The John Lewis Effect

Last week John Lewis blessed us all with their latest Christmas advert. This year's ad features Monty the Penguin or should I say #MontyThePenguin and follows him on his quest for love. SPOILER ALERT it ends with the revelation that Monty is actually a young boy's favourite cuddly toy and not his pet. 

John Lewis Christmas adverts have told us the stories of the Hare and the Bear, The Snowman willing to risk his life for his love and the young boy who was so excited to give his parents their gift. The ads are loved not only for their heartwarming stories but also the amazing soundtracks. This year's features the beautiful voice of Tom Odell and his Beatles cover and last year's Snowpatrol cover by Lily Allen helped to reboot her career after her hiatus though she later admitted to only earning £8000 for that song.

Over the last few years John Lewis have managed to turn their Christmas adverts into an anticipated event  that is so much more than them simply trying to sell individual items to consumers. Marketing is a career that I am interested in pursuing after university and a phrase that stuck in my mind from Google's head of Marketing Nishma Robb last month at a careers event was that marketing is all about 'Purpose not product'. 

This is a concept that John Lewis have well and truly taken on. They have found a way to make people become excited about Christmas on the whole and it's 'true meaning' focussing on relationships and the emotions surrounded around giving and receiving gifts rather than how much money you spend on specific consumer items.

I just think that it is amazing that John Lewis have been able to engage the British Public by having everyone talking about their advert. #Montythepenguin was trending on Twitter for days and raised enough awareness to have over 12 million YouTube views in less than a week. I can only imagine the increase in traffic John Lewis would have received from this campaign with people looking to find gifts that will 'Give someone the Christmas they've been dreaming of'.

 I would love to one day to be part of a process that helps to create a campaign much like this one day, and to find out what it takes to capture the hearts of the nation.