John Lewis’ much-anticipated Christmas advert is dubbed ‘The Journey’ and is based around the extra lengths consumers go to find the perfect gift.

With the strapline ‘Give a little more love this Christmas’, the ad shows a snowman going the extra mile to find the perfect gift for his snowwoman.

The ad is set to a version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s The Power of Love, sung by 20-year-old singer Gabrielle Aplin and its first full broadcast will air tonight on Channel 4 during Derren Brown: Fear and Faith at 9.10pm.

John Lewis Christmas advert 2012

John Lewis boss Andy Street said he expected another ‘record Christmas’ for the department store retailer.

He said while he did not expect to match the year to date figure of 12.9%, he expected Christmas to deliver “mid to high single digits”.

Street added that while the market remained tough, John Lewis has excelled for two main reasons – it’s never knowingly undersold message, which he said has “really paid off this year”; and new products. “We’ve had so much new product innovation,” he said.

He cited the Alice Temperley range as an example.

Online sales are 41% up in the year to date.