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Nostalgia has played a huge part in pop culture and marketing over the past decade or so. It can be a powerful way to connect with your audience when done right.
After reading James’ Swipe & Deploy post on nostalgia and timelines, it got me thinking about how powerful nostalgia has been as a demand generator and marketing tool in recent years.
Regardless of whether you’re a company with an established history or a new brand bringing to market products that evoke feelings of nostalgia, utilising it well can be very effective.
Of course, nostalgia and a market for things that create it are nothing new. Humans have always had a tendency to look backwards with rose-tinted glasses. We see it used in politics, creative industries, fashion, interior design, food and much more.
It’s powerful because it creates an emotional connection to perceived better times. Even if they were actually a bit shit. More often than not, nostalgia is for our childhoods. A time when we were relatively free from the responsibilities we have in adulthood.
In the business and marketing world, the demographic that fills the majority of decision-making roles, and those who have the spending power of disposable income, dictate demand across many industries.
It just so happens that Millennials began reaching those life stages as digital marketing and the internet really hit their stride.
Add to this that they are the first generation to be economically worse off than their parents, far less likely to be able to own property, less likely to have children or at least delay having them, and have lived through fairly turbulent times. Millennial spending habits and life priorities have certainly shifted from those of the generations that came before.
All of this has created a group that upon hitting a certain age, has become intensely nostalgic for anything that evokes their youth when things seemed simpler and better.
They also now have the internet (particularly social media) as a platform to share that nostalgia with peers worldwide, creating reach and demand for anything that creates that emotional response.
The never-ending ‘only 80’s or 90s kids will remember this’ posts on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok are evidence enough. They get massive engagement with adults waxing lyrical about anything from cassette Walkmans to Pogs (which are making a comeback).
That title is a little nod to anyone who was into their Post-Hardcore/Emo music in the late 90s and early 2000s.
There is also no doubt that pop culture over the last decade has been heavily influenced by Millennials, and noticeably by nostalgia for 80s and 90s childhoods.
As an Elder Millennial, my childhood was filled with comic books, tv animations based on comic books (the X-Men cartoon still holds up!), sci-fi and fantasy novels, and miniature kits like Airfix and Revell. We had board games, Lego, Pogs, and classic consoles like the Mega Drive and SNES.
By no coincidence, the pop culture of the last decade or so has been ruled by comic book adaptions, sci-fi and fantasy adaptations, and remakes of 80s and 90s TV shows (including the X-Men cartoon!).
A huge market has developed around adults collecting what were traditionally considered kids toys. Lego which has always remained a childhood favourite now has an army of adult collectors willing to drop a lot of cash on new systems. Warhammer has seen a massive resurgence among adults, even spawning talks of mainstream movies and TV shows. Classic Pokemon cards can sell for thousands, and yes, Pogs are really making a comeback!
Tabletop gaming has also seen a huge swell in popularity, creating whole new forms of popular content (actual play streams of TTRPGs like D&D have become a huge thing, spawning massive successes like Critical Role and Dimension 20.)
Classic video game titles have seen remakes too, with Crash Bandicoot, Monkey Island and Mario Kart among a huge number of games to be reborn. Retro gaming is huge, with a massive market for retro consoles and games.
The pandemic seems to have supercharged this, with people suddenly having free time and disposable income, seeking out anything that gives them a little dopamine hit. For lots of us, that comes from looking back to when we were young and relatively carefree. Rediscovering and recapturing how we felt and what brought us joy.
Just writing this post, it’s hard not to fall down the nostalgia rabbit hole. Having access to videos and pictures from the 80s and 90s just a click away, and with peers sharing their own nostalgia material, it’s very easy to get swept up.
Nostalgia is powerful, and for brands, it can be a great way to create content that emotionally connects with people.
Whether that brand has a history it can directly draw from, or whether a newer brand harnesses imagery or sounds that capture a time and place.
Understand your audience and what resonates with them and what doesn’t. User research is your friend.
What evokes a positive emotional connection with them, as not everything will have a positive memory associated? This is very important to remember when utilising the past.
Also, remember not to lay it on too thick. People respond to nostalgia but are also aware of when it is being weaponised. Nobody wants to feel emotionally manipulated, nor do they want to feel like they’re being clubbed with a nostalgia baseball bat.
As always, everything in moderation.
Finally, don’t confuse nostalgia with younger generations discovering and appreciating ‘retro’ or ‘vintage’ styles. They are two distinct audiences with different motivations and intent.
An 18-year-old might buy a shell suit or rara skirt to wear unironically. An elder millennial may have a very visceral and negative memory of being forced to wear them the first time around (yes, I’m talking about me).
Some things should never be allowed to escape the 80s and 90s.
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