As part of the John Lewis Christmas campaign, we created an educational tool to engage customers throughout December in the run up to Christmas. The audience is broad and predominantly on mobile, wishing to get deeper into the John Lewis Christmas experience.

The solution was to create a digital platform that connected on 2 levels:

1. Engage a family audience by providing Parents with an educational and fun tool to entertain their children (and themselves).

2. Using ‘Point Of Sale’ material and packaging to trigger an Augmented Reality experience. Enabling customers to bring the experience home with the tens of thousands of John Lewis shopping bags given out at Christmas - connecting the retail experience across all John Lewis department stores with a premium mobile experience.

The app engages the family audience by providing Parents with a fun, educational tool to entertain their children (and themselves).

Users can unlock a 3D interactive moon that releases daily educational facts and animations in the countdown to Christmas Day’s full moon. By pointing their phone at the Man on the Moon image on John Lewis packaging and shopping bags (or by holding the device up towards the moon itself), they can unlock new daily content, encouraging return to the app to discover more.

In addition, a game reinforces the story of the TVC, with users trying to send a gift to the elderly Man on the Moon, avoiding obstacles, and collecting power ups. Users were rewarded each time they climbed higher, unlocking new playable objects, and competing with friends on the leaderboard.

Over 120 hand drawn objects were individually animated to create over 20 levels of gameplay, and animated facts for the augmented experience.

The Man on the Moon app trended across social channels immediately after launch, climbing organically to 5 in the App store charts

The Man on the Moon app trended across social channels immediately after launch, climbing organically to 5 in the App store charts as well as being featured in most popular new apps.

With 300K+ downloads, with users dwell time of 4+ minutes, the app became an augmented extension of the TV campaign, reaching an audience of its own, bringing the moon to life for the next generation throughout the Christmas period.