John Lewis has revealed its new Christmas advertising campaign which is set to debut on Friday 9 November on Channel 4, during Derren Brown: Fear and Faith.
The extra lengths we go to find the perfect Christmas gift is the central theme of the campaign entitled ‘The Journey’. The advert opens in a snow-covered garden with children building a snowman and a snowwoman. When the snowman mysteriously disappears the next morning, the audience is transported to a magical world, following the snowman on his journey across rivers, mountains, roads and cities. The motive for the snowman’s journey isn’t revealed until the last scene, when he returns to the snowwoman on Christmas morning.
The ad, created by adamandeveddb, is set to a revamped version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s ‘The Power of Love’ sung by Gabrielle Aplin and features the strapline “Give a little more love this Christmas”. The ad is directed by Dougal Wilson, who directed John Lewis’ 2011 multi-award winning advertisement and oversaw the spring 2010 ‘Always a Woman’ ad.
The campaign will run for a total of six weeks with 90, 60 and 30 second executions of the TV advertisement running nationally, there will also be in-store, press and online marketing, and a significant push on the retailer’s social media channels.
John Lewis marketing director, Craig Inglis, commented: “We know that our customers put real effort and emotion into finding the perfect gift for their loved ones at Christmas. This year’s ad brings that to life, with a creative twist, as we follow our hero on an epic journey.”