John Lewis is returning to a tried-and-tested formula of unusual friends sharing Christmas for this year’s festive ad, with an alien stepping in where a dragon, penguin and monster under the bed have gone before. For more than a decade John Lewis’s festive ad has become a big annual TV moment that kicks off the Christmas shopping season. This year it has launched a week earlier than usual after a rise in searches for Christmas products on the department store’s websites, as shoppers try to dodge supply problems in the run-up to the big day. Its campaigns – from the Hare and the Bear in 2013 to Monty the Penguin in 2014 and 2019’s Excitable Edgar the dragon – generally call on cute characters that draw millions of viewers online. After last year’s effort, which featured a montage of quirky animations about kindness and giving to charity, rather than giving presents, and a misfiring ad for insurance, this year’s festive promo features more products than ever – all of which will be highlighted at the department store’s online shop and social media. The back-to-Christmas-basics ad, set to a soundtrack of the 1985 Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder hit Together in Electric Dreams reworked by the 20-year-old singer Lola Young, sets the tone for the season as retailers dream of a return to normal after last year’s high street lockdowns in November and December. A magical mood is also picked up by Marks & Spencer and Boots, which both launch their TV ads on Thursday. M&S, which is returning to promoting its clothing on the small screen after a break in 2020, has gone for a traditional ad inspired by the heyday of musicals such as Singin’ in the Rain and Busby Berkeley’s 1930s showgirls. A separate food ad includes an animated Percy Pig and a fairy voiced by the comedian Dawn French. Boots goes for a magical world where it is possible to splurge on presents and dance at parties before hugging your gran. Retailers and brands are expected to spend almost £1bn more marketing their products this festive season than last year, in a return of the annual big-budget Christmas advertising battle. Charlotte Rogers, the features editor at the trade journal Marketing Week, said John Lewis’s ad reflected a yearning for something comforting and familiar after more than a year of pandemic. “Last year felt so tough and different [brands] didn’t know what tone to strike and if they would be around [for Christmas],” she said. This year, she said, “a lot of brands are doing stuff in the digital space but they know that if they want eyeballs they have to be on TV. They want to get back to normality”. John Lewis’s two-minute ad, entitled Unexpected Guest, will be launched in an email to loyalty cardholders at 6.30am on Thursday before hitting the department store’s website and social media channels at 8am, and getting its first TV airing at 8.15pm during The Pride of Britain Awards on ITV. Interest was kicked off this week with an installations on South Bank in London and in Newcastle featuring an apparently crashed spacecraft and a sign saying “Christmas is landing 04/11/21 #UnexpectedGuest”. The TV spot, created by John Lewis’s usual agency Adam&eveDDB in a process taking about 10 months, features a teenage romance as Nathan finds an alien, Skye, who has crash landed her star-shaped craft in his local woods and introduces her to the delights of Christmas, including mince pies, festive knitwear and fairy lights. All those items, and almost everything else in the ad, apart from the alien and her ship, will be on sale at John Lewis: from the bobble hat worn by Nathan as he heads into the woods after spotting Skye’s ship from a bus window, to the baubles his family put on the tree at home. A 10% share of the profits from sales of a Christmas jumper featured in the ad – albeit without the additional lights shown on screen – will go to FareShare and Home-Start UK, the same charities that benefited from last year’s Give a Little Love campaign. The company said it had spent the same amount as usual, although it would be running a single-brand campaign this year after two years of teaming up with its sister retailer, Waitrose supermarket. Waitrose’s ad will launch at a later date. The campaign will include a Snapchat filter that creates space traveller selfies and an online game, as well as areas in stores to take pictures alongside replicas of Skye’s spacecraft. Claire Pointon, the customer director at John Lewis, said: “After the last 18 months, we wanted our advert to really celebrate this as we look forward to a brighter future. We know our customers are excited for this festive season more than ever, as they reconnect with family and friends.” She said the latest ad was more about “moments” rather than giving gifts and had tried to broaden its appeal to a family audience by featuring teenagers for the first time. “You have got to think about where to push advertising when you have something that has been around for 10 years. You have got to start moving forward but in a way that customers have loved before,” she said.