While some marketers adopt the language of authenticity, inclusivity and trailblazing, others show their leadership through their actions. 

The understated Victoria Gabriel, Global Communications Manager for Defender and Discovery at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), is a trailblazer in the truest sense of the world. A woman who has successfully built her career on deeds, not words. As one of the 1% of Black female leaders in the automotive industry, Gabriel’s 17-year career in automotive is one that has forged new ground. 

Diversity doesn’t just drive creativity, it drives results. The female audience growth for Defender has increased by 10% in the last year and the brand’s positive momentum is rooted in deep understanding of the female consumer. As part of the Global Women in Marketing interview series with Creativebrief, Gabriel reveals what it takes to set a new pace in automotive marketing.

With 17 years of experience in the industry, Gabriel has not only championed more innovative approaches to marketing to women, she has actively created space for diverse talent to thrive. An ethos underlined by JLR’s ongoing support of the Women in Marketing Awards. 

This year, Defender is sponsoring the Best Leader In Marketing Award. Supporting growth and progress for women in marketing is important to Gabriel as a leader. “Raising the profile of women in leadership is close to my heart personally,” she explains. 

Gabriel co-founded the brand’s first employee network group advocating for ethnic diversity and representation, successfully creating data-driven employee development programs based on gender and ethnicity. Her global lens on marketing means not only is she always on the move, with a shoot in Japan next on her agenda. A year spent working in China also helped to cement a holistic view of automotive brands across borders. 

Diversity drives creativity

A deep understanding of consumer experience sits at the heart of her approach as a marketer. A commitment to looking beyond the latest trend cycle to understand the drivers of marketing effectiveness in the long term underpins her strategy.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to engage more diverse audience groups,” she explains. An approach which ensures the brand digs into the rich insights it holds on individual customer experience. 

By incorporating AI tools into this analysis, the brand is focusing on understanding its customers better and therefore better meet their needs. This approach includes analysis of what in its marketing and customer journey is resonating with consumers and what friction points are giving them reasons not to buy.

When it comes to female consumers, the automotive sector as a whole faces the historical challenge of being viewed as sexist. “Over the 17 years I have been in the automotive industry, the product and experience have become more female-centric. Yet it's the retail experience which has the biggest impact,” she explains. A truth which means even as vehicles become more female-focused, if the showroom experience doesn’t keep up, women still won’t feel they belong.

Gabriel has a clear passion for bringing that sense of belonging to female drivers. She explains: “We have more representation in the work, have greater consideration in tone of voice and have also looked at both the purchase journey and the product lifestyle.”

Passionate about not stereotyping women or seeing the car-buying experience as stuck in a bygone era, Gabriel describes how embracing customer insights across the business has helped to change the shopping experience. “There was a time when the conversation was all about the salesperson ignoring women and talking to their husband, or any man that was with them, but now it is all about how women want to be informed.” A shift that means the brand is focused on giving women the information they want in the way that they want to consume it.

This understanding of the pain points in female shoppers' customer journeys helps to create more inclusive shopping experiences for all consumers. For example, the retail experience now includes more opportunities to use technology to look at the product specifics of a vehicle, based on the insight that women wanted more information but didn't necessarily want to ask more questions in a showroom.

The brand has also changed the way it approaches other channels in the customer journey, such as websites, and social media platforms to showcase content which is quicker to consume. “This is so audiences feel more informed about the product and benefits, before they get into the retail environment,” Gabriel explains.

Marketing in an age where women are always doing more

The industry has moved on from the gender stereotypes that dominated the automotive industry 17 years ago when Gabriel embarked on her career. Yet questions remain as to whether the sector as a whole is doing enough to connect with women in the multifaceted chapters of their lives. 

For Gabriel, opportunity lies in better understanding the many stages of women’s lives. She explains: “The best success you can have is ensuring that a brand really showcases every stage of women’s lives and understands their experiences.”

“I use my Defender for shopping, for work, to drop off the kids and for all those functional experiences. In all of the chaos, the car is my safe space. It gives me back that bit of freedom and making the car a more enjoyable space is important,” she explains.

Sharing her own moment of finding peace, she highlights the space between doing the school run and jumping on her first work call includes a moment of calm in the car that makes the commute more enjoyable.

Women are the key influencers

In the midst of a broader industry which has historically overlooked the power of female consumers, Gabriel deserves credit for being at the forefront of change.

In 2017, she oversaw a groundbreaking partnership with the Institute of Directors on engaging the female audience, which showed that women were in fact the key influencers and decision makers for car purchases. 

This insight is supported by the book Influence: How Women's Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better, which says that women influence a full 85% of all car purchases, worth more than $80 billion every year. The data showed that women spend $300 billion on vehicles annually in the US. 

“The truth is that women’s intention to purchase has been overlooked historically,” explains Gabriel. She shares that once JLR had the data and insights, they became intentional in ensuring that the female consumer was front and centre.”We have become more considered in our marketing to connect with women, even in the B2B sector, we were instantly going to facts, figures and fuel consumption, rather than showcasing comfort and convenience."

She describes the brand's approach to better connecting with women as an ‘evolving approach’ rather than a single breakthrough. “The increased focus on DEI across the automotive industry has really inspired me to be more open and collaborative with partners,” she explains, adding: “For Defender, our representation grows every year."

Closing the representation gap

As a business Jaguar Land Rover has successfully moved the dial from 8% female representation to 20%, moving it closer to its target of 30%.

“For the automotive industry as a whole it has been a tough journey towards greater representation,” she shares, noting the talent pipeline remains an issue for engineering roles more broadly.  Gabriel emphasises the fact that despite the marketing industry being dominated by females at around 60%, senior leadership roles are still dominated by men.

The Defender brand has successfully bucked wider industry trends by understanding how women connect with its brand values. Gabriel points to the importance of highlighting both the luxury customer experience and the car’s capabilities, an approach which highlights the capabilities of the car without ignoring experience.

Capitalising on the AI advantage

Gabriel has a robust approach to innovation; with a measured and open-minded approach to embracing AI.

“For the industry, the tools and the power that AI can provide marketers is huge,” she explains. When it comes to practical application, she points to the ability of AI tools to understand large volumes of customer insights. From a research perspective, AI can really cut through the noise.

For Defender this means that the brand has the opportunity to understand individual customer needs at scale. “AI is dialling up personalised communications and choices. All those individual barriers and doubts that consumers have really can be addressed by brands,” says Gabriel. “AI can bridge the gap between brand and consumer, and we can become more preemptive with our communications”, she adds.

The team is unpacking how AI can impact production techniques, while also respecting the truth that authenticity is a crucial ingredient of showcasing a car’s capabilities. 

Creatively this authenticity is built on more than just information. As Gabriel explains: “As a brand, Defender has been great at being practical, but it is emotional storytelling which makes our brand more relatable to the female audience. We have all the insights about our cars and we have made modifications to the product because we are constantly listening and learning from the female audience.”

Ask the awkward question

Her advice for future marketing leaders is simple, yet powerful. “You have to be curious and ask the questions you want to ask.” She shares: “When I joined the industry, it was a very different culture where a question was taken as a challenge. But now it is not awkward, it is expected.”

“The more you ask, the more you learn,” she shares, adding: “I would really encourage people to ask that awkward question.”

For women, as both consumers and marketing leaders, those awkward questions are not hard to find. From closing the gender pay gap to accelerating representation, there remains so much to do at all stages of the career journey.

“Women have so many different hats to wear, we have so many different jobs to fulfil. For me, I am inspired by the opportunity, we need to make a space for ourselves in this industry,” says Gabriel. 

In practical terms this means she is passionate about delivering high quality and high impact marketing. Yet also ensuring workloads are balanced to ensure that teams can maintain the pace necessary to drive a high-performance culture.

“Sometimes the progress can be slow, but the passion and work rate is high,” she explains, sharing the importance of making the time for recognition. She continues: “We are on the journey and to achieve something positive we have to keep the pace.”

By not just setting the pace but successfully puncturing the stereotypes that still assume women aren’t in the driving seat, Gabriel’s career underlines the power of forging your own path. 

To find out more about the 2025 Global Women in Marketing Awards please click here.