Repeated Success of Christmas Campaigns Leave John Lewis Jumping for Joy!
So, here we are again – albeit a little earlier – November 10th and the launch of the 2016 John Lewis Christmas campaign. Whilst the yearly event from John Lewis has certainly become an ‘event’, its place in the calendar has been cemented not just by audience demand but by hard and fast stats that prove it has a massive impact on sales.
This year’s bouncing advertising campaign cost an estimated £7m, modest in comparison to last year’s campaigns by Sainsburys (£22m), Lidl (£23m) and Aldi (£23m). John Lewis calculate that they make just over £8 profit for every £1 spent on the Christmas campaign – so the continued investment offers a proven return.
Right now John Lewis will be hoping that this year’s bouncing animals will engage customers as effectively as previous campaigns.
But, without the data linking sales to marketing spend it would be impossible to quantify the value in continually creating a Christmas extravangza. Whilst most businesses don’t generate such expensive high-profile campaigns, whatever level you’re operating at, repeatedly investing in marketing activity that produces no results is pointless.
How businesses working in B2B measure marketing success depends on individual objectives – the first step is to identify what success looks like for you. It could be more leads, more sales, more customers or perhaps fewer customers spending more money. It isn’t always clear which marketing activity generates results but figuring this out is a crucial part of any marketing strategy – you’ve got to know what you’re doing works ... figure it out and repeat!
And, John Lewis had an unexpected boost to their brand earlier this week, off the back of a rogue advert released by an A’level student. Rather than insisting the work be taken offline, John Lewis praised the student before inviting him to spend some time with their advertising team. An absolutely perfect response, which probably impressed us more than the advert itself!
So... "the holidays are coming" ... "the holidays are coming" ... How do we know? John Lewis have told us! Bouncing over Coca Cola to officially pronounce the arrival of the festive season!
We've said it before... is John Lewis now synonymous with Christmas?