Was The John Lewis Christmas Ad Really That Good?
I love watching Christmas ads. It’s one of the only times in the year that marketing is driven by the elements it should be:
- An exploration of human truth
- Emotionally inducing
- Primed for consumer shareability
Since 2007, the GOATs of this have been John Lewis, to the point where, especially in recent years, they’ve been victims of their own success.
But still, Christmas doesn’t start until John Lewis says so and what I’ve found fascinating about the reception of this ad over the last 24 hours, has been the differences in opinion between the industry and what we have seen when sharing the ads with our 20K strong community.
I always say once you work a day in advertising, you can no longer see yourself as a consumer. At Word On The Curb, our business model centres around giving a voice to real people, ultimately allowing them to inform creative and make better communications.
With methodologies that range from live stream watch parties, voice note sharing and closed network comms groups, our insights are gathered from a cross-section of real humans who aren’t primed or prepped to be serial ad reviewers. They just exist as themselves and enjoy sharing their opinions with us.
In order of prevalence, supplemented with verbatims, here were the top 3 feelings:
1. Confusion
“I’m so confused. This is my third watch and I’m trying to work out if the other people are also the woman or if they just look similar…OH THEY’RE SISTERS!”
“I couldn’t keep up with it–maybe it was my ADHD but there was a lot going on.”
2. Real
“I liked it, really nicely conveyed the madness of being in the family home over the Christmas period.”
“Apart from being a bit confused, I like that the video simply showed how flipping difficult it can be to buy a present for a loved one. I feel seen.”
3. Wanting more
“There’s too many things going on. Wouldn’t have minded this as a series.”
“Call me basic but having invested time getting to know this girl’s whole life, at least tease what she bought at the end. Unless they’re going to play on it–Walk into a John Lewis and enter a competition by submitting what you think the present was kinda vibes.”
A similar analysis was done with industry professionals–the 3 main responses were:
- Clever
- Emotional
- Real
Clever v Confused is my headline takeaway.
Creativity is of course nuanced, but Adland’s obsession with ‘smarts’ and ‘intelligence’ needs a watchful eye. Consumers engage with ads in a multiplicity of ways which can affect engagement, comprehension, retention, emotion, reaction and understanding subtle inferences–being mindful of that is vital.
With all that being said, a big bravo to Richard Huntington and all involved for bringing ‘real’ to Christmas ads. Something both sides agreed on and ultimately what we know drives great advertising.
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