As reported on this site recently, John Lewis’ seasonal advertising campaign has gone down a storm, instantly lighting up social media platforms when it was launched at the start of the month.

However, recent analysis of the campaign has shown that the popular partnership retailer has seen its digital brand consumption hit  around 1,000%, thanks to Monty the Penguin

Measured by the number of people accessing the advertising campaign on the web, across all platforms and devices, consumption is determined by the number of views that are registered.

According to recent analysis, around 1.5 billion tweets were examined, with about 3.5 terabytes of online content also being closely looked at. Comparing like-for-like retail campaigns, it showed that Monty had helped John Lewis outstrip its rivals by some margin.

The results showed that as the partnership approached a 1k uplift, House of Fraser’s campaign was reaching between 600% and 700%, with its launched in the same week as John Lewis’ ad.

Debenhams’ festive drive, meanwhile, was lurking around 200%.

The Monty the Penguin promotion also showed that out of around 180,000 tweets on the subject, there was an average of 3.5 positive mentions for every single negative post. The sheer volume of social postings with the #MontyThePenguin hashtag displays just how social content is starting to drive seasonal shopping.

It has been so successful, in fact, that organisations have also picked up the thread. The BBC’s coverage of the Rochester & Strood by-election last week featured Quentin Letts in a penguin segue, for example.

Penguin Books has also responded to the success, launching its own online video showing what it thinks penguins want for Christmas this year.

Animal Rights campaign group Peta has also presented John Lewis with a ‘Compassionate Marketing Award’ for its use of CGI rather than real penguins.

Steven Morris