The John Lewis Christmas ad, for many, heralds the start of the festive season and has become a traditional annual part of the celebrations.
Each year the High Street retailer tugs at our heart strings with adverts designed to make us laugh, cry and mostly - shop.
2018’s The Boy & The Piano has been named the nation’s favourite John Lewis Christmas ad, according to new analysis by digital marketing agency AGY47 .
Using a new metric that considers both search interest and the number of YouTube views the ad has received, Sir Elton John has proven his star power and rocketed the ad to the top of the rankings. Incredibly, in under 12 months since it was released, the video has racked up 13,904,953 views on YouTube and on its launch, the ad achieved a search interest score of 79/100
Taking second place was 2016’s Buster the Boxer, which actually achieved a higher search interest score. At 100/100, the ad was the most highly anticipated in the history of the ads, yet overall YouTube views of 1,148,375 views — significantly lower than The Boy & The Piano — saw the ad slip into second place. Joint third place went to firm favourites Monty the Penguin and The Bear and the Hare.
The soundtrack to The Boy & The Piano ad was Elton John’s Your Song, a track that was covered by Ellie Goulding for 2010’s A Tribute To Givers. However, looking at YouTube views of the song alone, Ellie Goulding’s cover dwarfs that of the original, achieving 68,270,811 views compared to the 15,269,906 views of Elton’s original.
While 2018’s ad may be the favourite, it seems Brits prefer Ellie Goulding’s rendition of the soundtrack. Until April 2014, search interest in Ellie Goulding’s version was higher than that of the original for almost 3.5 years after the release of the advert!
Search interest around the adverts has steadily grown over the years, as an increasing number of consumers associate the launch of the ad with the start of the festive season. This year, we started searching for the ads in September, two months ahead of its annual release date!
Bethanie Dennis, Senior Digital PR & Content Manager at AGY47 said: “The run-up to Christmas is an incredibly competitive time for brands, as they try to attract consumer attention and spend. The John Lewis Christmas ad is a fantastic tactic for this; it’s association with Christmas is so strong, that the brand is immediately at the forefront of shoppers minds ahead of the festive season.
With the 2019 advert slated for release in the coming weeks, we can only wait and see whether it’s heart-warming enough to get people talking about the brand and knock The Boy & The Piano off the top spot."
