Over the years, John Lewis have become famous for their feel-good Christmas advertising. And as everyone knows, the sales results have been spectacular. But in 2015, John Lewis took the brave decision to tell a sad story, about loneliness. In “Man on the Moon”, a little girl looking through her telescope spies an old man, living on his own on the moon. Her thoughtful Christmas gift is a telescope, sent by balloon, so that he can see he’s not really alone. Then we teamed up with the charity Age UK to create a second ad, based on out-takes from “Man on the Moon”, highlighting the fact that many old people spend Christmas alone.

The benefits to AgeUK were huge, raising contributions worth over £2m. But the payback to John Lewis was even bigger.

This was our most watched, loved and talked-about Christmas campaign ever:

The level of interest was such that The Daily Telegraph ran a Countdown Clock to the launch.

“Man on the Moon” hit no. 1 globally on Twitter within 40 minutes of launch.

We were voted Best Christmas Campaign of 2015 in public and industry polls.

Google searches hit record levels and “Man on the Moon” was the Most Shazamed Ad of 2015.

Mentions of John Lewis in social media broke previous records

YouGov voted John Lewis Most Talked About Retailer in Britain

There were 1,443 articles in the press, delivering over 130 million free exposures.

The ad was shared over 1.6 million times online, making it The Most Shared UK Christmas Ad of All Time.

In all, the ad got 35 million views online.

And this was our most effective and profitable Christmas campaign ever:

We got our highest ever ad awareness scores

The ad has a stronger effect on the brand than previous campaigns.

The ads prompted the highest ever level of web visits.

John Lewis recruited record numbers of customers, who visited more often and spent more.

Sales and market share it record levels, increasing profits by £57m

Every £1 spent on advertising generated over £10 of profit for John Lewis.

This case shows that advertising can deliver outstanding profits and be a force for social good.