Eye-Catching Marketing Campaigns: The 2022 Land Rover Defender Service Award

By: Beth Brennan, TREAD Agency.

We first noticed this campaign on LinkedIn a few months back. Land Rover and a few partners were advertising vehicles and financial sponsorship for non-profit organizations. The organizations had to apply and fit into one of Land Rover’s predetermined categories: Animal Welfare, Community Service, Environmental & Conservation, Veteran Outreach, and Search and Rescue.

How did the program work?
The non-profits applied, and Land Rover and their partners chose the winners. They’ve awarded five customized Defender 130 models to U.S. and Canadian non-profits that support their communities daily. Each winner received a $25,000 cash prize, and they awarded finalists $5,000 to aid in their services.

What we loved about it:
The program shows a commitment to the brand’s core values while giving the nod to the hero use case of its product. What do we mean by that? Land Rover recognizes and highlights that their vehicles are known for taking service workers to remote destinations around the globe to help others. It also used the campaign to stake its claim for “giving back” as a brand value. The company puts this under the umbrella of responsibility, one of its five core values: “We will integrate environmental and social principles in our businesses, being responsible to the communities and environments in which we work,” said Land Rover.

Another aspect of the campaign that we loved was that they incorporated brand partners, which legitimized each category of the award and expanded the campaign’s overall reach.

Each category had a sponsor, from media partners like Outside Magazine to manufacturers like Pelican and Kong.

To learn more about the Land Rover Services Awards and who won the contest, visit its Events & Sponsorships page.