John Lewis is famous for Christmas advertising - every year telling the story of thoughtful gifting (the core strategic platform that remains pivotal to the communication) in a new an interesting way. The work is highly anticipated, with chatter and speculation starting in the summer time in the UK, and so loved that it’s launch regarded by many as the start of the Christmas season. So the brief in 2016 was to continue to develop our position around owning thoughtful gifting, creating our most loved, shared and talked about campaign to date. Over the last few years, John Lewis’ Christmas campaigns have captured the hearts of the nation and driven significant ROI. Every year the stakes are raised, with increasing media and public interest alongside increasing retail and advertising competition. Christmas is John Lewis’ most important trading period, responsible for close to 40% of annual profits.

This year’s film captures the joy of a gift that everyone loves, told through the story of Buster the Boxer and his

family at Christmas. The spot is directed by Dougal Wilson and set to a Vaults cover of Randy Crawford’s ‘One

Day I’ll Fly Away’. #BusterTheBoxer

The campaign was teased on social with 3 short films, before launching online and on TV with a two-minute advert. A media first partnership with Sky that allowed viewers to download the advert and experience that ‘first watch moment’ through their Sky+ planner. The campaign extended to playful new channels such as a branded Snapchat lens, a fully immersive VR trampoline experience that combined Oculus Rift, Leap Motion and Kinect technologies in our flagship store (this is the first time that a brand has used these technologies together). A 360 video on Google Cardboard VR allowed younger children to join in with the fun in-store and extended the experience into the homes of our customers. There was also a range of official merchandise, spectacular windows, in-store activations, social activity, thank you films for our biggest fans, opportunities to invite the animals into your world, books, branded bags and more.