Jaguar Land Rover bask in the success of Prince Harry’s Invictus Games

Jaguar Land Rover has managed to get the Discovery Sport and Jaguar XE – and even the new F-Pace – front and centre at the Invictus Games.

Jaguar has made their marketing about ‘Bad Boys’ of late, with a series of tongue-in-cheek outings for screen villains promoting the ‘bad’ side of Jaguar. But there’s a big fluffy heart at the core of JLR, as well as an eagle eye for a marketing opportunity.

With a long tie-in to the military, Land Rover in particular was a perfect fit to sponsor Prince Harry’s Invictus Games, but even JLR couldn’t have imagined how big, successful, inspiring and heart-warming the Invictus Games would be.

When you get big-hitters on the global stage effectively promoting the Invictus Game – from Prince Harry to the Obamas by way of The Queen – and networks airing the Games around the world, Invictus was never going to be a flop. But it’s actually been an inspiring event that’s caught the world’s imagination. And Jaguar Land Rover has been in the frame throughout.

From the opening of the games, where 454 participants drawn from wounded and recovering military members gathered to take part in 10 sports, to the closing ceremony with a speech from Prince Harry and a performance by Flo Rida, Jaguar Land Rover has been there, quietly – and sometimes not so quietly – at the heart of the Games.

With the Jaguar Land Rover Driving Challenge at the start, where participants – and Prince Harry – drove a course in the Land Rover Discovery Sport and Jaguar XE, through to Michelle Obama Tweeting a photo of a Jaguar F-Pace outside the White House, to WWE superstar John Cena playing Chauffeur to competitors in a Range Rover Sport SVR, JLR has garnered a profile way beyond whatever they’ve paid to be sponsor and Presenting Partner.

Get ready, @InvictusOrlando! We are on our way to kick off the #InvictusGames2016. ???????? pic.twitter.com/7uDX3MdDkO

— The First Lady (@FLOTUS) 8 May 2016

Beyond the revelation that Prince Harry has turned in to an inspiring figure with charm, humility, wit and the common touch (and the ability to flirt for England), and the determination and joy of the wounded and injured participants, it’s been good to see that JLR hasn’t blatantly exploited their exposure by going in to sales mode, but has kept their involvement as very much a support act.

Which, paradoxically, will do far more for JLR sales in the long term.

Prince Harry, The Queen And The Obamas Invictus ‘Bring It’ Video