John Lewis and Monty the Penguin: The media strategy

behind the UKs favourite Christmas campaign

Joseph Clift
Event Reports
Mediatel Connected Consumer Conference, June 2015

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John Lewis and Monty the Penguin: The media strategy behind the UKs favourite
Christmas campaign
Joseph Clift
Event Reports
Mediatel Connected Consumer Conference, June 2015

John Lewis and Monty the Penguin: The media strategy behind
the UK's favourite Christmas campaign
Joseph Clift
Warc
If effectiveness is measured by media hype, the Christmas ad from John Lewis, the department chain retailer, was the UK's
biggest marketing success stories of the past few years.
But a presentation at The Connected Consumer Conference, an event organized by Mediatel and held in London in June
2015, gave some statistical heft to the hype. James Parnum, client business director Manning Gottlieb OMD, John Lewis'
media agency, gave clear evidence of the success of the TV-led campaign, which focused on emotional marketing and starred
a very cute penguin named Monty.

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Further, Parnum argued that the campaign's "connected" strategy beyond TV was a crucial factor behind this success and
increased the campaign's ROI.
Strategy
For the client, Christmas is crucial. John Lewis gets around 40% of its annual sales during the festive period. And it has
established a clear brand over recent years by launching lushly-produced, sentimental ads at that time of year. "They've built
an emotional connection over the years," Parnum said. "We've got the stock now, we just need to build on it."
That said, more recently, larger retail brands, including supermarket giant Sainsbury's, have been "pulling a John Lewis" and
releasing much more emotional festive campaigns.

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This made it even more important for the client to get the 2014 campaign right. The campaign period was comparatively short
the seven weeks leading up to Christmas. Parnum highlighted the fact that the media agency collaborated in the campaign
strategy all the way from the script stage. "Having time to think about a connected campaign is really crucial," Parnum added.
As befitting a strategy that aims to make a big PR splash via (expensive) TV placements, "week one is the most important," in
this period, Parnum said. "But the connected part of the campaign was about maintaining this big launch over the other six
weeks."
This connection strategy was to "make the most of Monty", building the campaign through traditional film, broadcast on TV and
online, and supplementing this with activations on many more media. All this needed to be achieved without "spoiling the
character," Parnum added.
Execution
Ahead of the campaign launch, there was a carefully planned "anticipation" phase a comparative luxury afforded by the
client's previous years of excellent ads. "John Lewis is lucky because people actually look forward to them," Parnum said. "So
we have more leeway to build intrigue ahead of launch than we do with other brands."
As part of this strategy, the client and agency struck a media partnership with Channel 4, a UK commercial TV broadcaster, to
run "teaser" videos prior to shows.

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There was also a digital out of home campaign around London ahead of launch, featuring "fleeting" appearances from Monty.
Material including Monty the Penguin stuffed toys that would eventually go on sale in John Lewis stores were sent to
bloggers and other influencers. "It got people questioning about the character," Parnum said.
When the launch came, the media strategy was about being "bigger and bolder than the competition". This broad-reach
approach was necessary due to the very crowded marketplace: 15 retailers launched their Christmas campaigns in the UK on
the same week.
The broadcast premiere of the ad was during Gogglebox, a popular Channel 4 show. The John Lewis ad was the entire
commercial break. It had been launched via Twitter and Facebook a couple of days earlier. Post-launch #Montythepenguin
was the world's top trending topic on Twitter though Parnum suggested this was not the most reliable effectiveness metric
for the campaign as a whole. "What doesn't these days?" he added. "[But] social is important. Nobody's denying the power of
TV, but it's about dispersing it these days across other video platforms."
The follow-up to this launched was termed as a general "immersion" strategy, aimed at creating a "deep relationship" between
shoppers and Monty.
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The soft toys originally sent to bloggers sold out very quickly when they went on sale in stores. Other branded items to buy at
John Lewis included a children's book and clothing. Online, the retailer pushed a Monty the Penguin app, aimed at children.
Users could customize and send digital Christmas cards to friends, and play games featuring a cartoon Monty.

Source: John Lewis

In the spirit of immersiveness, the retailer also launched Monty's Goggles, a virtual reality experience using Google Cardboard.
"It's not tech for tech's sake. Cardboard is so basic kids build stuff with it, play with it."
Perhaps the most ambitious tech execution of the campaign took place in the flagship John Lewis store on Oxford Street,
London. The brand worked with Microsoft for a different immersive experience, Monty's Magical Toy Machine, for which
children could bring in a favourite toy, scan it, then see it dance on a big screen. "This is a very pure extension of the Monty
campaign," Parnum added. "They could see their own toys come to life just like Monty does."

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For adults, there was an integration with music-finding app Shazam, pushing users to buy the Tom O'Dell song that scored the
ad. The official @MontythePenguin Twitter account also provided a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the campaign for grownup followers.
"It really was through the line really connected," Parnum concluded.
Results
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29m video views of the main ad online of which 70% of viewers watched all the way through.

25,000 books sold.

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600,000 app sessions.

2,600 Microsoft toy scans.

42,000 Twitter followers.

349m campaign impressions.

7.41:1 profit ROI, 141m in incremental revenues.

In 2014, John Lewis Christmas sales rose 5.5%, while retail sales overall rose +1.5%, according to the British Retail
Consortium, a trade group.

About the Author

Joseph Clift is a Product Manager for Warc.

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