October 21 2020

Nostalgia Marketing – Why We Love It

A Trip Down Marketing Memory Lane

When you work every day in and on marketing campaigns and looking for opportunities for various businesses to make use you quickly spot changes and trends.

A good example of this at the moment is nostalgia marketing. IF you haven’t noticed the TV adverts recently using their old slogans, ads or harking back to long gone moments in time until now then you certainly will soon…

For example, Asda bringing back the ‘pocket tap’. M&S and the voice over ‘this isn’t just any food, this is (you know what she says) M&S Food. Plus, the social media ‘how it started vs. how it is going’ trend recently.

Nostalgia isn’t new (what an oxymoron!!) it has been used in marketing time and time again. We have seen big brands using nostalgia for a long time but it is increasingly so at the moment…

So, why are brands doing it? Well, who doesn’t love a trip down memory lane!

1. To reuse old content – save times & money.

2. This world sucks for many right now and nostalgia takes us back to better times.

3. It spark conversations which helps to increase your audiences engagement.

4. Encourages UGC (user-generated content) – content produced by the end user rather than the business.

5. It is not just for those who remember otherwise known as ‘fauxstalgics’…

Yes, I can hear you thinking ‘What the heck is that?!’ Fauxstalgics is basically nostalgia for those too young to recall the original occurrence… Apparently, you don’t need to have lived through a time to feel nostalgic about it.

How can smaller businesses use this in their strategy? Well, firstly think about how it will help your audience engage more? It still needs to deliver value.

Here are some ideas for you: Create a winning nostalgic marketing strategy:

Pay attention to the finer details – those nuances that will really strike a chord with your customers. This could be anything from a backdrop to an accent.
Mix it up a bit – use nostalgia within your social media posts – maybe make nostalgic posts part of your regular content, like #tbt
Do some research and find out what makes your audience feel something special. Look at dates in history or even your own timeline.
Go through the archives and dig out those old photos and film clips – marketing gold dust!
Maybe look at how your own brand has evolved over the years? It’s a fun project to do for the business.
See if you can expand on any of your own brand history. Maybe then against now, or footage of your early days.

The key to nostalgic marketing is in understanding what motivates your audience, thinking about how they were raised and where their deepest emotional receptors truly lie. A little research goes a long way, and by looking into the generational breakdown of your customers, you can much more easily learn what might make each of them tick.

Whilst writing this it got me thinking about what my favourite childhood advert would be… I would say my favourite Jaffa Cakes – Full moon, half moon, total eclipse. It’s cheeky and always makes me smile!

And, as Christmas approaches we’ll see even more of nostalgia being used! I don’t know about you but I love seeing the Christmas adverts on TV. Let’s see in the Christmas adverts next month who is using nostalgia to take us back to better times! I can’t wait!

I really hope everyone is doing well. If you’d like a trip down memory lane or if you have a marketing challenge you’d like to share with me please feel free to book a free 30 minute 1:1 and we can try to tackle it together.