John Lewis sees a significant sales uplift following ‘Man on the Moon’ launch

The plaudits John Lewis’ latest Christmas ad blockbuster has received appears to be translating into an increase in the most important metric for any marketing campaign – sales.

Boosted by the impact of the ad, for the week ending 14 November, the department store reported its first weekly sales total to surpass £100m this season.

The £110.4m total was an increase of 1.5% year on year and up a whopping 15.8% on the previous week when the ‘Man on the Moon’ ad had just launched.

The much hyped Christmas ad gained 22 million views in its first week – a total that John Lewis says is “proving even more popular” than the 2014 creative ‘Monty the Penguin’ was at the same stage.

“There are clear signs that 2015 will be a truly omnichannel Christmas, with two thirds of our customers now visiting both a shop and johnlewis.com to make a purchase,” the department store brand said in its weekly statement.

The ‘Man on the Moon’ campaign, which was created by Adam&Eve DDB, has received plenty of attention since launching on 6 November with spoofs quickly going viral and everyone from senior marketers to Lord Sugar rushing to give their verdict.

For the festive ad, John Lewis has teamed up with Age UK to raise awareness of the fact that one million older people go for a month or more without speaking to anyone and that Christmas for the festive creative.

The department store is also adopting a different approach to amplify the campaign this year and across 11 of its stores there will be a “moon pop-up” that will offer the opportunity to find out more about the moon and Age UK, as well as enable customers to have their photo taken with the moon back-drop. John Lewis has also created an augmented reality app.

Further activation

The positive sales figures for John Lewis come as Age UK launched a separate behind-the-scenes ad featuring the ‘Man on the Moon’ footage today (20 November).

It features footage of the old man from the main John Lewis ad wondering around the lunar set with a narration from actress Dame Helen Mirren.

The standalone Age UK ad, which encourages people to donate £5 by texting “moon” to 70111 or by visiting the Age UK website, marks the first time John Lewis has allowed footage from one of its Christmas ads to be used to promote another brand.

Recommended