Monday 1 December 2014

John Lewis Christmas campaign 2014

Every year consumers eagerly await to see what new idea John Lewis will come up with for their Christmas advert. Last year we had the bear and the hare, this year we have Monty the penguin to which tells the story of a little boy called Sam and his best friend and toy Monty the Penguin. It is a tale of love, friendship and giving someone the gift that they have always wanted this Christmas.


Following the release of the tear-jerking £7 million TV campaign, sales of the toy version of Monty the Penguin sold in less than 24 hours. After the selling out of these desired Christmas gifts, people began selling them on sites such as Ebay for over triple the amount of money. The two foot tall toy penguin that was being sold in store for £95 was being sold on Ebay for £459, and the smaller ten inch toy that was originally selling for £12 was going for £70! So what exactly is it that makes John Lewis' Christmas advertisements so desirable?

I feel that the reason that John Lewis' Christmas campaigns succeed is because they know how to connect to their target consumer. As a brand, they know that most children have a favourite toy to which they probably believe to be real, so by creating a campaign in which shows a child with a real life penguin as a best friend reflects the real life child consumer. Also by showing Monty the penguin as a real life penguin throughout and then revealing that he is only a toy at the end provokes a sense of magic within the child consumer as they will be more than likely believe that if they have a toy version of Monty the penguin then they will experience the same relationship with Monty that the child has within the commercial.

Overall, I feel that John Lewis are very clever at knowing exactly what their target consumer wants. The brand seems to be all about connecting and listening to what the consumer wants rather than creating a random campaign which has no meaning. Yet they are also very business headed as they know that by creating a campaign that is targeted for the child consumer, it will be more likely to boost sales at Christmas rather than if it was to be a campaign aimed at adults because Christmas is generally seen to be all about the magic that surrounds the idea of Christmas for children.

Sourced from: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/john-lewis-christmas-advert-95-4587556

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