John Lewis brings its Christmas storytelling to social with new year-round content studio

• The Box Studio brings the storytelling John Lewis has done once a year since 2007 into a year-round operation
• Launches with Gift List, a new social first vodcast series hosted by Angela Scanlon, with Louis Theroux as the first guest
• Part of the £800m multi-year investment across all 36 John Lewis shops and the retailer's digital offer

The retailer that has spent nearly twenty years making advertising people actually want to watch has built itself a permanent home for it. John Lewis has opened The Box Studio inside its Oxford Street shop, a facility for the video and social content that increasingly shapes how people decide what to buy.

Since 2007, the John Lewis Christmas campaign has been something customers anticipate, seek out and talk about rather than something they sit through. That’s the skill social media demands, because on a feed nobody watches anything they haven’t chosen to watch. John Lewis is building the capability to do every week what it has proved it can do every Christmas.

The timing reflects how quickly discovery has moved. For John Lewis, the fastest-growing channels through which customers find products are now digital assistants and social platforms rather than traditional search. Around 60% of sales are online, and for a growing number of its 13 million customers the first encounter with a product is a video.

What John Lewis brings to that is trust it has earned - Which? Retailer of the Year for the second year running, the Never Knowingly Undersold promise, and more than 160 years of standing behind what it sells. The same content carries differently when customers already believe the source.

It matters most in the categories John Lewis trades in. A pushchair, a sofa, a television or a skincare routine are considered purchases where people want to see something demonstrated and explained before they commit – so content does real work rather than simply showing a product. The studio is built into the working shop rather than replacing selling space, which means John Lewis can respond to a trend or a launch in hours rather than weeks.

Anna Braithwaite, Chief Customer Officer at John Lewis, said: “We have shown every Christmas for nearly twenty years that we can make something people choose to watch. What we have not been able to do until now is do it all year round, quickly, and at the pace social moves.

“Customers have trusted John Lewis for a very long time, and that is worth more in this channel than any amount of production.”

Gift List

The studio's first content is a new social first vodcast series titled Gift List, hosted by Angela Scanlon, exploring the stories behind giving and receiving presents. John Lewis has a strong association with gifting, but one concentrated into a few weeks each year; the series is designed to make that a year-round conversation. The first episode, released today, features Louis Theroux, and six episodes will follow every three weeks, each with a new guest and theme.

Creators including Daisy May Cooper, Tom Davis and Stephen Libby have already filmed in the studio, alongside shorter-form content across the John Lewis channels: product reviews, trend reaction, seasonal edits and expert advice from Partners who work with the products every day. 

Part of a wider investment programme

The Box Studio sits within the £800m multi-year programme covering all 36 John Lewis shops and the retailer's digital offer.

Recent investment at Oxford Street includes Platter John Lewis, the 300-seat restaurant that opened in August with an in-house coffee roastery, a bar and a rotating programme of brand pop-ups, and a reimagined Sport and Wellness department bringing together premium brands including Nike alongside wearable technology and services such as treadmill gait analysis.

Elsewhere, £50m is being invested across five shops this year, including a £20m redevelopment of John Lewis Glasgow, the retailer's largest single-shop investment in recent years, alongside Cambridge, Leicester, Reading and Liverpool.

Notes to Editors

For more information please contact g[email protected].

The first episode of The Gift List can be viewed here.

Imagery can be found here:

• The Gift List
• The Box Studio at John Lewis
• Sport department
• Platter John Lewis

About John Lewis

John Lewis serves customers with curated fashion, beauty, home and technology, combining quality products with market-leading service they can trust.

With 36 shops and a strong omnichannel presence, it creates inspiring retail destinations, bringing together shopping, hospitality and services in one place. Popular partnerships include eateries like Benugo, Ori Cafe and Jamie Oliver’s Cookery School and Cafe, as well the likes of Waterstones and David Clulow Opticians.

Its Never Knowingly Undersold brand promise ensures customers receive both quality and value they can rely on, and the business has been granted the Royal Warrant of Appointment as supplier of Household Goods and Furnishings to His Majesty King Charles III.