JOHN LEWIS | Monty the Penguin | 2015
How a Stuffed Toy Penguin Drove 17.5 Billion Yen in Annual Sales / John Lewis "Monty the Penguin"
Every November, the whole of Britain starts getting restless. That's because it's the season when John Lewis's Christmas ad arrives. The star of 2014 was a stuffed penguin named Monty. Why did this two-minute tale of friendship with a boy named Sam strike such a chord?
The problem
Since 2007, John Lewis has consistently focused on depicting "thoughtful gift-giving" rather than simply "selling things." With 2011's "The Long Wait," the emotional approach became fully established, and the annual release turned into a social phenomenon. In 2014, adam&eveDDB arrived at the theme of "a friendship brought to life by imagination."
The insight
The core idea is simple: in a child's mind, stuffed animals are truly alive. For Sam, Monty isn't a toy but a best friend, and when Sam notices Monty's loneliness, he gives him a girlfriend, Mabel. CCO Rick Brim went back and forth between a monkey and a penguin for the main character, and ultimately chose the penguin so it wouldn't be "too cute." Since the story itself was already sweet, they used the character to hold the sweetness in check.
The idea
The boy and the penguin play together and sleep, and Monty watches other couples with envy. On Christmas morning, under the tree, there's Mabel. The two-minute film ends simply with a kiss of their beaks. In stores, they even set up a VR experience that let people step into Monty's world, turning the ad into something you could actually experience.
What happened
The Monty and Mabel stuffed toys sold out on their very first day, with more than 48,000 units sold, and prices on eBay soared to more than five times the retail price. Sales during the Christmas period rose 5.5% year-over-year, and weekly sales hit a record high of 175 million pounds. At Cannes, the campaign won the Grand Prix in both the Film Craft and Creative Effectiveness categories.
Afterthought
What really gets me isn't the numbers—it's how the ad makes even adults completely believe a child's conviction that stuffed animals are truly alive. In just two minutes, it gives you back that power to believe. Creating this much excitement from a single stuffed toy is the kind of work I'd love to pull off myself someday.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2015
