Marketing is as much an art as a science. Take the world-wide social media phenomenon of the Land-Rover world in 2015, the story of four ex Otago Uni students and the Series 1 Land Rover they bought and had a ball with back in the day.

Late last year the video of the purchase, rebuild and gifting back by Land Rover NZ of their ‘student hack,’ Series 1 Land Rover, had clocked up 24,819 Likes and 925,545 views on the official Land Rover website and more than 5 million views all up.

By way of comparison the official Land Rover video announcing the company’s role in providing vehicles for the latest James Bond movie Spectre has so far produced 2,411 Likes and 288,510 views.

The story of the vehicle nick-named ‘The Landy’ started in Dunedin in 2000 when the four – Will Radford, Jeremy Wells, Anthony Dawson and James Shatwell – pooled their resources and bought it to help them explore the South Island back country while they were studying in Dunedin.

After graduating and going their separate ways, however, the beloved Landy ended up part-stripped and taking up valuable garage space in Auckland, and a decision was reluctantly made to list it – complete with period photos and tall tales and true of their exploits in it - for sale on TradeMe.

It was at this point fate – in the form of Land Rover New Zealand marketing manager James McKee – stepped in.

Opportunities to leverage off such a ‘feel-good’ story don’t come around every day, so after a quick brain-storming session McKee and execs from Land Rover NZ’s comms agencies Y&R and Campbell & Co hatched a bold plan; they would buy ‘The Landy,” restore it to as-new condition and return it to the four ex-Scarfie owners in return for the publicity the project would hopefully generate.

To read the full story in the February 2016 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (on sale January 25) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.