DMU marketing experts review the John Lewis Christmas ad

It’s here! As John Lewis presents its 2016 Christmas advert starring Buster the Boxer, we asked DMU marketing experts what they think. Here, DMU’s Senior Marketing lecturer Mark Prescod and Pinky Bazaz, lecturer in Design and Creative Industries, have their say:

The John Lewis Christmas ad is right at the heart of its whole ethos of thoughtful giving, says Mark Prescod. It’s not just about buying presents, they say, it’s about feelings of giving gifts, making people happy. They want to engage all your senses and emotions, placing themselves in the festive space as Britain’s Christmas retailer.

Last year’s Man in the Moon was seen critically as a great advert. However, among their target market, and target customers, it was seen as a little bit sombre.

This year’s advert gives us the humour, the characters and the fuzzy Christmassy feelings. The storyline is simple and appealing and we all love animals!

Soundtrack is as important as characters. The Vaults covering One Day I’ll Fly Away by Randy Crawford, is a reassuringly close-to-the-original cover version. There was some talk in the press that it would be a Bowie cover as a tribute, but thankfully they have not gone down that route.

If you speak to outgoing MD Andy Street he will tell you his main competition is not House of Fraser or high street names but Amazon. That’s why John Lewis go for the emotional edge, rather than the anonymous, detached internet shopping experience.  

I wasn’t actually a detractor from the Man in the Moon advert, I actually enjoyed the advert and thought it was quite poignant. This one is much more about the humour, something I suspect will be amplified in the shorter version. 

There’s an intangible “something” about an advert which turns it from good to great. Does #BustertheBoxer have this?  The answer is – it might have, but it needs to pass the family TV test.

Watching the two-minute advert “cold” this morning, clicking on a link on YouTube or seeing it over Twitter, is a very different experience from watching a shorter version with the family, sitting around on a Saturday night arguing over the X Factor.

'Forget the ad - it's in the interactive elements where John Lewis scored'

Pinky Bazaz, lecturer in Design and Creative Industries says John Lewis has seized the vogue for interactive customer engagement with its accompanying Snapchat and Oculus Rift campaign

“It’s a very cute advert, it harks back to the ‘child and animal’ adverts we saw with Monty the Penguin and the Bear and the Hare in 2013/14. It’s got that nice bit of nostalgia, the sense of the family bond, togetherness and sharing…


“But I have to ask whether it is innovative enough for John Lewis? They seem to be harking back to things that have worked before after the Man in the Mood advert and it’s as if they are stagnating slightly.


“Where I think they have got it right is by linking the advert with an interactive campaign. Shoppers can use Oculus Rift to get an immersive reality expertise in store and use a Snapchat filter to engage with the campaign while they are in a John Lewis store.

“The idea of experiential design and user generated content is where retailers need to go now, allowing consumers to become the brand by sharing their own snaps or VR.

“Brands don’t want us to just watch their adverts and get nostalgic. They want us to associate experiences with them, create memories with them, and remember those. Consumers hold the brand’s value now.”