which lasted 3 minutes and 20 seconds, went smoothly and without a single hitch, as the 19 stuntmen plummeted to the Earth from 14,000 feet above sea level.
The ad, which was billed as the first live ad in modern times, was one of the most audacious attempts yet by an advertiser to create a must-see, unique media experience, in an age of personal video recorders and audience fragmentation.
It started at 8.10pm, during a commercial break for Channel 4's cookery series 'Come Dine with Me', with a shot of the green safety light inside the aeroplane.
A series of camera angles then showed the skydivers clambering on the outside of the aeroplane, and following a signal from the team leader, they threw themselves into the air.
Within seconds they had formed the initial 'H', and 'O' soon followed. For a moment, it looked as though the 'N' was drifting apart, but the team pulled it off, before forming a 'D' as they passed through a cloud, and finally a perfect 'A'.
The ad ended with one of the skydivers revealing the message "hello mum" on his gloves, which was then followed by the campaign strapline "difficult is worth doing".
Channel 4 said the ad break drew an average of 2.2m individual viewers; it began with 2.1m viewers at 20.10pm and ended with 2.3m viewers at 20.13pm. The broadcaster estimates the audience for the ad grew by 8% during its live transmission.
The stunt was created by Channel 4's in-house creative team 4creative, with support from ad agency Wieden & Kennedy and media agency Starcom.
You can listen to reactions to the ad on last night's , which featured Ian Armstrong, marketing manager of Honda UK, and Brand Republic's Darren Davidson.
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