John Lewis Christmas advert 2014: Monty the penguin gets 2.5 million views in less than 12 hours. Will it be the most shared Christmas ad ever?
The latest Christmas advert from John Lewis has been viewed more than 2.5m times in less than 12 hours since being released online.
The new ad, featuring a cuddly penguin called Monty, debuted to much fanfare at 8am today on YouTube and Facebook before it hits TV screens tomorrow during an ad break on Channel 4's Gogglebox.
READ: 24hrs later, how do Monty, Bear and Hare compare?
The two minute video has now been viewed by more than a million times on YouTube and just under 1.5m times on Facebook.
The ad, which also features the John Lennon track Real Love sung by Tom Odell, is set to surpass the success of last year’s Christmas ad according to social ad tracking firm Unruly.
Shares of the video have already surpassed 100,000 while Bear and Hare clocked up 200,000 shares within the first 24 hours when it debuted in 2013. It became the third most shared Christmas ad of all time with over one million shares.
To become the most shared Christmas ad ever, Monty the penguin would have to surpass last year’s ad for Canadian airline Westjet. The video gained more than two million shares and featured travellers wishing for something for Christmas. Santa then delivered their gifts on a luggage carousel at the airport.
While YouTube is synonymous with viral videos, new data available for videos uploaded to Facebook reveals shares on the platform are surging ahead. Shares of the YouTube video across social platforms are currently 14,720, while shares of the video from Facebook across social platforms is currently 89,088.
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