Tag: John Lewis
Hello and welcome to your weekly FWD.
“While my background is in tech, I have a deep-rooted belief in the power of creative ideas. This mix combined with start-up mentality, agility and entrepreneurialism, will unlock opportunities to deliver work that makes a difference for our clients.” – Guy Marks
Following the exciting announcement earlier this week that start-up founder Guy Marks will be taking the helm of OMD EMEA, this issue is dedicated to stories where tech and creativity meet…
Google opens new avenues in China through a long-term agreement with Tencent, Amazon has finally opened its checkout-free shop, and Spotify can now help you adopt a dog with the same music tastes as you!
One to watch: tackling one of the industry’s big mysteries, BuzzFeed’s Publisher Dao Nguyen gives a TED talk on the secret to making content that people love.
HEADLINES
INSIGHTS
COOL
- Are we about to see the launch of an ‘iTunes equivalent’ for VR music?
- Barking mad? You can now adopt a dog with the same music tastes as you
- This messaging app only works when you have less than 5% battery life, and you can only chat to strangers
DEEP READS
If you find anything interesting, please share using #OMDFWD
How we buy things is becoming more polarised: on one hand, you have demand for shopping to be as easy, as effortless, as frictionless as possible. On the other hand, customers desire an experience that is as memorable and as enjoyable as possible. This is nothing new – we’ve always been delighted by buying things one day and the next, want to get in and out of a store as fast as possible. But technology is both shaping, and sharpening, this dichotomy and as progressive communications planners, we have to adapt.
We need to make buying as easy as possible.
Byron Sharp, Author of “How Brands Grow” and Professor of Marketing Science at the University of South Australia, thinks so – in fact, he boils the entire job of marketing down to just that. This might be due to the fact that our brains are hardwired to take the easy route, as Nobel-winning behavioural economist Daniel Kahneman describes: “Humans are to thinking, as cats are to swimming,” he says, “We can do it when we have to, but we’d much prefer not to”.
Amazon knows the cost of friction. They’ve calculated that a page load delay of just one second would cost $1.6 billion in sales a year. This learning has been taken to the very heart of the business. From a Dash button on your washing machine, through voice purchasing on Echo to Amazon Go, to their bricks’n’mortar store concept with no checkouts and no queues – every investment made helps customers buy quicker and easier. If you listen to commentators such as Scott Galloway, Founder, L2; Clinical Professor of Marketing, NYU Stern, this could be a big threat for your brand – why will consumers want to think about choosing your brand when Alexa can do it for them?
Ease can also speak volumes about a brand.
Look at Domino’s, who geared its entire turnaround on making it as easy as possible to order a pizza. In the past, you had to find the number, dial, wait, order, order louder, and cross your fingers in hopes they got the right address. You can now order on every platform imaginable – from text, to voice, to Echo, to a connected car. Even with an emoji! You don’t even need to click – simply open the app and you can now automatically order your favourite pizza.
Of course, examples like these are absolutely changing what consumers expect from brands. Uber, an OMD client, calculated that when the service launches in a city, expectations on how long travellers are prepared to wait for a cab drops by a third.
So brands can’t sit still. They have to ask themselves: how can I make this as easy as possible to buy? Where is the friction in the purchase? How can technology help remove it?
But ease is just one side of the retail coin. In a world of one-hour drone deliveries, sometimes people still want to go shopping.
John Lewis, a long-standing Manning Gottlieb OMD client and Britain’s best-loved retailer, knows this. We plan according to four shopper “missions” and the easiest to observe in-store is “entertain and inspire me”. In this mind-set we seek to surprise and delight customers throughout the purchase journey, adding unique touches and creating memorable moments.
Communications provide a key aperture to enhance this experience…Meet Monty. A few years ago he starred in John Lewis’ Christmas ad, telling the story of a young boy who dreams about his toy penguin coming to life. We were inspired to make this happen for real in John Lewis stores. We created “Monty’s Magical Toy Machine”, which took a 3-D scan of a child’s most loved toy and brought it to life digitally, allowing the delighted child to dance and play with it.
But retail experiences don’t just live at point of purchase – take Lego for example. Knowing that sharing the wacky and wonderful things you create is half the fun, it created Lego Life, a social network designed specifically for kids under 13, allowing them to delight in sharing their real-world Lego creations in a safe environment online.
So, make it as easy as possible to buy, but don’t forget consumers love of unique experiences. When are customers looking to be entertained? How can you create magical moments of surprise and delight in the purchase process? Balancing ease and experience may just be the key to success.
Originally published on Omnicom Media Group’s Media Pulse
In 2015 John Lewis and Age UK tackled the subject no one wanted to talk about, especially at Christmas – loneliness. In a ground-breaking partnership, Manning Gottlieb OMD activated the nation and inspired people to do good, helping the millions of older people who can go a month without talking to anyone, to have a Christmas they deserve.
“Did you see the John Lewis Christmas advert?”
John Lewis is an institution that over 150 years, has become one of the UK’s most loved and trusted retailer brands. A large part of this is down to the emotionally driven Christmas advertising. Their campaigns have had such an impact that the media have coined their ad launch, “The Start of Christmas”. The pressure’s on to raise the bar every year and make each John Lewis campaign more famous than the last.
The campaigns embody the spirit of Christmas, making people feel the warmth of family and the endearing spirit of thoughtful gifting. Unfortunately this isn’t the case for everyone, as 500,000 older people will spend Christmas day alone, a challenge Age UK know all too well. This year Manning Gottlieb wanted to use the emotional power of advertising, not just to make people feel good, but to also do good, whilst growing commercial success.
The Brand Idea
The idea was simple; to create not one, but two interlinked Christmas ads, each showing polar opposite views of the Christmas experience.
The first would launch our ‘feel-good’ story: a little girl looking through her telescope spies on an old man, living on his own on the moon. Her thoughtful Christmas gift is a telescope, sent by balloon, so he can see he’s not really alone. The tagline “Show someone they’re loved this Christmas” paved the way for a national charity partner: Age UK.
For Age UK, John Lewis made a second TV ad, showing the old man on the ‘Man On The Moon’ film set. As filming wraps up, he’s left alone and forgotten, to remind us of the problem of loneliness amongst the aged. This would become Manning Gottlieb’s call-to-action to activate the nation in support of older people at Christmas.
The Partnership Strategy
The desire was not simply to brand John Lewis’ campaign with a charity logo but to create a deeper, more emotionally resonant partnership. This idea required a true partnership strategy: integrating the creative, media and two brands into one cohesive campaign. This meant John Lewis could extend their traditional ‘feeling good at Christmas’ campaign into a true ‘doing good at Christmas’ campaign.
In return, Age UK would get the support and validation of one of the UK’s most loved brands, giving the public a new lens to see the importance of the work they do.
The John Lewis Christmas advert would be a catalyst for a wider campaign aimed at directing sentiment and action towards Age UK and ensuring that their message stayed centre stage. The second advert was designed to get people aware of and talking about the issue.
Making it happen
To ensure anticipation of the first ad, Manning Gottlieb created unbranded “#OnTheMoon” social accounts delivering a 10” teaser which started trending on Twitter before launch and trended no. 1 on Twitter, globally, only 40 minutes after launch. A joint-PR effort promoted the partnership, raising awareness of loneliness. The second ad was launched online across social and video channels to coincide with the second burst of activity.
In the week leading up to Christmas, the Age UK spot was broadcasted on TV, culminating in the marquee spot in the finale of Downton Abbey on ITV – the most-watched programme on Christmas Day. An impactful out-of-home campaign highlighted the scale of the issue and how people could help. Last but not least, John Lewis promoted the partnership across their social channels and in-store – every store ran a comprehensive fund-raising programme and Man On The Moon merchandise was sold with all profits going to Age UK.
Amazing results
- The campaign delivered a huge 38m online views for both ads, with the main ad topping the Google chart for most viewed ad on YouTube UK of 2015. This equates to over 835k hours of brand engagement!
- Manning Gottlieb helped drive 688k shares and 1,400 press articles, the most ever for a John Lewis campaign.
- People started to engage with Age UK too. On launch day, they received a donation every minute. They received an overwhelming 15,000 volunteer phone calls, 6x the number they get in a whole year.
- The impact has been so great that the UK Prime Minister’s office at Downing Street called to congratulate Age UK on the campaign and hosted a tea party for older people at Number 10!
- Finally, the campaign delivered £951m in sales, a 7% YoY increase, helping John Lewis have their biggest ever Christmas.
In 2013, John Lewis fully supported John Lewis Insurance for the first time. As a part of the John Lewis brand it carried a weight of expectation – to deliver leading trust, quality and service in a category famously lacking all three. It has gone on to become a huge success and create an entirely new category of insurance, putting quality above price but still being accessible to the many. And it has even brought new dimensions to its parent brand, not just benefited from the association.
Background
In 2013, the strength of the John Lewis brand was at an all time high. On the back of this strength, there was increased appetite to explore where the brand could usefully serve its customers in new ways. For a department store with a stronghold in homewares and furniture, amplifying its home insurance offering seemed like a natural next step. The John Lewis Partnership had set-up Greenbee insurance in 2006, but it had only enjoyed limited success. Sitting outside of the John Lewis brand, it was mostly unknown to consumers and the John Lewis Partners had been left similarly confused about how to present it to customers. After a name change to John Lewis Insurance and accompanying soft launch in 2010, in 2013 a decision was made to finally fully launch this brand extension. This could not just be a cosmetic branding exercise. To carry the name it had to meet the high expectations that name creates: expectations of quality product design, outstanding service and fair prices. A new underwriter would be brought in; a completely new product range designed; new branding developed and an entirely new marketing campaign created.
The opportunity
During the previous decade, aggregator websites had commoditised insurance, making price the key variable. Brands had to cut their quality and service offerings to compete. The result was that the consumer had been left without an insurance brand they could trust. In fact, insurance companies lagged behind even banks in the trust stakes. John Lewis, on the other hand, was the most trusted retailer in the UK, famous for its quality products and service. There was a clear opportunity to stand for something unique. And we knew this was something that John Lewis customers, in particular, would respond well to. A piece of bespoke research showed a clear difference in their mindset. In the regular insurance path to purchase, price concerns directly followed brand familiarity and then, finally, the level of cover was checked. The John Lewis customer’s journey again started with brand name familiarity, but then moved on to an analysis of the level of cover before, finally, ending with a price check. In other words, John Lewis customers were seeking quality before anything else.
The strategy
We would give the John Lewis homeland audience what they wanted from an insurance brand. To achieve this, we knew we would have to make John Lewis Insurance a uniquely trusted brand in its category by:
- Being a mass-market quality insurance brand. We would design our offering around the core John Lewis values that loyalists already loved – quality, outstanding service and fair prices – and tier these products to make them accessible to the entire John Lewis audience.
- Behaving like a true John Lewis brand. Instead of short-term price-fighting, this meant long-term brand building, leveraging a brand idea and executional approach befitting of the John Lewis brand.
The brand idea
We needed a differentiated brand idea that would allow us to go beyond cynical short-term sales spiking, to instead build long-term brand trust. To identify this, we used a combination of qualitative and key opinion former research. We found 2 powerful insights:
- The difference between “house” and “home”. John Lewis customers saw their homes, not as 4 walls and a roof, but as a collection of the things that meant the most to their family lives. This was what they wanted to protect.
- The threat of catastrophe wasn’t the primary driver. Most John Lewis customers were buying insurance simply to mitigate against the little mishaps that peppered everyday family life. This was what they wanted to protect their things from. Approaching this thinking from the point of view of a true John Lewis brand lead us to conclude that: John Lewis Insurance should be the brand that cares as much as you do about protecting your family’s most cherished items from the joyous but ultimately unpredictable nature of family life.
Finally, this was summed up with the line: “If it matters to you, it matters to us”
Behaving like a true John Lewis brand
Over the next 3 years, we implemented a completely integrated communications campaign that consistently helped us walk-the-walk of a mass-market quality insurance brand. The key to this was bringing to life our new John-Lewis-appropriate idea, within the classic John Lewis executional world. In this way, every single piece of our communications imbued John Lewis Insurance with an inherited sense of quality and trust.
Phase 1:
Introducing our credentials (2013-2015). These TTL communications lead on the Home insurance product and clearly set-out the new end-line and the 1st half of our brand idea, depicting how John Lewis Insurance cares as much as you do about protecting the special items that sit at the heart of your family life.
Phase 2:
Exploding our brand (2015). This set of work refreshed the campaign with a more explicit focus on the 2nd half of our brand idea:the joyous little slip-ups and blunders of family life that you want to protect your special items from.
Extraordinary results
- The products generated immediate sales increases
- The campaigns became a headline-making cultural phenomenon
- This resulted in fantastic R.O.I – in the first phase alone, every £1 spent generated an extra £1.89.
- This seems to have continued into the 2nd phase (2015), with sales up 61% and commission up 41%.
- And not only did we build a distinctive category position, but we did so in a way that also created an effect for the parent brand – generating a further £2.9m of extra sales for John Lewis overall.
This has been the story of how the John Lewis brand extended beyond retail, to deliver its famous brand of trust, quality and service in a market that badly needed it. It has also been the story of how John Lewis Insurance stole the nation’s hearts and built an insurance brand consumers could actually feel good about. But most of all, this has been the story of how John Lewis Insurance invented it’s very own category, became a huge commercial success and, finally, a powerful new income stream for the John Lewis Partnership.
OMD IS ONCE AGAIN THE MOST MEDALED MEDIA AGENCY IN CANNES
OMD has once again proved to be an indomitable force as we were hailed as the most awarded media agency network, earning a total of 63 lions across many different categories. Winning 3 grand prix, 9 gold, 16 silver and a staggering 35 bronze. OMD has again without doubt stolen a march on its competitors at one of the most prestigious creative events in the industry.
OMD’s accolades were awarded for work across a broad spectrum of client categories – including automotive, CPG, financial services, media, retail, sports goods and technology – by OMD agencies across the globe. On top of being the most awarded media agency in the Media category, OMD also topped the ranking in 7 further categories including Digital Craft, Creative Effectiveness, Cyber, Integrated, Film, Film Craft and Health & Wellness.
OMD WINS SPAN GLOBE AND CATEGORIES
- OMD SWEDEN – SLOW DOWN GPS, IF INSURANCE (6 TOTAL – 1 GOLD, 1 SILVER, 4 BRONZE)
- OMD SWEDEN – THE ORGANIC EFFECT, COOP (4 TOTAL – 1 GRAND PRIX, 1 GOLD, 1 SILVER, 1 BRONZE)
- MG OMD UK – TINY DANCER, JOHN LEWIS INSURANCE (3 TOTAL – 1 GOLD, 2 BRONZE)
- OMD SWEDEN – THE FISH, KLARNA (2 TOTAL – 2 BRONZE)
- OMD SWEDEN – THE CHEESE, KLARNA (1 TOTAL – 1 BRONZE)
- OMD SWEDEN – THE SWIM, KLARNA (2 TOTAL – 2 BRONZE)
- OMD UK – HUMANS, CHANNEL 4 (2 TOTAL – 2 SILVER)
- MG OMD UK – THE MAN ON THE MOON, JOHN LEWIS (2 TOTAL – 1 SILVER, 1 BRONZE)
- MG OMD UK – MONTY’S CHRISTMAS, JOHN LEWIS (1 TOTAL – 1 GRAND PRIX)
- OMD UAE – DATE NIGHT, HENKEL (1 TOTAL – 1 SILVER)
- OMD UAE – SUNDAY STROLL, HENKEL (1 TOTAL – 1 SILVER)
- OMD UAE – BARKING PUPPY, HENKEL (1 TOTAL – 1 SILVER)
- OMD UAE – I CAN TEACH YOU TOO, DUBAI CARES (1 TOTAL – 1 BRONZE)
- OMD ITALY – DACIA FAMILY PROJECT, RENAULT ITALIA (1 TOTAL – 1 BRONZE)
- OMD GERMANY – KEYS OF HOPE, DEUTSCHER CARITASVERBAND / CARITAS INTERNATIONAL (1 TOTAL – 1 BRONZE)
- OMD ITALY – BUSINESS BOOSTER, RENAULT ITALIA (1 TOTAL – 1 BRONZE)
- OMD UK – HUNTED, CHANNEL 4 (1 TOTAL – 1 BRONZE)
- MG OMD UK – A GROUND-BREAKING CAMPAIGN TO COMBAT LONELINESS, JOHN LEWIS (1 TOTAL – 1 BRONZE)
- OMD UAE – CHAMPIONS HIJACK, GO SPORT (1 TOTAL – 1 BRONZE)
- OMD USA – THE SUPER BOWL DUNK, GATORADE (5 TOTAL – 1 GOLD, 1 SILVER, 3 BRONZE)
- OMD USA – GE PODCAST THEATRE PRESENTS THE MESSAGE, GE (3 TOTAL – 2 GOLD, 1 BRONZE)
- OMD USA – IN-A-SNAP, LOWE’S (3 TOTAL – 1 SILVER, 2 BRONZE)
- OMD USA – NYT VR, THE NEW YORK TIMES, NYT VR, T BRAND STUDIO, GOOGLE, GE, MINI (1 TOTAL – 1 GRAND PRIX)
- OMD USA – THE LADY GAGA + INTEL PERFORMANCE, INTEL (1 TOTAL – 1 GOLD)
- OMD USA – COLOR BARS, APPLE (1 TOTAL – 1 SILVER)
- OMD USA – INTEL WINTER X GAMES 2016, INTEL (1 TOTAL – 1 BRONZE)
- OMD USA – RAINBOWS, DORITOS (1 TOTAL – 1 BRONZE)
- OMD USA – PEPSI + EMPIRE PARTNERSHIP, PEPSICO (1 TOTAL – 1 BRONZE)
- OMD USA – HISTORY OF SOUND, APPLE (1 TOTAL – 1 BRONZE)
- OMD NEW ZEALAND – UNFORGOTTEN SOLDIERS, SKY TELEVISION NEW ZEALAND (7 TOTAL – 3 SILVER, 4 BRONZE)
- OMD NEW ZEALAND – HELLO, NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY (1 TOTAL – 1 GOLD)
- OMD COSTA RICA – #LEYDEMIERDA (#SHITLAW), TERRITORIO DE ZAGUATES (2 TOTAL – 1 SILVER, 1 BRONZE)
- OMD DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – END THE SILENCE, LA SIRENA (2 TOTAL – 1 GOLD, 1 SILVER)
Mainardo de Nardis, Global CEO, OMD Worldwide said, “We are thrilled and proud to have been awarded and recognised once again for our commitment to stronger, smarter and better work for our clients. Creativity remains at the core of everything we do at OMD and as the landscape changes in our industry we have the agility and the talent to lead and equally make our clients leaders in their categories as well. We wish to thank all of our incredible clients that make this possible – and our people, without whom none of this would be possible”
This is Christmas. And this is the John Lewis Christmas campaign. This is arguably the most high-profile marketing campaign in the UK and the most significant commercial period for all retailers. Each new John Lewis Christmas campaign is hotly anticipated, analysed, debated, critiqued, rated and talked about. Failing to engage the nation will therefore have a significant commercial, social and cultural impact on the John Lewis brand.
The pressure to succeed is only extended by the fact that every retailer is desperately trying to topple John Lewis’ position as theUK’s favourite Christmas advertiser. Resting on past glories was never an option.
The idea- first anticipation, then imagination
John Lewis sits in a truly privileged position. People are genuinely excited about seeing the latest ‘John Lewis Christmas ad’. With this natural anticipation, we set out to start conversations about Monty even before he had been launched.
Monty is a penguin and the best friend of a little boy, Sam. To the viewer, Monty is a real-life penguin. But by the end of the ad we discover that Monty is actually Sam’s well-loved soft toy. A child’s imagination is a wonderful thing; many like Sam bring their favourite toy to life. With this insight, we created a campaign that encouraged imagination and people to see things with childlike wonder!
Bringing it to live with powerful media and tech partnerships
With so much riding on Christmas, we placed huge emphasis on collaboration. As such, we started briefing media owners at the start of the summer and in the true spirit of partnership we gave them unprecedented client, creative and agency access.
To get the nation talking about Monty even before the very first spot we turned to Channel 4. They proposed an innovative approach to seeding the penguin by allowing him to be integrated in their station trailers, where the four logo is constructed out of moving objects. These would then be used as 10” teasers promoting the launch spot in Gogglebox within an entire ad break takeover!
To stimulate imagination we installed a ‘Monty’s Den’ (i.e. grotto) into every store, where children and their parents could deepen their relationship with our penguin star.
In partnership with Google, we created ‘Monty’s Goggles’ for every ‘Den’, where we used Google Cardboard to deliver an immersive virtual reality experience – putting Monty and innovative technology in the hands of our shoppers to stimulate their own minds!
In the flagship Oxford Street store the digital technology was taken a step further with ‘Monty’s Magical Toy Machine’. In partnership with Microsoft we developed a technological first; whereby children’s soft toys were digitally scanned and then brought to life before their eyes, so they could dance together with their favourite cuddly friend on the latest 4K TV screens. A truly magical event!
The results
2014 was the Christmas of Monty
Specifically, the anticipation and imagination activity made Monty a marketing star:
- 5m tuned in for the C4 premiere with break retention at 91% up from LY (89%)
- There were 5m conversations around #MontyThePenguin before the ad had even launched
- John Lewis was the first UK retailer to use Google Cardboard and ‘Monty’s Goggles’ was made available in all 44 stores across 92 handsets / cardboard devices
- Over 2,600 children brought their own favourite toy to life with Microsoft’s ‘Monty’s Magical Toy Machine’, which equates to 5 scans an hour across the 7 weeks
- Commercially, Monty the Penguin helped John Lewis deliver a bumper Christmas with sales up 5.5% YoY vs. a market increase of only 1.5% (source: British Retail Consortium).
OMD was recently crowned the most creative global network by the Gunn Report for the 10th consecutive year. The Gunn Report is the industry’s official measure of creativity and innovation. In the last year OMD has had an outstanding run, being awarded over 340 accolades in EMEA alone, of which almost 20 were for Agency of the Year.
This prestigious achievement is not only reflective of our global community but a fabulous recognition of the dedication of our teams and the great work that is being carried out in this region. The inspiration and drive that produces this great work comes from collaboration with some of the most dynamic and forward-thinking clients in the world. We would like to thank our clients, media partners, and all our employees across the region who ensure we are always asking, always thinking and always doing – the benchmarks for success in any marketing performance company.
Over the next ten weeks we will be celebrating this mighty accolade to creativity by deep diving into some of our award winning work from the last year: from McDonald’s Top Chef and John Lewis Monty the Penguin, to Disney Star Wars Rebels Alliance and Talk to Google. Each week we will showcase the innovation and creativity that validates our position as the most awarded agency in the world. This week we will lift the bonnet on the hugely successful Channel 4 Humans, a phenomenal campaign by OMD UK, which made the theme of artificial intelligence exciting and relevant to mainstream audiences, convinced people synths were real, delivered 6.1 million viewers of the first episode and gave Channel 4 their highest rated originated drama of all time.
Nikki Mendonça
President, OMD EMEA