Over the last 5 years John Lewis have run some of the best advertising in Britain. Our previous paper showed how advertising galvanized sales, generating an extra £400 million of profit in the first 4 years. This paper updates the story to Christmas 2013, the most effective campaign so far.

Christmas is crucial John Lewis, representing 40% of annual revenues. But the importance goes beyond sales. Over the last 5 years, Christmas has become the UK of the equivalent of The Superbowl, with the public and the media eager to see who will “win Christmas”.

John Lewis’s strategy is simple: to position the store as the home of “thoughtful gifting”, and to bring that idea to life in a humble, charming, but highly emotive way.

If John Lewis is the home of “thoughtful gifting”, what is the most thoughtful gift anyone can give? The gift of Christmas itself.

For Christmas 2013, we created “The Bear and the Hare”, the story of a hibernating bear who had never seen Christmas, and his friend the Hare, who was determined to find a gift that would help him to see what he had been missing.

The core of the campaign was a highly emotive piece of animation set to music, which was brought to life on TV, online, and in-store in John Lewis’s most integrated and immersive campaign yet.

As soon as the campaign broke, it was clear that we had “won Christmas”.

People loved “Bear & Hare”, and went online in their millions to watch it again and again. Two weeks after launch, it was the most shared video in the world. It has been watched online 15 million times, 5 times more than competitors’ ads.

Media coverage dwarfed the competition too, and John Lewis became one of the most talked about brands in any category.

The merchandise rapidly sold out, the apps topped the charts, and the song went to no. 1.

The result was more customers, spending more, leading to the record sales and market share. Econometrics shows that the campaign increased sales by £142m, and that every £1 spent on the advertising generated over £7 of extra profit.

This case teaches many lessons about the power of emotion, the power of storytelling, and the power of music. But best of all it teaches us how to amplify these effects by totally immersing consumers in a world and a story.