2015 Silver Best Use of Experiential

LIDA

Land Rover

The Showroom Without a Car

The Team

Nicky Bullard Mike Poole Alan Mackie Mark Kelly Josh Cadwallader Sam Ellis Richard Spear

Contributors

Polygon Digital - JLR CAD partner - Assisted with downscaling the 3D model from original JLR CAD files

Campaign overview

Land Rover needed to secure thousands of pre-sales for the New Discovery Sport more than four months before the physical car would be ready. The team brought creatives, technologists and programmers together to create a compelling virtual experience of the car that beat pre-sales targets by 143% – and with the successful technology used again to promote the new Jaguar XE.

Strategy

The team chose to move away from the traditional glossy photo approach to pre-selling vehicles and instead wanted to excite the same spirit of adventure that makes someone a potential Land Rover customer. Recognising that most customers want to see and touch the car for real before spending up to £50,000, the ambition was to build this product confidence by instead creating an immersive 3D experience that allowed all the family to explore and operate the car’s interior and exterior. The solution was one that used just an iPhone 5, an app and a handset costing less than £20 – meaning it could be taken out of the showroom and be quickly, easily and cheaply rolled out across 117 dealerships nationwide.

Creativity

The experience was created using Durovis Dive – a visor that holds and works with an iPhone to place the user at the centre of a virtual, explorable experience. A world first in the automotive industry, the customer could aim the Durovis Dive at a marker on the showroom floor to see the New Discovery Sport appear lifesized in front of their eyes. They could walk around this virtual model and use hand gestures to open the boot, fold down seats, open the driver’s door and see the interior in detail. Supporting the showroom activity, Land Rover sent emails that boldly used no imagery, playing on the notion of launching a car without having the car itself.

Results

The campaign certainly caught hold of customers’ curiosity, with users averaging 8 minutes 52 seconds immersing themselves in the New Discovery Sport and 80% of them telling friends and family about the experience. This translated into 4,000 preorders worth £128 million – 143% of ambitious targets. Retailers were naturally enthusiastic about the impact across the country, with 83% describing the activity as valuable: ‘Customers had a curious interest in the technology, and because of that it has ignited interest in the car. We are in the Lake District [and harder for customers to get to]... however the technology made them make the effort’. The project was so successful that Jaguar Land Rover have successfully used the same technology to launch the new Jaguar XE across 87 retailers.