Lincoln
Mic Drop
- VFX
- Color
For Lincoln’s bold “Mic Drop” campaign, Preymaker joined forces with Hudson Rouge and director Adam Berg of Smuggler to transform an unforgettable moment featuring Serena Williams and the new Lincoln Navigator into a pure cinematic spectacle. The team enhanced practical mic drops captured on set, blending intricate FX simulations with seamless cityscape transformations that turned Florida into a gleaming metropolitan backdrop. With Preymaker Chief Creative Angus Kneale supervising on set, every frame carried precision and polish—balancing visual flair with grounded realism. The result: a high-impact, nationally celebrated spot that redefined luxury with confidence, earning widespread acclaim and standing as one of Lincoln’s most-played campaigns of 2025.
Lincoln’s “Mic Drop” features two legends, the all Lincoln Navigator and 23-time Grand Slam tennis champ, Serena Williams, literally dropping the mic for the launch of this new SUV.
A Memorable Mic Drop
The film is from agency Hudson Rouge and directed by multi-award winning Adam Berg of Smuggler. Preymaker created the visual effects, transforming the “mic drop” moment from metaphor to pure entertainment. The film debuted during the Elite Eight of March Madness.
Hudson Rogue and Adam Berg turned to Preymaker to enhance and transform the Florida shoot location into something with the scale of a major metropolis like New York or Chicago.
Planning the Thunderstorm
From the start we knew that there was going to be a lot of work, so planning ahead was essential. Prior to the shoot Preymaker developed a custom particle FX system for the film. “We had to understand how many microphones were going to be needed in each shot,” said Angus. We built digital replicas of city streets, building vehicles, lamp posts and staircases. Complex simulations were run to assess how many microphones were needed.
We knew that we wanted to have a blend of practical and digital microphones. So working this out early was essential.
Preymaker Sets the Stage
Preymaker worked closely with the production designer and practical FX company in Miami to create a range of practical microphones with different attributes, highly detailed props were built that closely resembled real microphones, these were used for foreground interactions.
We wanted to have close up interactions with the environment, microphones bouncing off cars, glass and buildings etc. We also knew that there would be talent in some shots with physical microphones falling around them in close proximity. Hundreds of foam microphones were built for this reason and used to bounce off parked cars and set pieces. It was important to have as many practical microphones as possible to create the tension and sense of danger for the actors. This provided valuable reference for the preymaker team to match the dynamics and physicality of the in camera microphones.
Thousands of digital microphones were then added by the Preymaker team, modeled and simulated to match the live action dynamics. In the end a seamless blend was used where everything looked like it was shot in camera.
Every shot was enhanced in some way, changing city skylines, adding skyscrapers ,even replacing entire city streets to feel like New York City, all perfectly combined to look photorealistic, elevating the energy and excitement of this memorable film.
Design Rush called Lincoln’s “Mic Drop” “a cinematic ad that highlights the vehicle’s status as the original luxury full-size SUV.” Another article on Yahoo! from music radar honed in on mics themselves, writing “As genuine mic drop moments go, it’s pretty impressive.”
Accolades
John Cline, VP/Executive Producer of Lincoln’s agency Hudson Rouge, enthused that the collaboration with Preymaker was “superb.” It began with a meticulous and very thorough Angus Kneale as VFX Supervisor on set, Cline noted, and the Preymaker team delivering throughout the post production process.
“It was no small job,” Cline said, “and required tons of VFX with Preymaker coming through brilliantly. We were ecstatic and our clients were incredibly pleased. And the spot did the trick with audiences, too, boasting incredible scores nationally.”