• by Karl Greenberg , February 6, 2009

Aiming to bring younger buyers to its brand, Ford's Lincoln division launched a campaign touting its new MKS sedan during the Grammy Awards broadcast on Sunday night. The effort features winners of Lincoln's "Project Rising Stars: Lincoln Video Music Challenge."

The effort via Y&R Team Detroit, with music producer Gary Calamar and online film community Filmaka, highlights five music videos--all featuring the MKS, from emerging directors and their collaborators. Lincoln, which is a co-sponsor of the Grammys, used the broadcast to showcase five 30-second trailers of those videos.

The five winning videos--and additional videos--are posted at www.cbs.com/lincoln and www.filmaka.com/lincoln.

The new videos align with the way Lincoln launched the car last year, eschewing 30-second ads for a three-minute short narrative film about a Hollywood romance that aired during Black Entertainment Television Awards pre-show.

That initial parry was followed by traditional ads that focused on vehicle interior design, technology, telematics, and navigation--one set to funky house music, and another to a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."

Wes Brown of Los Angeles-based Iceology says MKS shows that Lincoln is positioned, finally, to make serious headway back into the luxury market. "If you look at sales numbers, it actually is doing quite well, recognizing the market we are in, and the brand itself," he says. "And if you look at Lincoln's other models, the MKX [a crossover built off of the Ford Edge platform] did well when it launched and has maintained itself. And the MKS has received good media coverage, the ad campaign is catchy and makes you pay attention, and the imagery is eye-catching."

Of all of Ford's divisions, Lincoln suffered the least sales drawdown last year. The luxury division saw sales drop 18.4% (versus 2007) to 107,295 vehicles. By year-end, the MKS--which had some 8,600 pre-orders before it went on sale last June--accounted for 12,982 units sold by year-end.

Last month, total Ford, Lincoln and Mercury sales were 90,596 units in January--a 39% decline versus a year ago--with retail sales to individual customers down 27%. The Lincoln brand accounted for January sales of 6,091 vehicles, a 23.7% decline versus the month last year. The company sold 1,535 of the MKS cars last month.

The next vehicle for Lincoln is the MKT, a crossover based on the Ford Flex that launches this spring. "I think Lincoln will continue that type of marketing imagery with the MKT because it is going to be targeted to baby boomers who are affluent and design-oriented and maybe a little trendy--which is what the MKS was intended to go after," says Brown. "And once the economy comes back, Ford and Lincoln should be very well-positioned from a product standpoint."