The retailer put its products, flagship store and a family focus at the heart of its Christmas ad, which has seen its best score for potential effectiveness since 2019.

By Amrit Virdi 15 Nov 2024

John Lewis’ latest Christmas ad, ‘The Gifting Hour’, has scored a 4.6 star rating on System1’s Test Your Ad platform, making it the brand’s most effective ad since ‘Excitable Edgar’ in 2019.

This year’s advert depicts a woman frantically trying to find a gift for her sister in the Oxford Street flagship store before she falls through a rack of dresses and is transported to a world of memories she and her sister have shared from teenage arguments to pregnancies and happy memories in their childhood home.
The rating is based on a 5.9-star scale that predicts the ad’s potential to drive long-term brand growth and market share. The last time the ad scored within the 4-star range was in its 2020 efforts.
The 2024 ad, created with Saatchi & Saatchi, also saw its highest brand fluency (recognisability) score for over a decade, which System1 puts down to the advert’s focus on the store and products.

John Lewis strayed away from its traditional theme of using brand characters this year, as the advert forms part of a trilogy that kicked off in September.

The product-focused ads have highlighted the return of its ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ price promise, which was brought back in September to enhance value perceptions of the brand.

John Lewis positions itself as ‘home of gifting’ with festive love letter to physical retail
Charlotte Lock, customer director at John Lewis, told Marketing Week that releasing the adverts in a trilogy helped to drive conversion at Christmas, and that the ad would cement John Lewis as the “Christmas gifting destination” after being “dormant for a few years”.

“Shoppers start thinking about Christmas and thinking about buying in September. This was the right time to bring back Never Knowingly Undersold as people were starting to think about purchasing. We had to make sure there wasn’t just awareness, but there was consideration and conversion,” she said.

She also shared that the first two chapters of the trilogy have generated “fantastic results”, with organic search up 17% year on year and the Net Promoter Score up by 10 points.
Jon Evans, CMO of System1, says “thoughtful gifting” has been the “common thread” in John Lewis ads over the past decade. “It’s what makes ‘The Gifting Hour’ such a great Christmas ad too,” he adds.
Last year’s Christmas ad from the retailer scored 3.6 stars on the System1 rating, beaten by Aldi and M&S Food. This was higher than its score in 2022 (3.3 stars) and in 2021 (3.1 stars).

“The lifetime bond between the sisters means love, family and gifts are among the strongest associations viewers have with the ad,” adds Evans on this year’s effort. “John Lewis continues to make Christmas ads like nobody else, and the people have spoken – it’s one of their best.”

Lock hopes this year’s ad will reach a wider demographic with in-store events and a social-first TikTok campaign and competition, run alongside singer Richard Ashcroft, accompanying the ad.

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