Adidas Sambas, Sol de Janeiro skin care products, Nvidia AI chips, and... the Lincoln Nautilus?

In what bizarro world is the Lincoln Nautilus (F) — a nameplate only an Uber driver or your grandfather could love — in the same sentence as those hot brands?

The answer: It made it to Ad Age’s “America’s hottest brands” list for 2024. In fact, the Nautilus, a midsize crossover, is actually drawing interest from younger buyers. Take that, Boomer.

According to Ad Age, the annual hottest brands list highlights companies and brands that are currently enjoying some kind of buzz or mainstream awareness — no matter how fleeting that may be. Reporters and editors at Ad Age whittled down 60 or so hottish brands to the eventual 20 that made the big cut.

They also try to avoid repeat winners.

But if you're looking for sales or other financial metrics in these rankings, forget about it. The list is more focused on chatter and online buzz.

Back to the Nautilus.

The SUV was redesigned for 2024 with a fresh, tech-laden interior, highlighted by a wrap-around digital dashboard. Such features, apparently, helped. Sales of the latest Nautilus jumped 42% in the first half of 2024 compared to the year-earlier period.

And if you're wondering, kids, the Nautilus comes in a hybrid version as well — a powertrain that has been doing quite well for Lincoln and parent company Ford.

Ad Age believes the techy interior look, along with that hybrid powertrain, is responsible for the brand's newfound buzziness.

It also helps that the Nautilus’s ad and marketing game plan is as modern as the latest version of the vehicle. For example, it has a relatively new celebrity backer in tennis legend Serena Williams, who will be featured in a new ad campaign later this year.

A hit song of sorts in its ads doesn't hurt either. Called “Kaleidoscope Bliss (The Nautilus Song),” the song was big on social media, of course. Lincoln’s creative agency even had the band behind the song, Heavy Duty Projects, release an extended version of the song for fans who were clamoring for more.

“What’s really good is that they're recognizing it as the song from the commercial,” Megan McKenzie, Lincoln's US marketing head, said to Ad Age. The new Serena Williams ad will feature the song as well. But a song without a sleek new car featuring “curated fragrances” like Violet Cashmere is just, well, a song. That's how you make a hot brand.

Maybe not so bizarro, after all.

Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance covering the auto industry. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.

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