• by Karl Greenberg , September 6, 2013

The kickoff commercial for the $63,400 vehicle aired last week during NBC Sports coverage of English team Premier League. The spot has the Sport motoring up Pikes Peak in a re-creation of the vehicle’s record-setting (for SUVs) climb up the peak’s hairpins this summer. 

The campaign, which Land Rover says is weighted toward digital, includes Web banner ads that allow people to activate a Range Rover Sport driving experience on mobile devices. There are also rich media ads that show various aspects of the car: driving experience, interior, plus an interactive digital gaming component -- “Race the Sun." The game allows people to "drive" the vehicle in five different on- and off-road scenarios. It features game components to test speed, agility and off-road handling, and there’s a 360 experience for interior and exterior.

Print includes a five-page spread that has a mobile-device interface using image recognition. Readers can wave their mobile device over the creative to launch a digital “feel,” “see,” and “hear” experience about the vehicle, per the company. Those elements are in November's Wired, Esquire and Car & Driver.

Land Rover is touting the Sport through a presenting sponsorship of “The Live Climb” on National Geographic Channel. In the show, climber Alex Honnold will try a solo free climb of an urban skyscraper. The company says it is also sponsoring a Men’s Journal video series, “The Driven,” about innovators and adventure seekers.

Land Rover likes to do extreme demonstrations of capability to adhere to its outback legacy. The company last month sent the hybrid version of its Range Rover on a 9,950-mile scramble along the Silk Road to Mumbai.