LINCOLN / QUIET LUXURY

Teasing the Lincoln Continental Concept by making “quiet luxury” visible on Instagram before the reveal.

15 artists, three days, one hashtag: #quietluxury. A social teaser for the concept car that signaled Lincoln’s future, ahead of its debut at the 2015 New York International Auto Show.

In 2015, Lincoln was preparing to reveal the Continental Concept. The car brought back the brand’s most famous name and introduced a new design direction built on an idea Lincoln called “quiet luxury,” defined by three qualities: serenity, elegance and effortless power. Before anyone saw the car, Lincoln wanted people to feel the idea behind it. The challenge was to tease the reveal on social media in a way that was subtle, visible and highly relatable.

As creative lead for Ford and Lincoln social media at Team Ford at WPP/Ogilvy, I led the program. Our team curated 15 of the most influential artists on Instagram and asked each of them to interpret serenity, elegance and effortless power through their own work, extending the co-creation approach we had built with Lincoln.

Over three days, all 15 artists posted to Instagram with the hashtag #quietluxury. Each paired evocative imagery with a personal caption about what quiet luxury meant to them, and invited their followers into the conversation. The idea reached a large, engaged audience in the artists’ own voices before the car itself was ever shown.

Lincoln unveiled the Continental Concept in New York on March 29, 2015, ahead of the auto show, and built the debut around the same words. Quiet luxury became the language people used to describe the car, and the Continental went on to production the following year.

It was the first time a luxury car brand used “quiet luxury” to speak about both an idea and the product that made it real. Years later, the phrase would become shorthand for a whole approach to luxury, well beyond automotive.

Client: The Lincoln Motor Company
Employer: Team Ford at WPP/Ogilvy
Position: Creative Lead, Ford and Lincoln Social Media
Project role: Program concept, artist curation, influencer co-creation, social strategy
Featured vehicle: Lincoln Continental Concept
Platform: Instagram, #quietluxury
Scale: 15 artists over three days
Disciplines: Influencer co-creation, social media, launch strategy, artist collaboration, creative direction