Adidas Samba, Sol de Janeiro skincare products, Nvidia AI chips, and…Lincoln Nautilus?
Lincoln Nautilus (F) is a car name only an Uber driver or your grandpa could love, but in what weird world is it mentioned in the same context as the popular brand?
The answer: It made it onto Ad Age’s list of “America’s Hottest Brands” for 2024. In fact, the Nautilus midsize crossover is garnering interest from younger buyers. Baby Boomers, take note.
According to Ad Age, the annual Hottest Brands list focuses on companies and brands that are currently enjoying some buzz or mainstream recognition, even if it’s only temporary. Ad Age reporters and editors narrowed down about 60 hot brands to a final list of 20.
They are also trying to avoid a losing streak.
But if you’re looking for sales or other financial metrics in this ranking, forget it. This list is more about small talk and online buzz.
Return to the Nautilus.
The SUV was redesigned for the 2024 model year with a tech-packed interior featuring a wraparound digital dashboard, and those features seem to have paid off: Sales of the latest Nautilus increased 42% in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period last year.
And, in case you were wondering, the Nautilus also comes in a hybrid version, a powertrain that’s doing very well for Lincoln and parent company Ford.
Ad Age believes the high-tech interior and hybrid powertrain are creating new buzz for the brand.
It also helps that the Nautilus’ advertising and marketing strategy is as contemporary as the latest version of the vehicle: The car, for example, has a relatively new celebrity endorser, tennis legend Serena Williams, who will appear in a new ad campaign later this year.
It didn’t hurt that the ad featured a hit song: “Kaleidoscope Bliss (The Nautilus Song),” which unsurprisingly became a hit on social media. So much so that a Lincoln creative agency got the band that produced it, Heavy Duty Projects, to release an extended version of the song for fans eager to hear more.
“What was really cool was they recognized it as a commercial song,” Lincoln’s U.S. marketing chief Megan McKenzie told Ad Age. The song will also be featured in a new Serena Williams ad. But without a stylish new car featuring a “curated fragrance” like Violet Cashmere, the song is just a song. That’s how you build a popular brand.
Maybe it’s not so strange after all.
Pras Subramanian is a Yahoo Finance reporter covering the auto industry. X and Instagram.
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