John Lewis ad wins festive vote

Department Store John Lewis’ Christmas advertising campaign, entitled the ‘Snowman’s Journey’, has topped a poll of consumer’s favourite festive adverts.According to the survey conducted by Analyst firm Conlumino, well over a

quarter of consumers interviews said that the retailer’s advert that centres around a snowman searching for the perfect gift was their favourite advert, giving John Lewis a significant lead over the advertising from rival retailers.

From the 2,000 consumers interviewed, 28.3 percent went for the ‘Snowman’s Journey’, ahead of Marks and Spencer’s ‘Greatest Hits this Christmas’ advert, which came in second with 17.1 percent, and Argos’ quirky ‘Aliens at Christmas’ campaign was third with 11.2 percent.

The success of John Lewis’ ad, which is set to the strap line 'Give a little more love this Christmas', was due to its “subtle rather than a blatant push” of products and the brand, according to Conlumino.

Joseph Robinson, Senior Consultant at Conlumino, added: “In addition to its strong emotional pull, the John Lewis advert has real resonance: at a time of austerity a lot of people are focusing on the real meaning of Christmas, which means things like love, family, and finding meaningful gifts are all messages consumers buy into.”

John Lewis are becoming known for their festive campaigns, as well as their ability to create a musical hit, in 2010 the retailer featured Ellie Goulding’s version of Elton John’s ‘Your Song’, last year was a cover of The Smiths’ ‘Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’, and this year singing sensation Gabrielle Aplin sings a haunting version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 'The Power of Love'.

Winning the best festive ad isn’t the campaign’s only accolade, the marketing push has also helped Gabrielle Aplin take the number one spot in the UK music charts, marking the retailer’s first ever chart topper, and a London-based publishing company has made the magical story of the ‘Snowman’s Journey’ into a book for children.

In addition, John Lewis has announced that sales to December 8 rose to its best ever total of 142 million Pounds, up 15 percent on the same week last year. The department store saw an increase in sales both instore and online with johnlewis.com also achieving record figures last week of over 42 million Pounds with a record day for the online operation of 7.3 million Pounds as a result of last week's first 'Mega Monday'.