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Weekly Recap: Matthew McConaughey's star shines brightly for Lincoln

The commercials were a little strange at first, but the ensuing spoofs were hilarious. And all jokes aside, Matthew McConaughey has made a difference for Lincoln. Advertisements starring the Oscar winner launched in September, and the results have been impressive. The number of customers clicking on Lincoln.com to check out the MKC – the crossover McConaughey pitched – has tripled since the ads began airing, a spokesman told Autoblog. They also generated 4.4 million views on YouTube and spawned parodies by Ellen DeGeneres, Conan O'Brien, South Park and Jim Carrey on Saturday Night Live, which racked up another 15 million views. Most importantly, Lincoln's sales have increased 15 percent through November, helped significantly by the strong launch of the MKC. Without the addition of the MKC, Lincoln's sales would have been essentially flat last year. The MKC has received solid reviews from consumers and the press, though it has had several recalls. "The overwhelming response to the MKC campaign sparked truly great awareness for Lincoln," Andrew Frick, Lincoln group marketing manager, said in a statement. Now Lincoln has launched another round of spots, which kicked off New Year's Day during college football bowl games. This time, McConaughey is hawking the MKZ sedan and its hybrid sibling. The spots, called Diner and Balance, use the same artistic formula as the earlier ads, with McConaughey intoning seriously about the cars in dramatic settings. They were shot over two days in Los Angeles and were directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, a Danish filmmaker who directed the 2011 move, Drive. The ads continue Lincoln's multiyear deal with McConaughey, who has said he's been long been interested in the brand. He starred in the 2011 thriller, The Lincoln Lawyer, as a defense attorney who worked out of a Town Car, though that was before his deal with Lincoln. In one of the earlier ads, McConaughey claims: "I've been driving a Lincoln since long before anybody paid me to drive one. I didn't do it to be cool. I didn't to it to make a statement. I just liked it." That sentiment appears to have worked for the MKC's launch, and with this new advertising blitz, Lincoln hopes it carries over to the MKZ. Other News And Notes Infiniti Q30 spied in winter testing Infiniti is continuing development work on the Q30 small crossover, and we've recently captured it during winter testing.

Car subscription services: A slow, expensive start — but the potential is huge

Americans are used to paying for subscriptions — to magazines and cable television, for instance — but experience shows they'll cancel when the price of admission gets too high, or there are more tempting alternatives. Cord cutters ditched nearly 1.5 million pay-TV subscriptions in 2017, according to a survey by Leichtman Research Group. Cable TV started out cheap with basic offerings, and then got expensive. The auto industry's subscription offerings are new, but they're starting out costly, and not price-competitive with traditional leasing. The upside is that they take the hassle out of car ownership for busy people by letting the service take care of maintenance, insurance, licensing and taxes. And they give consumers choice, often allowing relatively painless switches between different cars in the automakers' lineup. Subscription services also point the way toward an ownership-free auto experience, and offer an easy transition to a potential world where ride- and car-sharing will be dominant. Subscriptions are here to stay, but consumers may take a while to "get" them. Lincoln's subscription service for lightly used 2015 to 2017 models, offered through the Ford-owned Canvas beginning this year, got off to a slow start. Many early subscribers canceled. Last month, Cadillac announced it would " temporarily pause" its $1,800-per-month Book subscription service for "adjustments" as of December 1. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Snags with the back-end technology used to support the service made some customer-service functions tedious and time-consuming, adding costs for the company." The challenge for automakers is to come up with a strategy that offers consumers a compelling, affordable option to regular ownership, and one that can also make a profit. I think they'll find that sweet spot, but they're not there yet. Jack Nerad, former executive editorial director at Kelley Blue Book and author of " The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying or Leasing a Car," points out that "A lot of people expected that subscriptions would be very valuable for people who wanted inexpensive transportation, but the reality is quite the opposite. Subscriptions are offering more choices for the wealthy.

Lincoln taps Serena Williams to pitch all-new Navigator

Lincoln is turning to a new star to help it pitch the hot-selling Navigator SUV alongside Matthew McConaughey: Tennis megastar and businesswoman Serena Williams. She'll help pitch the Navigator in a social media campaign that launched Thursday. Lincoln released four short spots that will appear on Lincoln and Williams' social channels. In one, the longest at 41 seconds, Williams recalls buying her first Navigator as a teen and says she's come full circle as a mother. She dubbed the vehicle "Ginger." "Ginger was all white, she had 22s and she had rims," she says in the spot. "I felt like, you know, I was kind of balling in a way. It was like my first huge purchase." Another shows Williams talking on a tennis court about being a mother and how the vehicle functions as a kind of bedroom for her daughter, Olympia, who was born last September. "For me that's what's most important." Like the McConaughey spots before them, the new spots hew to the Lincoln script of mostly not focusing on the vehicle but rather on experiences. (Williams' experiences seem a lot less ethereal than McConaughey's.) View 4 Photos Williams is known for her tennis exploits, having won a record 23 Grand Slam singles titles and four Olympic gold medals. She has fashion deals with Puma and Home Shopping Network and launched her own fashion brand called Aneres. And she operates the Serena Williams Fund to emphasize education and help victims of gun and domestic violence, plus the Williams Sisters Fund, which she launched in 2016 with her sister, Venus. Serena Williams is also a member of the Oath Board of Advisors. Oath is the parent company of Autoblog. "Serena is an amazing athlete who has won 23 Grand Slams, but she also has a family, she has her own clothing line, she sits on major boards, she's philanthropic — she has all these competing demands on her time," Lincoln Group Marketing Manager John Emmert said in a statement. "We know that time is our Navigator client's ultimate luxury as they balance everything in their busy lives, and Serena exemplifies that balance with poise and grace." It's not the first time Williams has endorsed an automotive brand, notes AdAge. Mini featured the tennis star in a Super Bowl ad in 2016. The Navigator is all-new for 2018. It won North American Truck of the Year last month at the Detroit Auto Show. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.