Sky continue the narrative of the John Lewis Christmas advert beyond TV to deepen the emotional connection with the audience
The John Lewis Christmas campaign has firmly established itself as one of the most anticipated advertising events of the year. It is famed for its emotive storytelling, which holds appeal across all demographics, in the UK. In 2016, John Lewis approached Sky Media with the question - "How can we make our Christmas campaign even more successful?" Sky Media accepted the challenge and the partnership set out to develop a campaign to elevate the John Lewis Christmas advert to new heights.
The idea for the campaign was to build on John Lewis' reputation for great storytelling and continue the narrative, beyond the TV advert, to deepen the brand's emotional connection with the audience.
Sky Media identified the best way to achieve this would be to create exclusive branded content, which would take the audience behind-the-scenes of the advert and bring the campaign the life.
John Lewis' advert and branded content deserved to be watched on a big screen - so that the audience would experience the full impact of the creative. As a result, the campaign idea evolved to include placement of the advert and branded content on Sky's EPG (Electronic Programming Guide) homepage.
Positioning on Sky's EPG (Electronic Programming Guide) homepage ensured millions of households across the UK would be exposed to the advert as soon as they turn on their TV, and could share another John Lewis iconic moment.
The John Lewis VoD tile content was downloaded almost 1 million times. Once downloaded, homes were able to view the content as many times as they liked at moments that suited them and their families
After just 4 days, the Linear roadblock across Sky Go & VOD achieved over 5m views.
"Every year we try to evolve and innovate in our approach to our Christmas launch. The work with Sky Media for Buster the Boxer was another fantastic example of this and the results were exceptional." Rachel Swift, Head of Brand Marketing, John Lewis