2011 Bronze Best direct response print advertising including inserts

Client Land Rover

What is wonderful about this work? We announced the introduction of new tax disc legislation – to be circumvented by Land Rover’s new Self-levelling Tax Disc Holder. We saw 12,565 microsite visitors, 201,782 Facebook impressions, 46,758 Twitter impressions, 12,425 YouTube views, and 147 mentions across all media.

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? The Land Rover audience is broad, ranging from sophisticated Range Rover owners to those who just want their Defender to get the job done. The one thing that unites them is that they like to think they’re ready to take on whatever the road ahead has in store. So a subtly-pitched April Fool demonstrating Land Rover’s ingenuity in circumventing some absurd legislation was bound to appeal. We placed print ads in The Times, Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph (their readers would be more likely to be needled). We also put social media to good use as Land Rover has a very active online community that love to share everything and anything. The integrated approach ensured that traffic was created as quickly as possible, while the content engaged and encouraged them to sign up to win a Land Rover Experience day.

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? On 1 April we announced legislation that ‘due to an increase in Repetitive Neck Strain injury in traffic officers, all tax discs must be displayed within parameters not exceeding 10 degrees’. Then we introduced Land Rover’s Self-levelling Tax Disc Holder. This was released in print, while industry bloggers and web journalists helped spread the word online. Our microsite showed the ‘official press release’ that showed how our prototype used ‘Contra-motion technology’ to keep your tax disc legally compliant. Here visitors could also sign up to win a Land Rover Experience day. At noon we revealed that it was only a jolly jape. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube helped push the video of the faux press release, which also featured Land Rover’s Technical Manager.

Results Within 48 hours from launch we achieved 12,565 visitors to the microsite; 201,782 Facebook impressions, with 646 ‘Likes’ and 94 comments; 46,758 Twitter impressions (only one negative tweet!); 12,425 views on YouTube, with 32 ‘Likes’ and embeddings on 63 channel sites; and 147 mentions in media that included newspapers, blogs, specialist sites and forums. There were 155 entries for a chance to win a Land Rover Experience, with 50 winners. However, the statistic that shines through is that 25% of those who engaged said they would buy a Self-levelling Tax Disc Holder if it were to become available!

Team David Harris, Mike Watson, Kelvin Tillinghast, Neil Barrie, Glynn Euston, Simone Raspagni, Kate Nettleton, Terrence Bly, Ian Owen.