Y&R NZ and Land Rover takes a heart-felt ‘Dear John’ listing on TradeMe and turns it into the best Valentine’s Day gift ever for four Kiwi blokes

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LANDY-TVC.jpgTo commemorate Valentine’s Day Y&R NZ and Land Rover took a heart-felt ‘Dear John’ listing on TradeMe and turned it into the greatest Valentine’s Day gift ever for four Kiwi blokes.

After spying a TradeMe listing in October of 2014 for the reluctant sale of a tired 1957 Series I Land Rover by four Otago Uni students Y&R NZ and Land Rover saw an opportunity to mend a broken heart (and chassis). The heart-breaking listing (see image below) told of the many adventures had by Will, Jeremy, Anthony and James in their beloved Landy.

Full trademe listing_small.jpgMoved by the emotional farewell Y&R NZ and Land Rover covertly purchased the remains of the legendary vehicle and over five months painstakingly restored Landy, in every detail, back to her former glory.

“When we came across the TradeMe ad, we loved the story behind the truck,” said Land Rover New Zealand marketing manager, James McKee.

“It was a heart-warming tale documenting the many journeys and epic stories this particular Land Rover has been part of and just how much the vehicle meant to these four mates.”

Y&R NZ’s chief creative officer Josh Moore said the story compelled the team to do whatever they could to keep the legend alive: “We decided it was an amazing opportunity to help these guys continue their relationship with this iconic vehicle, so we bought it and restored it back to its former glory – replacing the broken bits with genuine Land Rover parts, while retaining some of the dents, dings and even recreating the bumper stickers that made it their Landy.”

 

The four lads were totally oblivious of the restoration project until yesterday when the Valentine’s Day gift was revealed on national television via a 45″ TVC. The commercial featured the newly restored Landy going on a whistle-stop tour of Central Otago revisiting some of the locations of significance as detailed in the TradeMe ad.

Every stage of the project from the covert purchase to the detailed restoration to the final reveal was captured using hidden cameras and the content will be pushed out through Land Rover’s local and global social media channels as well as owned assets such as Land Rover’s global magazine.

MDL0106 Project Laurie Press NZHFP_366x254mm_FA.jpgThe campaign concludes with a full-page press ad of the lovingly restored Landy and appears in the NZ Herald today (February 14th) wishing the lads a happy Valentine’s Day.

Moore says the campaign serves as both a celebration of the love Land Rover owners share for the brand and a fitting tribute to an iconic vehicle: “The project has quite literally been a labour of love and we’re very proud of every aspect of the campaign. It’s all the more poignant given this year Land Rover celebrates the final year of production of the current Land Rover Defender model, the direct descendent of the Series 1 Land Rover.”

 

The Landy was restored beautifully by Tony Katterns and his talented team at Custom Metal Shapers in Auckland’s East Tamaki, specialists in the restoration of classic vehicles.