I came in to the lounge last night to find my teenage daughter in floods of tears. What could possibly be wrong? Had JLS split up AGAIN? No, the cause of my daughter’s distress was the John Lewis Christmas Advert.
Yes, it’s official, the big brands have decided Yuletide has begun and they’ve all come out guns blazing in the fight for our festive funds.
Marks & Spencer want us to ‘believe in magic and sparkle’ with their glitzy fairytale featuring supermodels and Helena Bonham Carter. Tesco show us one family’s Christmas journey through an Instagram filter soundtracked by Rod Stewart, Boots have their surly Smalltown Boy turned Secret Santa gifting the people that have helped him during the year, Iceland have the Gold Blend couple for the new millennium where boy meets girl but girl doesn’t know boy drives for Iceland yet and Sainsbury’s show us a series of fly on the wall Christmas scenarios, including some young children sending their dad a video message as he can’t make it home for Christmas… or so they think…
There are many other big brand Christmas campaigns - Asda have their snowmen, Waitrose have their farmer, Argos have their aliens and Morrisons have Ant & Dec but these have failed to capture the collective imagination because they are lacking in something that all of the others have - Story.
My daughter isn’t the only person to cry along to a Christmas ad this year. Brands have realised to grab an audience you have to connect with them emotionally. And when it comes to this, one brand is King. Step forward John Lewis (and their ad agency Adam & Eve).
This year’s ad features the animated tale of The Bear and The Hare. Its arrival was heralded which saw it trending on Twitter before it had even aired on TV and word soon spread about the cute cartoon pals. This is also a factor in John Lewis’s success, they understand that TV is no longer the monolith it once was. A huge proportion of us get our information fix from our portable screens these days. Premiering a much-anticipated ad on YouTube where people can watch at their convenience and immediately share it with their friends is an extremely savvy move that has helped them keep ahead in the festive race. Because of this, by the time it premiered on TV in that very expensive X Factor slot, the buzz was sufficient to not only have people watching but paying attention too. Top marks to all involved.
Of course, the biggest budget PR campaign in the world wouldn’t work if the content was no good but John Lewis deliver the goods. On every level.
An animation about woodland friends immediately captivates the younger audience but the clever thing about this ad is its style of animation. It’s hand-drawn in an Old School 2D style reminiscent of 70s Disney and Watership Down, this lends it an air of nostalgia which shoots straight to the heart of those who grew up pre-CGI, i.e., the mums and dads with the money to spend in John Lewis.
The first scene is captivating as a snowflake descends onto the bear’s nose heralding the dawn of winter and his hibernation period. We share the hare’s disappointment as his best friend retreats to his cave to sleep through Christmas. The hare then sneaks an alarm clock (presumably bought at John Lewis) into the cave and the bear awakens to discover all the joys of the Holiday season. Yes, it’s twee but it’s genuinely engaging and it’s managed to connect with a wide audience through very simple storytelling. Just what happens to the bear when he tries to start his year with a messed-up body clock is yet to be seen…
John Lewis successfully connects with a wide demographic by using cartoon animals to tell their story. A couple of the aforementioned campaigns have come under fire for being very middle-class and free of ethnicity. Seems they took the White Christmas brief too literally. Telling a simple story with animal protagonists harks back to early forms of storytelling, it’s very Aesop-esque, most people can relate to the themes and emotions or, at the very least, are not alienated. Also by having two very different species interacting, a bear and a hare, there is an underlying message of how we can all get along, regardless of race, upbringing, gender or religion. There is also no dialogue so anybody can follow the story regardless of language or disability. It truly is a story that could potentially engage anyone.
The masterstroke in the ad’s success is the story doesn’t end with the advert. It continues in your nearest John Lewis store where you can have your picture taken with The Bear and The Hare, eleven of their stores have caves so you can explore the characters’ world. There is a book of the further adventures of the protagonists and you can also follow them on Twitter or buy Bear and Hare merchandise - Yes, you can buy merchandise of the characters in their advert. Revenue from that and the royalties accrued from their YouTube hits enable a monstrous advertising spend - this is all very clever. You can also go online and make a Christmas card of your family with the Bear and the Hare and send it to all of your friends, advertising John Lewis every step of the way. They’ve even thought of those difficult teenagers with a competition on YouTube to record a cover of the ad’s soundtrack with the winning entry accompanying the ad on its Christmas Day airing. Everything and everybody has been thought of in this campaign. They have spin-off activities that cover every demographic. It’s a cross-platform, multi-audience experience based on a cartoon bear and hare. And it is working.
Most of the Christmas ads are good this year, some are great, they veer from the starry to the traditional, the trendy to the twee. We are watching them on our TVs and our tablets and are talking about them with our families and colleagues but some of them stand out and why? Good old-fashioned storytelling. It’s been part of our society from way before we had mass communication and it’s good to see it not only surviving in this modern world but triumphing. The simple story still resonates in a world of celebrity cameos and fly-on-the-wall footage. People are beginning to switch off and fast forward due to information overload and it can be hard to grab their attention but the John Lewis campaign teaches us one very old lesson. If you want people to listen, Tell them a story.
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