The UK’s initial reaction to the most recent John Lewis’ Christmas advertising campaign showed that it was behind the previous year’s Man on the Moon in terms of popularity and lagging 2014’s favourite Monty the Penguin (below).
Retailer John Lewis’ latest ‘Buster the Dog’ ad took third place (22%), after the store’s Monty the Penguin (26%) and Man on the Moon (25%).
(For more about the 2016 ad campaign, click here.)
- Consumers are more interested in this year’s ad storyline (32%), rather than the soundtrack that accompanies it (12%)
- When asked to describe the ad, most said it is more ‘cute’ (57%) and ‘heart-warming’ (48%), rather than festive (37%) or funny (37%)
UK public opinion measurement app OnePulse, said viewers declared they liked this year’s ‘Storyline’ (32%), followed by characters (27%), animation (19%) and, lastly, the soundtrack of One Day I’ll Fly Away (12%).
Happy video ad to lift the spirits 
Buster the Dog’s appearance in this year’s ‘happy’ rather than ‘sad’ ad was described as ‘cute’ (57%) and ‘heart-warming’ (48%) rather than festive (37%) or funny (37%). John Lewis, meanwhile, was selling ‘Buster and friends’ merchandise – including the trampoline. The store says ten per cent of all sales of the woodland-themed toys will be given to UK wildlife trusts and charities.
A John Lewis spokesman said there had been concern that the previous Man on the Moon ad had been too bleak, sparking the decision to move away from ‘sadvertising’ in favour of the happier Buster and friends – the ad cost around £1m to make and features CGI versions of bouncing Buster (aka Biff), foxes, badgers, squirrels and hedgehogs.
Comments shared in response to watching the ad ranged from ‘Who buys an outdoor trampoline at Xmas?’, to ‘Lovely, made me laugh, cry and smile, all at the same time’.
Nick Walter, OnePulse chief marketing officer said: “As the UK’s most eagerly awaited signpost for Christmas, the nation’s response is always of interest. Our results show that this year’s John Lewis ad has not pulled at the heartstrings as much as previous ads. However, this is the immediate reaction, so we’ll asking again to see if that has changed.”
Whether customers liked the latest or the previous year’s – John Lewis was still the outright winner of the Christmas ads, according to ‘social listening’ data research by Axoon – which created an ebook showing how the retailer remained at the forefront for viewers again this festive season. Download the ebook here.
The data revealed which retailers took the top slots:
- The John Lewis ad generated five times more mentions than its nearest rival, M&S, and significantly more than Sainsbury’s and Aldi.
- John Lewis was also the clear winner in terms of a positive emotional reaction to the content, boasting the lowest proportion of negative comments of all the brands Axoon examined.
- Axoon broke down all the data by media type to see which social media platforms contained the most buzz around the ads. Of the platforms tracked, Twitter was the key driving force of the success of all Christmas ads, specifically in terms of retweets of/reactions to the brand’s tweets about the ad, and in terms of second screening activity while the ad aired on TV.
- Online news articles also played a huge part in indicating the success of each brand’s ad, especially among older members of the public who are less active on social media.
- Multiple brand mentions within one comment seemed to correspond to the level of buzz around each ad. John Lewis drove the most mentions overall and had the lowest proportion of other brand mentions. In contrast, while Aldi drove the smallest volume of conversation around its own ad, 31% of these mentions also included a mention of another brand.