Lincoln Nautilus Ad Campaign Wins 2024 Marketing Award

The redesigned Lincoln Nautilus had a big year in 2024, raking in more than its fair share of accolades. It was dubbed MotorTrend’s 2025 SUV of the Year, was one of the vehicles to nab a Wards 10 Best Interior award, and was recognized as being one of the hottest brands of 2024. The luxury crossover has now picked up another title thanks to a bit of a viral phenomenon – it earned the 2024 Best Corporate/Brand Identity Campaign Marketing Award for a unique campaign.

AdAge commended the Lincoln Nautilus for its unconventional ad campaign. Earlier this year, Lincoln partnered with ad agency Hudson Rouge and released a 30-second ad spot featuring cinematic videography of the redesigned Nautilus set to an unnamed song. Internet sleuths attempted to track down the catchy piece of media, only to find out that it was an original song that didn’t exist outside of the Nautilus ad.

Eventually, Lincoln dropped the full-length song, titled “Kaleidoscope Bliss (The Nautilus Song)” by Heavy Duty Projects, which is the studio that produced the original song for Lincoln. The song debuted on YouTube, but was also made available on various other streaming sites, like Spotify and Apple Music. The original ad, meanwhile, raked in 2.9 million views, 1.78 million impressions, and – perhaps most critically – a 9.7 percent increase in awareness among millennials, a key demographic for Ford’s marque.

As such, the Lincoln Nautilus earned the 2024 Marketing Award for Best Corporate/Brand Identity Campaign for the Nautilus song saga. It beat out crosstown rival Buick for the honors, which was a finalist thanks to its “Exceptional By Design” campaign.

Sales numbers underscore the success of the Nautilus marketing campaign. Sales of the luxury crossover soared during the 2024 calendar year, up 48 percent through November. Last month alone, the Nautilus moved 3,292 units, up 103 percent from the 1,226 deliveries reported during the same time period – that is, during November 2023.