The starting point for our creative thinking, was the Discovery’s status as a family car, which the campaign had to reflect and build on. The creative also had to be distinctively but inclusively British, in keeping with the client’s brand values. It needed to promote both the engineering prowess of the Discovery and its status as the ideal car to have family adventures in.

After a considering a range of media, audio was the obvious choice. With a podcast, we could optimise for in-car listening. We could also tie the creative content not only to particular types of landscape — those most often travelled in an off-road vehicle — but also to specific and iconic places in the British Isles. Recording on location would add extra atmosphere. And with the right sound engineering, we could turn the inside of any car into a mobile audio theatre.

The Discovery Adventures is a series of seven podcasts in which the listener is the hero. Assuming the part of ‘Sam’, the audience travels the UK with their uncle, searching for the source of nation-wide GPS disruptions.

On the way, we meet a cast of intriguing characters — some fictional, others well-known experts on the history, wildlife and geography of Britain — who help us unlock mysteries and track down the source of the problem.

The podcasts are a mixture of fact and fiction, so listeners are learning and being entertained. They also incorporate distinctive sounds from the Land Rover Discovery as it tackles different types of landscape: giving the listener a Land Rover experience, even if they’re currently driving a competitor car.

The campaign ran for seven weeks from 21 September 2017 (though the podcasts are still available). They were promoted on the channels and media mentioned in the previous section.

The Discovery Adventures were downloaded 39,466 times and listened to by approximately 157,864 people. It reached number two in the Apple Podcast Family Chart. And it achieved a 75% listen-through rate.

— “The thing we’re most excited about is listen-through rates. We measured people who listen to the end credits, it’s 75%, and that’s over 15 minutes. Being a marketer, I compare that to a 15-second video on social media where I might be pleased with a view-through rate of 30-40%. Here I’m getting 15 minutes of branded immersion and that shows people are really engaging with it.”

Rhidian Taylor. National Communications and Planning Manager, Jaguar Land Rover.