Why Lincoln turned its 30-second ad background track into a streamable song

One of Lincoln’s most unassuming YouTube videos, a straightforward 30-second ad for its new Nautilus Hybrid SUV, quickly became one of its most-viewed posts on the platform. But the vast majority of the more than half a million views on Lincoln’s video aren’t from consumers fascinated by the vehicle itself—they’re feverishly trying to track down the song playing in the background. “Literally checking back every day till someone finds out the name of this song,” one commenter wrote. “I can't get this song out of my head. To the point of obsessive,” commented another. Others veered from pleas to (lighthearted) threats, such as one YouTube viewer who wrote, “Lincoln I will never buy a single one of your products until you release a full version of this song.” For two months, Lincoln and its creative agency Hudson Rouge have watched hundreds of people beg for answers in the Ford-owned luxury brand’s comments sections across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, join a Reddit thread of internet sleuths working together to hunt down the song featured in its commercial—or send emails directly to Lincoln’s internal team asking where they can find the full track. “It’s even gotten to the point where, over the past few weeks, we saw a couple YouTube videos of people taking the 30-second cut and extending and remixing it themselves,” said Travis Bouchard, Lincoln’s social and influencer marketing lead. “So, it’s really kind of taken on a life of its own.” Also read: The top 5 music campaigns to know about right now Now, at last, the diehard fans who have scrambled to identify the tune will be able to listen to the full version of the track. Lincoln today released a two-and-a-half minute version of the 30-second song, titled “Kaleidoscope Bliss (The Nautilus Song),” in partnership with the music studio that produced the initial 30-second background track, Heavy Duty Projects. It’s available on streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal, as well as Lincoln’s YouTube channel and website. On YouTube, the song will be accompanied by a visual of a record player sitting on the beach with a Nautilus shell resting on top of the spinning vinyl record. “The music was just a small part of the whole campaign, but that’s the thing that really kind of connected with people, and we just wanted to capitalize on that and continue the ride,” said Jon Pearce, Hudson Rouge’s global chief creative officer. “In this modern age of marketing and communication, I think everybody should be keeping their eyes and ears open and looking at the energy that is created by something they put out there … It’s a dialogue now, not just brands talking to consumers.” Lincoln teased the release of the full song across its social channels yesterday with both a countdown clock ticking down to the track’s Wednesday afternoon drop and a video highlighting the flurry of comments Lincoln had received from people begging for information on the name of the song and where they could listen to it. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lincoln (@lincoln) This isn’t the first time Lincoln has found itself at the center of a social media trend that extends beyond its vehicles, Bouchard said. Last summer, the brand jumped on its appearance in a video from actor and longtime Lincoln endorser Matthew McConaughey after Instagram users began using McConaughey’s monologue about road trips in the video in their own content. Lincoln created its own take on the trending audio by pairing it with clips from past Lincoln commercials starring the actor and background music, and sharing the resulting video across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, Bouchard said. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lincoln (@lincoln) Future plans for ‘Kaleidoscope Bliss’ Beyond generating tens of thousands of views on social media, the buzz around the song in Lincoln’s Nautilus ad has helped the automaker both “increase our relevance with folks who might not be current or prior owners … our intended target,” and “strengthen relationships with our current clients through those authentic, valuable conversations on social,” Bouchard added. Lincoln has also seen an uptick in the number of “curious, younger consumers coming in [to dealerships] and wanting to hear more about the new Nautilus,” Pearce said. It’s difficult to determine how much of that interest in the vehicle can be traced back to the ad and the song it featured, or whether those younger shoppers were simply looking for cars with ample technology features, like the Nautilus, he said. After all, Lincoln “designed and engineered [the Nautilus] for the brand’s younger, global customers,” according to a press release from the automaker. Lincoln is still working through the details of how it will incorporate “Kaleidoscope Bliss” into future social media posts or larger marketing campaigns, Bouchard said, but the brand does intend to leverage the full version of the song in some way. “It’ll be out there for creators, too, if they want to use it for their own content,” Pearce added. “So, I think it’s going to go and continue to take on a life of its own beyond the spot.” Hopefully, no longer in the form of mildly threatening social media comments.

Why Lincoln turned its 30-second ad background track into a streamable song

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