Jeep launches 'The World's Most Remote Dealership' campaign via cummins&partners

Tuesday 24, June 2014 at 9:30 AM by Ricki

  

Jeep Australia together with cummins&partners, experiential agency Wonder and partners Nice Bike, Digital Dialogue and Maxus are set to mark the launch of the all-new Jeep Cherokee in Australia by creating The World's Most Remote Dealership.

Says Veronica Johns, president and CEO of Fiat Chrysler Australia: "The World's Most Remote Dealership brings the Jeep 'Don't Hold Back' attitude to life with a unique offer. We believe this is a 'World-First' and a campaign only Jeep could pull-off."

The Jeep Remote Dealership will be offering people the incredible opportunity to buy one of ten Jeep Cherokee Longitudes for just $10K Drive Away*, but only, if they can make it there.

The campaign will be launched via TV, digital and social and will drive users to download the Jeep App, to participate. However the exact location and other details of the Remote Dealership will only be revealed in the coming weeks and only to those who register through the Jeep app.

Says Jim Ingram and Ben Couzens, joint executive creative directors, cummins&partners: "The Cherokee is as much at home in the city as it is in a place far more remote. So we figured that's exactly where we should sell it - the most remote car dealership in the most remote country in the world."

What's in the Giant Locker? Nissan and Amazon partner to promote Nissan Rogue in San Francisco

 POSTED BY STEPHEN LEPITAK

Nissan and Amazon came together this week when they placed a mysterious giant locker in front of the Ferry Building in San Francisco with no explanation.

The locker was large enough to hold a Nissan Rogue inside, as well as various other prizes, which could only be accessed through special codes.

What's in the Giant Locker? Nissan and Amazon partner to promote

The public was encouraged to tweet, comment or post photos about the locker on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook using the hash tag #GiantLocker, which would see them earn a code to open one of the doors. One code would open the giant door to allow the winner to gain access to the car inside.

Behind the campaign idea was TBWA\ Chiat Day LA, which last year ran another partnership between Nissan and Amazon where the Versa Note car was delivered in a large Amazon box. Pictures of the box being delivered was shared across 38 countries as people discussed what could be in the box.

Audi: Instant Valuation Billboard

AlmapBBDO created an instant used-car evaluator for Audi. One that scanned used cars, without the owners owning it. When they left the parking, they saw a digital billboard, giving information about their car, and telling them with that money, they could buy an Audi.

http://creativecriminals.com/audi/instant-valuation

Toyota ‘busts the myths’ around Hybrid cars in new online campaign

POSTED BY NATALIE MORTIMER

Toyota Motor Europe, has today unveiled a new online campaign, ‘Fall in love with driving again’, which the car maker hopes will boost the popularity of its Hybrid cars.

Developed by Saatchi and Saatchi London, the campaign aims to highlight the “positive emotions” felt when driving in congested cities in a Hybrid.

The first film of the new campaign shows drivers in Rome participating in an experiment by driving the routes they normally drive in both Hybrid and non-Hybrid vehicles.

The drivers’ emotions are then analysed to determine how stressed or happy they are after driving a petrol or diesel and a Hybrid car.

Dario Giustini, Toyota brand and marketing communications senior manager, commented: “This is an exciting time for Toyota in Europe. Toyota is the leader in Hybrid technology and one of our objectives is to be a facilitator of better driving experiences.

“The objective of our marketing campaign is to demonstrate that consumers fall in love with driving again thanks to Toyota Hybrid.”

The film, which breaks in the UK in May, will be rolled out across European Markets followed by a series of online films that “bust the myths” about Hybrid cars. Social and location-based marketing is set to follow.

Toyota releases Fall in Love with Driving Again campaign to promote Hybrid cars across Europe

POSTED BY STEPHEN LEPITAK

Toyota Europe has released it's new 'Fall in Love with Driving Again' campaign to promote its Hyrbrid vehicles and showcase an experiment which aims to highlight the positive emotions emitted by drivers while testing the cars.

The above the line campaign has been devised by Saatchi and Saatchi Italy, advising that no one do anything with putting love into it.

Meanwhile, Saatchi & Saatchi London has been tasked with expanding the campaign online in to order to promote the experience of driving the Hybrid vehicles is a film featuring drivers in Rome using both a Hybrid and non-Hybrid vehicle. The emotions of the drivers were then analysed to determine which vehicle gave them a better experience.

The campaign will run across UK, Italy and France, with the advert and experiment followed by a number of online films that aim to bust myths surrounding Hybrid cars.

Dario Giustini, brand and marketing communications senior manager for Toyota, commented: “This is an exciting time for Toyota in Europe. Toyota is the leader in Hybrid technology and one of our objectives is to be a facilitator of better driving experiences. The objective of our marketing campaign is to demonstrate that consumers fall in love with driving again thanks to Toyota Hybrid.”

Further activity that will drive viewers to the Hybrid section of the Toyota websitewill incorporate social media and location-based marketing activity.

The hybrid graphic novel

A comic-book heroine driven by hybrid powers.

THE STORY

How can you tell a simple yet innovative story to promote a complex technology to a non-car-specialist target audience? This is the challenge we faced when Peugeot asked us to communicate their latest hybrid engines system. So instead of listing all the technical specifications, we decided to show the adventure of a heroine utilizing the four driving modes of the HYbrid4 technology. We teamed up with Gerald Parel, famous for his Marvel comics cover illustrations, to bring the HYbrid4 technology to life through what we called ‘The Hybrid Graphic Novel’

Like Peugeot’s HYbrid4 technology, The Hybrid Graphic Novel had to take the form of an innovative and hybrid object. To deliver on this promise, our objective was to lean upon the hybridization of traditional comic book and digital screen experience, along with the hybridization of desktop and mobile devices. To do so, we built an experience with HTML5/CSS3 technology which allowed us to create a scrollable narrative story that adapts itself to all devices. Whether you’re reading the graphic novel on a web browser or on your tablet, the result always looks smooth and stunning.

Check out the full story on: http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/campaigns/peugeot-the-hybrid-graphic-novel.html

This is Lexus' trick 3D ad in Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue

By Jonathon Ramsey

Having driven its RC F into the party at the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, Lexus is making the most of the exposure. We recently saw the blue coupe showing off its L-Finesse curves with a curvaceous Lisalla Montenegro. And a new video shows how the magazine ad will also work without a bikinied sidekick, showing off the Lexus' own body and sounds in a 3D app for iOS and Android.

After downloading the app and the 3D image for your tablet or phone, the 450-horsepower RC F will be yours to play with - or, as Lexus suggests, yours to "create the 3D experience in your own hands." You didn't have any other plans for your hands while checking out the new issue, did you? The video below will show you how it's done.

MINI Launches Biggest US Ad Campaign Amid Small Car Safety Concerns

Posted by Dale Buss on February 6, 2014 11:22 AM

Amid heightened concern about the safety of very small cars, MINI USA is launching itsbiggest-ever marketing campaign in support of the latest iteration of its Cooper model, the 2014-model Hardtop.

The BMW-owned marque has done a great job of establishing itself in the minds of US consumers who want a small, sporty and chic vehicle. MINI also has gotten great reviews by American consumers on quality and dealer relations. By contrast, the Mercedes-Benz-owned Smart car brand has suffered.

In its new campaign, MINI attempts to leverage that brand equity with a fresh creative approach based on an old theme, and unprecedented media spend.

The first spot, "Bullheaded," now available on MINI's YouTube channel, revisits a previous approach by MINI: a bulldog inspects a MINI inside and out, approvingly, and as the car drives off the viewer sees some of what's new about the 2014 MINI Cooper Hardtop, including adaptive headlamps. The car also is a bit taller and longer than previous models.

It's also flooding US media with the campaign over the next several weeks through TV, billboards and radio advertising with major digital and social media support.

"I think it's fair to say this is the most anticipated launch in the history of the MINI in the US," Tom Salkowsky, head of MINI's USA marketing, told MarketingDaily.com. The featured redesign, he said, "represents a natural evolution of the model; we are building upon iconic design and that is something consumers value. But it captures modern technological advances."

Meanwhile, however, there's greater cause for concern that the safety of MINI-class automobiles isn't up to snuff. That makes sense in a basic way: The smaller the mass of a vehicle in a collision with another vehicle or fixed object, the greater the chances of structural damage and harm to driver and passengers no matter how compliant the car is with federal safety standards.

A new test by the respected Insurance Institute for Highway Safety underscored such concerns recently. Only one of what the institute termed a "minicar" out of 11 tested, the Chevrolet Spark, was able to achieve an acceptable rating in its front crash test, "making these tiny vehicles the worst-performing group of any evaluated so far," the group said.

MINI wasn't among those tested; the failed models included the Fiat 500, Mazda 2, Kia Rio and Honda Fit. Some of these cars aren't typically considered in the same market segment as Mini and Smart because they're a tad larger.

But in any event, surely the timing wasn't great for the model that arguably is the flagship of America's mini-car fleet, giving MINI something extra to overcome with its new ad campaign.

Jaguar Taps Gawker Ad Division for Help in Creating 'Evil' Super Bowl Ad

 Blog network joins forces with agencies Spark 44, Mindshare on campaign By David Griner

• January 6, 2014, 10:27 AM EST
• Advertising & Branding

It's 'Good to Be Bad' in Jaguar's first Super Bowl commercial.

When Jaguar needed help learning how to be evil, there was only one logical place to turn: Gawker.

The famously acerbic blog network has been working with brands for years through its Studio@Gawker advertorial division, but this time the stakes were so large, a Bond villain would be envious. Gawker was being asked to prepare the digital lead-up to Jaguar's first Super Bowl ad, an ode to malicious megalomania themed "Good to Be Bad."

"The goal was to celebrate the dark brilliance of the villainous mind," said James Del, executive director of Studio@Gawker. "Villains are typically only written in a way that they're a foil for the protagonist, but the story's always been told from the perspective of the protagonist."

After creating the rough idea for "Good to Be Bad," Jaguar's creative agency, Spark 44, and media agency, Mindshare, realized that they would need another partner, one that could create a level of digital depth that would justify the brand's steep investment in a Super Bowl debut. The call went out to Gawker.

"It was kind of a dream scenario from our perspective," Del said. "Jaguar's media agency had approached us about potentially doing something big and different and based around content, so they sent us their creative brief."

Hunkering down like a comic book cabal bent on destroying Batman, the team of agencies and Gawker content strategists found a unifying hook that could bring the "Good to Be Bad" creative theme to life: Celebrate the villains.

The best evil geniuses always seem to have British accents, which seemed like a good enough brand connection for the iconic U.K. auto brand to own the idea of resplendent badness.

"It's their first shot at a Super Bowl ad," Del said. "They're a British company, obviously, so there was some discussion on our end about how do you represent something so British in something so American."

Being British wasn't the only strategic reason for Jaguar to revel in villainy, though. The creatives also noted how pop culture has tilted in recent years not just toward the anti-hero, but all the way to rooting for criminal masterminds.

"There's a real complexity now, and I credit shows like The Sopranos, The Wire and Breaking Bad," Del said. "It's no longer like the '60s shows where the bad guy is just doing bad things and you don't know why."

So once the Super Bowl ad concept was set—and teased through a spot placed in NFL games and on BBC America last November—Studio@Gawker's work truly began. The site network's content creators launched a blog for Good to Be Bad and began posting regularly about mildly devious life hacks like "How to comport yourself like a proper villain at holiday parties" (drink but don't eat, ignore co-workers and leave early after making an impression) and "How to wear a scarf like a proper villain" (wrapped around your neck and then tied in a low knot at the top of the chest).

The posts rack up roughly 5,000 to 35,000 impressions each, thanks almost exclusively to Gawker's ability to share the posts as sponsored content on any of its blogs through the network's proprietary Kinja publishing platform. "It's really easy for us to write a story on Good to Be Bad and then make it appear on the Gawker homepage or the Deadspin homepage," Del said.

Of course, pushing out branded content to your own editorial audiences can be a gamble. Bad content could spark backlash among readers and site editors alike, a fact of which Del's team is keenly aware.

"It's terrifying, but it's also really exciting. There's this misconception that advertising content just needs to be bad and interruptive, that it basically needs to surround the content that people actually want to consume," Del said. "Our position is that advertising doesn't have to be bad. It can be good. It can be interesting."

The real test for Studio@Gawker's role with Jaguar will be the reception of the team's original content, such as its "choir boys" stunt in mid-December, when a group of Victorian-dressed youths sang "I Fought the Law" in spontaneous performances around Manhattan. While not a viral sensation, the clip generated a respectable 72,000 YouTube views and 34,000 blog-page views.

The campaign will also feature digital projections on building facades in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, and Jaguar will also have a presence at the Consumer Electronics Show being held this week in Las Vegas.

Since the Super Bowl itself will be most viewers' first exposure to the Good to Be Bad concept, Studio@Gawker plans to continue posting digital content for weeks after the game. However, the content calendar is not written in stone. Del said his team would watch to see how long audiences remain interested and then scale back the content creation if interest in the campaign begins to wane.

"A month, five months, a year, five years … it really depends on the reception to Good to Be Bad," Del said. "You just have to be ready for whatever the audience wants, just like in publishing. Don't stay on a story if no one cares about that story anymore. Just move on to the next story."

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/jaguar-taps-gawker-ad-division-help-creating-evil-super-bowl-ad-154749

China's newest car brand Qoros driven into the world through new TV campaign via BBH China

Monday 02, December 2013 at 2:22 PM by CB

  Comments (0)

Qoros is an international car company headquartered in China and their competitively priced Qoros cars hit the Chinese market for the first time at the recent 2013 Guangzhou Auto Show. This is the official launch of their first product, the Qoros 3 Sedan, to the general public.

VIEW THE SPOT

With an emphasis on quality, Qoros is targeting a new breed of modern Chinese consumers - the forward thinking generation who possess a definitive point of view and seek a better quality of life over convention in their lifestyle choices. The campaign idea - A New Drive - focuses on introducing consumers to the spirit of how Qoros makes cars: with a drive to look at everything with an unconventional perspective to relentlessly pursue new standards and excellence.

BBH China is delivering the brand strategy across an integrated campaign - TVC, print, digital content and adapting the brand experience across point of sales material for dealerships.

Instead of a focus on technicalities, BBH China's campaign demonstrates the "New Drive" spirit by telling a true story of the Qoros' journey to excellence, one that led to the birth of the Qoros 3 Sedan in their relentless pursuit of quality, and rather than using conventional imagery typical of automotive marketing in China, the campaign has adopted a more human tone of voice, one that speaks to people in an authentic way.

Johnny Tan, ECD, BBH China said, "It's an incredibly rare opportunity to be able to help launch a brand new car brand from scratch. Qoros is built on the foundation of questioning conventions. Equally, our campaign aims to differentiate this brand from the 'wallpaper' of car advertising out there with intelligence and humor."

Elvis Li, Business Director, BBH China, added, "We were drawn by the vision and the unconventional-thinking spirit of Qoros to pitch for this business and to become their creative partner because it is the very spirit that is shared by us all at BBH. Together, we have further defined the vision, the spirit and the values with the brand idea A New Drive - a spirit based on the belief that progress only comes from those who embrace and drive change".

Translation - A few years ago, we finished building our first car. And then, we completely destroyed it.It was perfectly good, but we were looking for, well, something perfectly great. So we went back to work, to retest, re-engineer, and re-design, Driven to achieve a whole new standard.

Credits - Executive Creative Director: Johnny Tan. Creative Director (Art): Yu Kung. Creative Director CD (Copy): Leo Zhang (Head of Chinese copy). Creative Director CD (Art & copy): Yannakis Jones. Associate Creative Director (Chinese copy): Ken Lu. Senior Art Director: Peter Zheng. Designer: Chihang Huang. Producers: Kim Lim, Yilin Lin, Kristie Koh. Account Management: Elvis Li, Chunling Fong, Andrew Hu, Loretta Lam. Planning: Andy Edwards, Jonathan Koh, Darius Karbassioun. Production house: Shooting Gallery, Radical Media. Partner agencies: Agenda, Mindshare.

The CW Gets Social With Ford

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/cw-gets-social-ford-152858

In what the network is characterizing as its most ambitious co-branded marketing campaign to date, the CW and Ford have teamed up on a cross-platform initiative that will give viewers a sneak peek at a roster of new and returning series.

Rolling out Thursday (Oct. 3), the campaign incorporates elements from Ford’s social engagement effort (“Fiesta Movement: A Social Remix”). Per terms of the partnership, five specially selected “agents”—the automaker’s term for young brand ambassadors who also happen to be social butterflies—will introduce the 2014 Ford Fiesta to fans of the freshman dramas Reign and The Originals, as well as CW tent poles The Vampire Diaries, Arrow and Hart of Dixie.

Each agent will be charged with carrying on a mission for one of the aforementioned series. For example, one socially aflutter ambassador will explore the crypts and mausoleums of a renowned New Orleans cemetery alongside The Originals actress Daniella Pineda (Sophie), while another agent will be styled for a Reign-themed photoshoot with Caitlin Stasey (Kenna).

The missions will then be boiled down to 60-second spots that will air during the CW’s season premieres and on the network’s Web site. The segments will be introduced by Candice Accola, who plays Caroline Forbes on the CW’s top-rated series, The Vampire Diaries. 

The executions also translate to the printed page. Two full-page ads (one for Arrow, one for Reign) will appear in this week’s US Weekly, two will run in Entertainment Weekly (Vampire Diaries, Originals), and a Hart of Dixie ad will pop up in People StyleWatch.

The Vampire Diaries print ad features an electric-blue Fiesta and agent Lisa Schwartz, a Century City resident whose YouTube account has north of 621,000 subscribers. The creative talks up the Fiesta’s advanced technology and fuel economy (41 Highway MPG) and includes a tune-in for the show.

According to Barbra Robin, the CW’s svp of integrated marketing, the Fiesta agents have 2 million followers between them. “For a campaign of this size, we thought the social space would be the best place to start,” Robin said. “The agents are socially active viewers who fit our demo and are huge, passionate fans of our shows.”

The initiative coincides with the official launch of the CW’s fall broadcast season. At 8 p.m., The Vampire Diaries will kick off its fifth season ahead of the premiere of The Originals. (The spinoff moves to its regular Tuesday 8 p.m. time slot on Oct. 8, clearing the way for the Oct. 17 series premiere of Reign.)

Not only does the campaign talk up the Ford Fiesta in the lingua franca of the CW demo, but it also offers fans a behind-the-scenes look at the new and returning series. Naturally, the social-media element is pivotal to the entire initiative; although both shows have yet to premiere, The Originals already boasts more than 110,000 Twitter followers and Reign has passed the 50,000 “likes” mark on Facebook.

There is also a decidedly exclusive element to the partnership, as the new Fiesta will appear on no other broadcast outlet over the course of the campaign. “From an on-air standpoint, this is their ad campaign,” Robin said.

A favorite among young female drivers—the 1.0 EcoBoost was recently named theWomen’s World Car of the Year—the Ford Fiesta has been a long-standing partner of The Vampire Diaries. In Season 2, Accola’s character drives a black 2011 model.

“This is one of the biggest launch partnerships we’ve done,” Robin said. “While it may not be reflected in terms of media dollars (with 10 hours of programming, we only have so much promo time), it’s definitely a huge media commitment.”

The Digital Traditionalist 

http://www.google.com/think/articles/the-digital-traditionalist.html

Land Rover North America Brand VP Kim McCullough knows digital technologies are reshaping the way people shop for cars. To ensure Land Rover's storied brand remains relevant, she is translating the auto showroom experience into new social and mobile innovations. After more than doubling digital ad spend to 35 percent of the marketing mix, and with a 15 percent year-on-year sales increase in 2012, the results are beginning to speak for themselves.

Enter Land Rover's North American headquarters and you might think you've stumbled into an auto showroom. Inside the suburban New Jersey building, a black Range Rover Sport is parked next to a Jaguar sport sedan. Merchandise cases display Land Rover t-shirts, hats, and mugs while industry awards and framed car photos line the walls.

It's the kind of scene familiar to anybody who’s been to an auto dealership. But as technology alters the way consumers shop for cars, automakers are realizing showrooms alone won't generate sales.

Showrooms Go Digital

Land Rover isn't jettisoning its showrooms; instead, the company is bringing the engagement online through video, social sharing, display and search ads, and mobile sites. "Most people first experience auto brands online now," says Kim McCullough, Land Rover North America's Brand Vice President. "Showroom visits are down. People are making up their minds about brands in other ways, whether through friends or experiences online. By the time people get to a showroom, they already know what they want."

New research from Google, TNS, and Polk confirms that digital is changing the purchase path for auto shoppers, with influential brand moments now stretching across a cycle that encompasses pre-market, in-market, and post-market phases rather than the traditional launch period. This cycle of ‘constant consideration’ requires marketers to harness the unique opportunities afforded by digital brand-building to win all the moments that matter.

The digital shift could have automakers rattled, particularly premier marques like Land Rover, which prizes white-glove service and safeguarding its image. But McCullough is sanguine about the evolving market. Sitting in her corner office surrounded by memorabilia, including an iconic green Land Rover logo, it's clear she appreciates her employer's heritage. McCullough, who first worked for Land Rover in the late 1990s before moving on to other auto marketing jobs, says the company's culture lured her back: "There's something about this brand and the way it has always been true to its core that is really appealing." Her aim now is to uphold that legacy while adopting digital tools.

Engagement: Fuel for Leads

So far, McCullough has been able to strike this balance. Since starting her second Land Rover stint in March 2011, she has orchestrated the successful launch of a new vehicle, Range Rover Evoque, and is directing the rollout of Land Rover's revamped flagship Range Rover. Both campaigns employed digital innovations new to Land Rover. McCullough, who honed her digital skills in the 2000s at Toyota, has also more than doubled Land Rover's digital spending (from 15 percent of the marketing mix to 35 percent), expanded its digital and social media staff, and relaunched several of the company's core consumer websites, including its YouTube channel, which currently boasts over three million views.

These moves are feeding an overall resurgence. Following decades of ownership shuffles, the UK-based automaker has found steady support in India's Tata Motors, which acquired Land Rover and sister company Jaguar from Ford Motor Co. in 2008. The resulting company, Jaguar Land Rover, is now profitable and growing, thanks to strong Land Rover demand. Land Rover sales in the US – the brand's third-largest market after China and the UK – increased 15 percent year-over-year in 2012.

To sustain that momentum, Land Rover is boosting its presence on social sites, where it can directly connect with owners and enthusiasts. Land Rover is active on Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and added Pinterest and Tumblr last year. These are Land Rover's always-on platforms, maintained year-round regardless of the company's product cycle. Recognizing the value of video, McCullough redesigned Land Rover's YouTube channel in 2012. The update replaced YouTube's standard, chronological layout with videos organized by Land Rover model and a window showing the company's latest tweets and Facebook posts. Land Rover says the more intuitive layout has boosted time spent on the site.

Key metrics point to results. A 2012 Google Analytics report found referrals from the company's social channels were 195 percent more likely to turn into solid leads than visitors to Land Rover's website who arrived from non-social sources. "When people have a chance to engage with our brand and attach a little more meaning and connection to it, we are seeing them transition to a lead," McCullough notes.

Engagement is crucial for smaller companies like Land Rover, which are increasingly seeing the value in flipping the traditional marketing funnel – using social channels to target their most likely-to-engage consumers first, rather than reaching out to the broadest possible audience via traditional media. Leading with media that allows for greater engagement measurement means brands know when they have a hit, and can make better strategic decisions about how to deploy the rest of their marketing budget. This is especially important for an automaker like Land Rover: "Dollar for dollar, we have to be very smart about what we're doing," McCullough admits.

Wheels of Innovation

To encourage innovation, McCullough applies a 70/20/10 rule to her budget, allocating 70 percent of resources to tried-and-true forms of marketing, 20 percent to experimental initiatives from the previous year that show promise, and 10 percent to new ventures. The framework allows McCullough's team to explore, especially in social and mobile, with limited risk.

Land Rover has tested out a relatively new type of Google ad called social annotation, which mentions Land Rover's nearly 1.1 million Google+ followers in the company’s search results. Google’s ‘custom annotation’ feature lets Land Rover insert short quotes from, say, an awards committee or a positive review into ads, as well. According to Land Rover, these ‘third-party validations’ have increased click-through rates to its website by as much as 14 times since it began testing the ads last winter.

Another smart investment has been mobile. Land Rover overhauled its mobile site in 2012. The upgrade added a number of practical features for both shoppers and owners, including vehicle photos and videos, and information about Land Rover's driving schools and roadside assistance. After the site went live, Land Rover started buying Google ‘Bid by Distance’ ads that surfaced Land Rover's site when prospective buyers searched terms like ‘luxury SUV’ on mobile devices near Land Rover dealers. The ads resulted in an 87 percent higher click-through-rate to Land Rover’s mobile site.

McCullough says Land Rover continues to monitor how its consumers are using mobile to shop. A JD Power survey released last year identified Land Rover buyers as particularly mobile-savvy. Of 33 auto brands, Land Rover owners were the most likely to access the internet from their smartphones and use apps for new vehicle purchases.

The New Online Launch

Though active year round, Land Rover ramps up its digital spending during launches for both customer acquisition and branding. The company's 2011 introduction of Evoque, a fuel-efficient crossover, relied heavily on new media campaigns to attract young, urban buyers. A series of events built anticipation, kicking off nearly a year before Evoque's on-sale date. First came a teaser site, followed by an urban journey-themed mobile app, and blog posts and videos from cultural influencers, known as ‘City Shapers.’ To play up Evoque's personalization options, Land Rover also released a ‘choose your own adventure’-style interactive film and, in May 2011, staged an interactive concert that streamed music from three simultaneous performances located in New York, Milan, and Shanghai.

“It's important all through the year to be active in all elements of the purchase funnel: Awareness down to purchase," says McCullough. "When we're not on broadcast TV, we use digital to expand in that upper funnel area."

Land Rover's most recent launch, for its new Range Rover, will also follow a multi-step digital campaign. An interactive takeover ad promoting the Range Rover will appear on YouTube on February 25. To extend the ad's reach, Land Rover is coordinating same-day takeovers of YouTube's mobile and tablet homepages. Finally, Land Rover will deploy the ad as an expandable 'Lightbox' ad within the Google display network, which will target consumers who fit the Range Rover buyer profile over several weeks.

In addition, Land Rover has developed a video series in partnership with YouTube. The 10-part series chronicles adventurer/YouTube personality Peter Bragiel driving cross-country in the new Range Rover. Land Rover will release new videos weekly in February and March on both its own and Bragiel'sYouTube channels. Like the Lightbox ads, the videos are geared to spark interest in the new car long after the TV spots and homepage takeovers have stopped running.

Despite its social and digital successes, some time-honored practices endure at Land Rover. McCullough varies her approach based on vehicle model, audience and launch phase. While much of the all-new Range Rover's marketing was digital, the vehicle's pre-launch, in fall 2012, focused on ‘super-loyalists’ – aficionados who had owned at least five Range Rovers. In the run-up to the new Range Rover's introduction, Land Rover treated this select group to posh dinners at exclusive venues and early looks at the vehicle. The events were an opportunity to reward Land Rover's best customers and to build pre-sale interest. Afterwards, McCullough sent attendees handwritten thank-you notes.

Indeed, for all her modern thinking, she’s clear that Land Rover’s established values will endure. "As our owners always say: 'Don't change it; just make it better.'"

Written by Elizabeth Woyke