With Argos and John Lewis both releasing their Christmas TV adverts today, will tugging at the heart strings still pull customers back? November 6, 2015 Today marks the official start of Christmas as John Lewis releases its hotly anticipated advert. It’s become a modern tradition, up there now with carols and mince pies. This year’s campaign follows the well-trodden path of pulling at your heart strings in the hope of loosening your purse strings. But has John Lewis gone a [...]
John Lewis’ Monty the Penguin beats Sainsbury’s, Harvey Nichols, Lidl to be crowned most compelling Christmas 2014 advert October 29, 2015 By now you will have met John Lewis' Monty, unwrapped Lidl's little present and cried over Sainsbury's wartime sharing. But which of these adverts is most likely to make you spend money? Despite the debate around whether Sainsbury's might have stolen John Lewis' crown for creating festive ads guaranteed to get you blubbing, it [...]
Autumn Statement 2015: John Lewis and Sainsbury’s leaders meet with Treasury ministers over £8bn business rates burden November 10, 2015 The leaders of two of Britain’s biggest retailers have held talks with the government to demand for urgent reforms to the burdensome business rates regime ahead of the chancellor’s Autumn Statement. Sir Charlie Mayfield, the chairman of John Lewis Partnership, Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe, and Helen Dickinson, the director general of the British Retail Consortium [...]
House of Fraser poaches John Lewis’ chief technology officer Julian Burnett September 21, 2015 House of Fraser has poached John Lewis' technology boss as its new chief information officer. Julian Burnett will join the business from its rival department store, where he had been chief technology officer for the past three years, on 5 October, taking on the reins from interim Peter Marsden. He will join the executive [...]
Black Friday 2016 history: What is it, when did it come to the UK and where will it hit next? November 1, 2016 Black Friday fever is sweeping the nation, with many retailers saying they will get some of their best sales yet. But where did the bumper discount day come from and where will it hit next? Here's a short history. Where did Black Friday come from? Black Friday – like Halloween, McDonalds and theme parks – [...]
Christmas adverts 2015: What retailers must do to rival John Lewis when it comes to winning consumers’ hearts and minds November 3, 2015 People around the country celebrate (or lament) the fact that Christmas seems to be starting earlier with each passing year. Fairylights adorn high streets, the newest children’s toys fill up shop windows and festive sandwich flavours pop up in supermarkets, often before the Halloween decorations have even come down. Love it or hate it, there’s [...]
Christmas adverts 2015: John Lewis, Burberry, Duracell, Sky Movies and Asda are the most popular festive ads so far this year November 9, 2015 It's been just four days since John Lewis unveiled its festive advert for Christmas 2015 – but the department store chain is already head and shoulders in front of the competition when it comes to online impact. Tear-jerker quite possibly, but John Lewis' Man on the Moon advert has already been shared nearly 478,000 times [...]
Black Friday UK 2015: 1 in 5 ecommerce websites including John Lewis, Boots, Boohoo and Argos went down before 9am this morning November 27, 2015 UK retailers’ online shops are buckling under the strain of Black Friday, with one in five crashing before most of us had finished our morning commute. Argos, Boots and Game were among those that had downtime before 9am, showed data from commerce agency Ampersand. The agency is tracking what websites are currently live, showing how [...]
Black Friday UK 2015: John Lewis deals revealed on Miele vacuum, Sony TVs, Amazon Fire tablet and more ahead of 27 November launch November 26, 2015 John Lewis has finally revealed a handful of the many deals the retailer will be offering at this year’s Black Friday sale, just hours before the midnight kick-off as bargains go on sale online. Many retailers have already begun revealing their offerings, but John Lewis has been very secretive about its bargains, keeping them hush-hush [...]
Christmas adverts: John Lewis, Sainsburys, Burberry & Marks and Spencer beaten by Universal for most shared festive ad of all time November 2, 2015 It's that time of year already. John Lewis is poised to unveil its Christmas advert on Friday (8am if you're really keen) and once again will be launching in on social media first, followed by a grand pushing out to TV audiences at the weekend. It has become an iconic start to the festive period, [...]