Christmas campaigns extend beyond TV

 

John lewis adUK department store, John Lewis, has revealed its much anticipated Christmas campaign, capitalising on the success of previous years’ emotive Christmas marketing.

The 2014 Christmas marketing effort goes beyond what John Lewis is best known for – its annual television commercial, and attempts to bring the emotional marketing store to life in stores.

Set to the track ‘Real Love’, sung by Tom Odell and originally written and recorded by John Lennon, the advertisement tells the tale of friendship between a little boy, Sam, and his penguin friend, Monty.

Monty and Sam do everything together and the advert follows them playing happily through the year, however in winter, Sam notices Monty longs for a companion. On Christmas Day Sam gives Monty a new penguin friend called Mabel.

Featuring the strapline ‘Give someone the Christmas they’ve been dreaming of’, Monty and Mabel have been created using CGI technology to look and behave like real Adélie penguins.

The commerical first launched on John Lewis’ social media channels and debuted the day after on TV. The launch follows a teaser campaign using #MontyThePenguin, on digital outdoor advertising sites and on Channel 4, where the broadcaster’s ‘idents’ have been transformed to feature Monty.

The TVC cost £1 million to make, and is part of John Lewis’s overall £7 millon investment in its Christmas campaign.

The campaign will be reinforced instore, with Monty’s Den installations. Monty’s Den partners with Samsung, Google, and Microsoft to create a series of technology firsts including Monty’s Magical Toy Machine, which enables children to bring their favourite toys to life through Monty’s Goggles, which use Google Cardboard to allow children to enter a 360o virtual world and interact with Sam and Monty.

During the campaign, children will also be able to create their own Monty Christmas card on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S.

Merchandise inspired by Monty and Mabel will also be available, including a children’s book, Monty’s Christmas, of which a proportion of the proceeds will go to Barnardo’s.

An audio app version of the book narrated by Dermot O’Leary will also be available on iTunes from today, along with the Real Love single by Tom Odell.

The campaign began with a 120 second TV advert on November 7 and is supported by a combination of three shorter versions for six weeks.

Closer to home, David Jones has also launched its new Christmas campaign, featuring Tina Arena singing ‘The things we do for love’.

Like John Lewis, the Christmas theme song will be available for download, with proceeds going to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, with instore collateral also supporting the TVC.

Watch the new David Jones TVC below.


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