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Defender – Don’t Handle with Care

Issue 17 | December 2010

Agency

Wunderman London

Creative Team

Junior Copywriter: Laura Davies; Junior Art Director: Mark Lees; Executive Creative Director: David Harris

Production Team

David Harris; Mark Lees; Laura Davies; Ian Saunders; Kevan Ansell; Roy Capon; Annie Gass; Jonathan Sewell; Annabelle Walker; Nigel Edginton-Vigus; Roxanne Courtman

Date

May 2010

Background

The aim was to stimulate enquiries and sales of the Land Rover Defender and to convince the target audience that no matter how great the task, a Defender will always ensure the job gets done.

Idea

Land Rover needed to talk to the most down-to-earth people imaginable - farmers (specifically members of the National Farmers Union, who qualified for a special 5% discount). The challenge was to place the vehicle clearly in their world in a mailer that showed them, no matter what the job, Defender would get the it done.

The no-frills nature of the vehicle was replicated in the utilitarian nature of the pack, made from 100% recycled, unrefined paper.

The pack unfolded with a series of warning stamps, the sort you see on delicate parcels but in this case the meanings were reversed. Do not handle with care. Not fragile. Do please turn upside down. Do not be careful. .

Results

Response rate of 6.8%, it is set to be their most successful Defender pack to date. From 16,000 mailings, 1,089 people requested a test drive and 787 requested a purchase voucher.

Our Thoughts

Mail is wonderfully tactile and what you won’t get to understand looking at the campaign here on our lovely Directory paper is how very workmanlike the pack feels in your hand. The paper stock feels heavy-duty and communicates a whole bunch of things about the Defender without a single word being exchanged. Rugged, straight-forward, un-showy.

Here, the pack may look perplexingly ordinary but the actual experience of the mailing is a demonstration of top quality craft skills from the team who put this together.

It’s not always what you say that gets your meaning across but how you say it.

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