How John Lewis Adverts became a staple to Christmas in Britain (Blog Post 2)

How John Lewis Adverts became a staple to Christmas in Britain

Christmas is the time where retailers prepare to launch their Christmas adverts to the people of Britain. Big pounds are spent on heart-warming storylines and life like graphics all to make the public happy and draw them closer to the brand. One retailer in the UK who have become known for their Christmas adverts, is John Lewis. 

John Lewis was once the go to place for people to buy things from but over the recent years John Lewis has seen a decline in sales and certain stores even closing down. However, this has never stopped John Lewis from maintaining their reputation of iconic Christmas adverts. Since 2007, their adverts have been a reminder to us that Christmas is here. Let's face it, we as a nation are always excited to watch the different Christmas adverts that retailers release. But what is it about John Lewis's adverts specifically that we always wait for and are excited to see? Dr Annmarie Hanlon, a senior lecturer at Cranfield School of Management explained that their adverts tell stories and we as an audience allow our imaginations to be mesmerized by them. She also explained that because John Lewis has a reputation of being costly, the adverts make us as an audience want to go to John Lewis and splurge some money on getting Christmas gifts when we might not usually shop from there. The adverts had an effect on us, as people were purchasing the toys that might have been featured in the adverts. Not just that but even the music featured in the adverts became popular, for example Lily Allen's cover of Keane's 'Somewhere Only We Know' which was used in the retailers' 2013 advert. It became number one on the UK singles chart making her even more famous. 

Figure 1 shows the 2013 John Lewis Christmas advert 'The Bear and The Hare.'

However, with that being said, not every advert released by the retailer has seen successful. John Lewis' 2021 advert which featured a young boy welcoming an alien to Christmas traditions is an example. The audience deemed the advert as being 'too woke' and trying to do something different instead of keeping it traditionally festive. In fact, the advert didn't go down that well with people, they wanted to boycott the stores! 

So, it is fair to say that there are high expectations for this year's Christmas advert. 

But do the Christmas adverts have an impact on John Lewis' sales? One of their most successful adverts, 'The Long Wait' which was released in 2011, helped John Lewis have an increase in sales running up to Christmas. Sales increased by 9.3% and they turned in a profit of £596 million that year! Similarly, the 2014 campaign 'Monty the Penguin' was a huge success and John Lewis had a surge in sales of 5.5% year after year! Not just that but John Lewis bagged a whopping £175 million in a week! So, this proves that the adverts can have an impact on the sales. The more money made from sales, the more goes into investing in successful adverts to increase sales and so forth. 

Ultimately, no other retailer can match what John Lewis brings when it comes to Christmas adverts and if anything, they are following in the retailer's footsteps to create high class and iconic Christmas adverts that can only make the same impact that John Lewis does. 

By Lydia Ferzoli

Reference List:

1. Friel. (n.d.). John Lewis Christmas advert Blog. [online] Available at: John Lewis Christmas advert Blog - Friel (frielgood.com)
2. www.cranfield.ac.uk. (n.d.). Why we love John Lewis at Christmas: The psychology behind festive adverts. online] Available at: https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/som/masters-courses/strategic-marketing/why-we-love-john-lewis-at-christmas-the-psychology-behind-festive-adverts.

3. Figure 1: Lewis, S.J.(2013). John Lewis Christmas ad – video. The Guardian. [online] 8 Nov. Available at: John Lewis Christmas ad – video | Media | The Guardian

4. Morgan, C. (2021). John Lewis’ Christmas ad is slammed for being ‘predictably woke’. [online] Mail Online. Available at: John Lewis' 2021 Christmas advert is slammed for being 'pathetically predictably woke' | Daily Mail Online