You would have had to have been, appropriately enough, buried head first in the snows of Antarctica not to have noticed that the John Lewis Christmas icon is a penguin. To be accurate he is an Adelie penguin and his name is Monty.
He has been the star of the retailer’s Christmas advertising campaign and window displays and you have as much chance of buying one in John Lewis as you have of finding a giraffe at the South Pole.
That being said, there is plenty of fun to be had with the ever interactive Adelie, if the experience at the London flagship store on Oxford Street is anything to go by. For our formative family members and friends Monty’s Den is a multi-media magnet courtesy of Samsung.
In seasonal snowy surroundings that the jolly man himself would be proud of, children are invited to bring their own special cuddly toy to dance with Monty. Through clever technology anything from traditional Teds to Teletubbies, Mr Potato heads to Cabbage patch dolls can all be scanned, transported to the silver screen where they gyrate and syncopate with the prancing penguin himself in a three minute dance duet, that then transports magically and neatly onto a nearby DVD, soon to be nestled under the family tree for Christmas.
The full snowy circle is completed with a donation to help protect this particular penguin in its natural habitat, whilst the John Lewis customers of the future go into apoplectic fits of ecstasy, and proud parents peruse the seven floors of festive plinths filling their own seasonal stockings with the joys of a John Lewis Christmas.
Is your marketing calendar ticking all the correct festive boxes?
Are you using technology to generate sales and customer loyalty no matter who you are?