John Lewis are well-renowned for
their year on year display of advertising prowess in the run-up to Christmas.
Ad agency ‘Adam&EveDDB’, have successfully managed to make mums cry their
way into their pockets year on year, most noticeably since Christmas 2009,
until now.
For the past 4 years John Lewis
adverts have been the most talked about Christmas adverts in the U.K.
Excitement builds, everybody has seen it, talked about it and potentially
reposted it to others within days of being aired.
There has been a clear change of
direction for John Lewis Christmas adverts in the past 4 years. Prior to the
2009 campaign, they focussed keenly on products, evoking desire and aspiration.
Getting what you want for Christmas and giving someone what they want are the
key focus. These adverts weren’t poor, though people didn’t waiting in
anticipation of them being aired, shed a tear after watching them or remember
them the year after.
The most significant change was
made in 2009, which has been maintained and proved successful until now - the
switch of emphasis from ‘product’ to ‘emotion.’ John Lewis no longer wanted to
sell Christmas presents; they wanted to sell Christmas Spirit, Christmas
itself.
A brand can no longer just sell
products or services and rely on that alone. A brand must sell an idea, spirit,
image or a way of life. John Lewis have made this step, with a stride.
In 2010, they sold the idea of
showing a loved one you care, along with the emotional process that is
undertaken prior to a gift being placed under the tree.
In 2011, the used an emotional
twist to highlight the impatience and excitement of youth, selling the emotion
and excitement of giving rather than receiving.
The new 2012 campaign, sells the
idea of going the extra mile for someone you love, regardless of how hard it
may be, expressing ‘the power of love’
These advertisements have been
unbelievably successful, yet they are all rather simple in theory, employing
one primary aim – pulling heartstrings.
Emotion is employed and
considered throughout every element of the past 4 Christmas campaigns and does
not isolate the primary target audience of 30 – 55 year old mothers. Children,
working men, black, white and elderly etc are all susceptible to the John Lewis
Christmas bug.
A lot of credit must be paid to
the music in these advertisements, again demonstrating another significant
change in direction, as all 4 of the Ads, since 2009 have featured an angelic,
female voice singing a slow version of a 70’s/80’s Rock/Pop hit.
For example, Ellie Goulding’s
version of Elton John’s ‘Your Song’ was used and created for the 2010 Christmas
Ad and went on to reach iTunes Chart Number 1.
This year, already, Gabrielle
Aplin’s version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s ‘The Power of Love’ shot to Number
3 in the iTunes chart within 24 hours of it’s release.
The impact of music in
advertising is undoubted, it is clearly something that was considered in great
depth and chosen wisely by Adam&Eve and John Lewis.
John Lewis have cemented their
position as a strong Christmas advertiser and will continue to produce the
same, heart-wrenching, Christmas campaigns year on year, after all, they are
the best at it.
However, I would be interested to
see just how much of the success is owed to the choice of music.
Images taken from Youtube.
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