VIDEO is all set to play a leading role in a major charm offensive which will be launched by Jaguar over the next few months to help boost sales of its latest luxury saloons to company bosses. The Coventry manufacturer is planning to turn to film for the first time in an effort to win a wider audience for the new V8-powered XJ and Daimler models it will unveil at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month.

It has commissioned a 20-minute video which will show the cars, to cost between £35,000 and £62,000, being put through their paces against backgrounds ranging from country lanes to mountain passes. From October, the company will start mailing the films to company executives it thinks might be interested in buying one of the new models, which feature fresh engines, new suspension and major specification gains over the outgoing cars.

'We'd like potential customers to see the cars in action in different situations. Video is a far more dramatic medium than pictures in a brochure and we hope to use it to explain our heritage and the logic behind the many changes which have been made,' said sales and marketing operations director Andrew Lester.