Thread: Defender Advertising...

I was a bit disappointed that they didn't take the chance to link back to the heritage a bit and have a County pack or spec level. I like the new Defender, didn't initially but each time I look at it the thing grows on me but for the life of me I can't get my head around some of the accessories in these 'packs'...

A lot of modern cars have “packs” in them now. It’s not entirely new.

When I bought my skoda 4 years ago - there was a comfort pack (heated seats, heated steering wheel), a technical pack (adaptive cruise control, self parking, etc) and a black pack (wheels, grill, mirrors, etc).

Yes it’s corny - and yes it’s expensive , but Land Rover aren’t on their own with this.

But Grey Ghost did your pack include monogrammed mud flaps ? .

Corny indeed. It's such a shame that LR has gone the way it has. None of the advertising shows the vehicle doing anything more than your Skoda could. It's a shame because the build suggests it would be quite the off-road weapon in air guise.

What is keeping me up at night is whether I can option a scuff plate for the scuff plate (which looks highly scuffable).

Cheers

We have added several “packs” to our build.

Can’t wait

Hi Ozscott,

I am hoping that in a few years, LR will see the error in their ways and either combine a lot of features or indeed make them standard... That seems to happen when a model isn't selling after a few years..

I have to agree though - I watched the same videos and was surprised at the mention of the LR mud flaps... One would have thought that mud-flaps would be standard, and LR badged - does this mean that the standard mud flaps are badged Tata...

Originally Posted by ozscott

Has anyone been able to keep a straight face watching the LR 'pack' advert videos? Ie Adventure Pack, Country Pack etc. There are a number of things that a lot of 4wders might consider silly, but the main one that made me laugh was that in a sub 2 min video they actually spend time talking about mud flaps...and...wait for it...the Country Pack has Land Rover branded mud flaps!! Yeeh ha!.

I don't recall such advertising by Land Rover on a vehicle release before. It's target market is reflected in those ads. But still, mud flaps? There is an element of Lego and dare I say it here desperation in the ads. The voice over saying "Ya Defender" i find amusing also. I suppose they have so much riding on this vehicle they want to appeal to the young hipsters but it's hard to watch (for me at least).

Cheers

Yeah, it's as corny as a corn field (sorry, keeping with the theme). Land Rover, have been advertising like this for a long time. What really irks me with these adds is that they make mention of such trivial things and make them seem like an all time amazing item while showing the vehicle doing really easy stuff. That's what makes it comical IMHO.

If they lost the voice over and did a zoom in on the items of interest with perhaps a bit of on screen notation while the vehicle was getting properly used then perhaps it might be a bit more palatable.

They really should be leveraging the insane amount of interest being shown in the vehicle now and perpetuating it by getting journos into them out on difficult tracks...not those pouncy contrived ones either. Instead we have to wait for someone to buy one and put it through its paces in six months time in the stuff that matters before getting any real idea of its worth. I know it will be good, but those unfamiliar with the brand who want to get out there would likely be put off by these.

Incidentally, I think we can put the entire campaign over the last few years at the feet of this lad - Finbar McFall, Global Product Marketing Director. I can not believe how rude he was to his colleague when being interviewed during the reveal (from 28:00 min to 31:00 min mark):



With that sort of arrogance it's no wonder we are seeing what we are. I would much rather have heard more from Nick Collins, Vehicle Line Director. He had much more interesting things to say than the other bloke. Sure we can let McGovern talk about hiplines, purposeful faces, vertical backs etc for a minute or two but cricky, get the design and marketing people out of the way and let the technical folk talk about what really matters.

Originally Posted by SBD4

Incidentally, I think we can put the entire campaign over the last few years at the feet of this lad - Finbar McFall, Global Product Marketing Director. I can not believe how rude he was to his colleague when being interviewed during the reveal (from 28:00 min to 31:00 min mark):



With that sort of arrogance it's no wonder we are seeing what we are. I would much rather have heard more from Nick Collins, Vehicle Line Director. He had much more interesting things to say than the other bloke. Sure we can let McGovern talk about hiplines, purposeful faces, vertical backs etc for a minute or two but cricky, get the design and marketing people out of the way and let the technical folk talk about what really matters.

I was struck by that too. My sense of the new Defender is that it is a brilliantly engineered vehicle let down by poor design (styling) and marketing. Land Rover seem to have excelled with that of late.

I think Nick and his team should be congratulated on what they have achieved and I would have liked to have heard a lot more from him. They've clearly put a lot of thought in to it to meet the design brief. Unfortunately, the mad Professor then came along...