The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2013
John Lewis's 'Bear and the Hare' gives Christmas a friendship story — and £142m in sales
The retailer's first animated Christmas ad — a hare wakes a hibernating bear — became the world's most shared video and added £142m in sales.
John Lewis (John Lewis Partnership)
What it had to solve
By 2013 John Lewis's Christmas campaigns had become a British national event, treated by the media as the retail equivalent of the Super Bowl. Christmas represented 40% of the department store's annual revenue, and its strategy was to position itself as the home of thoughtful gifting and bring that idea to life in a humble, charming but highly emotive way. The creative question was simple: what is the most thoughtful gift anyone can give?
How it works
John Lewis had spent years making its Christmas advertising a national appointment, and by 2013 the stakes were concrete: Christmas represented 40% of annual revenue and the department store's strategy was to be the home of thoughtful gifting. adam&eveDDB's answer to the brief — what is the most thoughtful gift anyone can give? — was that it is the gift of Christmas itself.
That idea became 'The Bear and the Hare', John Lewis's first fully animated Christmas film. A hare refuses to let his friend the bear hibernate through another December, so the bear can finally see Christmas; Lily Allen's cover of Keane's 'Somewhere Only We Know' carried the story. It debuted online before a two-minute TV premiere during The X Factor, wrapped in a £7 million campaign of books, card makers, in-store windows, merchandise, outdoor projection and a soundtrack single.
The film was an immediate viral hit: about 6.5 million views and 650,000 Facebook shares in its first week, the most shared video in the world two weeks after launch, and eventually more than 15 million online views — five times rival Christmas ads. The song reached number one, merchandise sold out, and the brand's econometrics credited the campaign with £142 million of extra sales and over £7 of profit for every £1 of advertising.
Why it lands
- The gift logic tied the film to the brand: the hare's gift to the bear is an experience, mirroring John Lewis's thoughtful-gifting positioning rather than pushing products.
- Animation and a wistful cover of a loved song made the film feel humble and charming against glitzy seasonal advertising — and gave people something they wanted to share.
- The £7 million turned one film into a world of books, windows, apps, merchandise and a single, so the story continued in stores and on phones after the two minutes on TV.
- Releasing online before the TV premiere turned the launch into a cultural event, with the X Factor slot arriving as a second peak of earned attention.
What it did
Within a week the film had roughly 6.5 million views and 650,000 Facebook shares, landing number one on Unruly's viral chart ahead of Samsung and PlayStation spots, and two weeks after launch it was the most shared video in the world. It went on to pass 15 million online views — five times the level of rival Christmas ads — while the cover reached number one in the charts, merchandise sold out, and econometrics credited the campaign with £142 million of additional sales, with every £1 of advertising generating over £7 of extra profit.
What you can take
Make a story people want to give away, then spend the money turning it into a world: the £7m bought books, windows, apps and a song, so one emotional film kept paying out in every channel.
Since then
'The Bear and the Hare' cemented the John Lewis Christmas formula — an emotional story, a well-known song in cover form, online-first release and deep integration — that the retailer kept using in later years. adam&eveDDB's effectiveness paper for the campaign won at the Eurobest Creative Effectiveness Awards in 2015, and the case became a widely cited British example of emotional storytelling plus integration producing measurable retail results.
Sources
- The Bear and the Hare — Creative Effectiveness case
- Christmas made official with online debut of new John Lewis ad
- John Lewis ad shoots straight to the top of the viral charts
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