Founded in 1864, John Lewis is a UK department store, selling homewares, furniture, electrical products, fashion and beauty. With 45 shops and a thriving e-commerce business, it is now at the forefront of omni-channel retailing in Britain.

Our previous Creative Effectiveness papersi told the story of how John Lewis became one of Britain’s most loved, talked about and visited brands.

Since adam&eveDDB were appointed in 2009, the central marketing objective has been to deepen the emotional connection with the British public, in order to attract new customers and increase their spending. This objective has lived through all communications, from tactical advertising supporting sales or new store openings through to big, high-profile brand campaigns.

adam&eveDDB have created a series of campaigns for John Lewis that have been built upon deep human truths. Our previous papers chronicled the results of these campaigns from 2009 to 2014. These were outstanding in every way – the brand response, the social and cultural impact and the commercial returns.

Our award-winning TV spots became some of the best-loved ads in Britain, beating all rival stores in terms of advertising awareness. So popular were they that each new campaign was an eagerly-awaited event, with millions of people going online to watch the ads again and again. The 2014 Christmas ad “Monty’s Christmas” got over 28 million views online, almost twice as many as the nearest rival, and was one of the most widely shared ads of all time.

Media coverage dwarfed the competition too, and John Lewis became one of the most talked about brands in any category, beating “super-brands” like Apple and Amazon here in the UK. And the rest of the world soon began to notice, with news of each campaign launch regularly trending globally on Twitter.

The songs from the TV ads regularly topped the charts, giving the brand additional free exposure through music sales and radio airplay. Apps based on the campaigns topped the download charts, giving John Lewis fans new ways to interact with the brand and immerse themselves in its world. And campaign merchandise became increasingly important, generating enough revenue to cover much of the cost of producing the ads.

The net result was more customers, spending more, leading to rising sales and market share. Econometrics showed that, by 2014, every £1 John Lewis spent on advertising generated an extra £8 of profit, a remarkable feat when so many other UK retailers were struggling.

This new paper updates the story by looking at the Christmas 2015 campaign, “Man on the Moon”, our most effective and profitable campaign yet.