First there was greenwashing and rainbow-washing; now there’s nostalgia-washing, which can be just as detrimental for brands.
The art of looking to the past to emotionally engage consumers in the current has been widely embraced in the previous few years, first as a balm for pandemic-related consumer anxieties after which as a respite from global strife, ecological distress and political division that culminated in November’s presidential election. But as marketers have continued to depend on the tactic, 2024 has been awash with efforts that nodded to collective memories but failed to make a meaningful connection.
“[Nostalgia] is most interesting and effective, obviously, when it’s tapping into something real and true concerning the brand and its history, not only latching on to a trend for the sake of it,” said Eric Tsytsylin, partner of name strategy at Lippincott. “If you would like to write an essay explaining the connection to your corporation and your brand, it’s probably not a great sign.”
Navigating the cycle
Nostalgia has long been a strong way for marketers to forge emotional connections with consumers. Just look to the primary season finale of “Mad Men” (itself an exercise in nostalgia), wherein Don Draper reached back to the pain of an old wound in a pitch for slide projectors. Or how ‘80s throwback “Stranger Things” kicked off a wave of nostalgic brand partnerships.
Last 12 months could have represented a watermark high for nostalgia, from the craze around “Barbie” to the success of Grimace’s birthday celebration. While a few of 2024’s best efforts also used nostalgia, the past 12 months have also been flush with boy bands, flip phones and throwbacks to old campaigns and taglines. More often, it felt as if too many marketers were using the identical transient, with only the savviest ones breaking through the noise.
Part of the issue is that, in the previous few years, nostalgia marketing burned through various different a long time as an alternative of specializing in one, like how nostalgia for the whole lot related to the Eighties seemed to dominate efforts across the turn of the present decade.
“We went through each decade in two years, whereas before, it used to take so much more time to undergo all of those different cycles,” said Amber Ledrin, senior creative strategist at Buttermilk. “Now we’re reaching a degree of saturation, and the whole lot is going on at the identical time.”
Much of that everything-everywhere-all-at-once sensation is attributable to the changing media landscape, social media and the proliferation of content. The compression implies that brands need to be much more tuned into culture via social listening and mindful of avoiding the shiniest object on social media.
“It requires much more intentionality and prioritization, so you are not diluting the brand or spreading yourself too thin,” Tsytsylin said. “I bet in a few months calling something ‘demure’ will probably be seen as nostalgic.”
As with any cultural marketing, authenticity is the watchword, especially when marketing to Gen Z. To drive true emotional engagement with consumers, brands must use nostalgia in service of name values and storytelling, not only as decoration, according to Manisha Mehta, senior PR and communications manager at digital asset management firm Bynder.
“Nostalgia works best when it’s data-driven and insight-led. Consumer sentiment evaluation, for instance, can provide wealthy insights into which eras or specific cultural references resonate most with goal segments, allowing brands to personalise nostalgia in a way that feels relevant and meaningful,” Mehta said in emailed comments. “Ultimately, brands that approach nostalgia as a layer inside an integrated storytelling strategy, moderately than as the whole message, reinforce their brand story in a way that feels fresh, relatable and purpose-driven.”
In 2024, marketers including Heineken, Frito-Lay and USCellular ran campaigns centered around featureless flip phones — or “dumb phones” — that offered not only nostalgia for old technology but for a sense of what those phones said concerning the state of human connection on the time.
“Nostalgia is perhaps the creative way in, but it surely’s actually tapping right into a societal and a product truth … around unhappiness, loneliness and depression and being obsessed and addicted with our devices,” Tsytsylin said of the dumb phone campaigns. “There’s this interesting overlap of positive, optimistic nostalgia with addressing real problems and problems with today.”
Playing inside baseball
Advertising nostalgia in 2024 wasn’t limited to culture touchstones of the past: Many brands looked back to their very own campaigns and taglines for inspiration, as well. Sprite and Gatorade refreshed “Obey Your Thirst” and “Is It In You?,” respectively, updating iconic campaigns with modern ambassadors. Brisk brought back claymation ads, Doritos will once more crash the Super Bowl and McDonald’s — no stranger to brand nostalgia — nodded to past tie-ins.
“Sometimes those things are a little bit little bit of inside baseball, but when there are multiple layers of meaning and authenticity, they can be really powerful,” Tsytsylin said.
Exhibit A in brand nostalgia was Beyoncé’s recent campaign with Levi’s that launched with a remodeling of celebrated 1985 ad “Launderette.” The apparel company’s collaboration with the worldwide star seemed destined ever since she included a song, “Levii’s Jeans,” on her country music-inspired album “Cowboy Carter” that debuted in March. But experts were mixed on their assessment of the usage of nostalgia within the campaign.
“The recent Levi’s ‘Launderette’ campaign with Beyoncé was an important example of a brand leaning into their marketing archives and connecting nostalgia with each a product truth and a cultural moment,” said Tanner Graham, CEO of agency General Idea. “With the recent trends around cowboy and country-western culture, it was an important time to connect all of those dots.”
The dots were less clear for ad professionals — and doubtless consumers — who aren’t sufficiently old to remember seeing the unique ad, which featured a male model stripping to his underwear while waiting for his jeans to wash.
“When I first saw the Beyoncé collab with Levi’s, I used to be like, ‘Oh, that is great, because ‘Cowboy Carter,’” said Buttermilk’s Ledrin. “Never once in my head did I take into consideration that ad that I’ve probably never seen before, so I do not think they nailed that nostalgia angle for other people than themselves.”
The ad was possibly more resonant with people who remembered the ad, like Geoff Edwards, managing director for creative at Gale and the 2024 President of Cannes Lions Entertainment Jury, who began working at agencies within the early Nineties. But nostalgia is in the attention of the beholder.
“Depending on the audience, is it more for me to have a remix moment, or is it for a Gen Zer to see it and go, ‘Oh, I like it,’ after which have the extension of that have?,” Edwards said.
Riding the wave without getting crushed
Effectively utilizing nostalgia requires an authentic brand connection and is best when it doesn’t seem as if brands are chasing marketing trends. Such me-too marketing was evident within the obsession with boy bands that kicked off last 12 months and continued into 2024 as brands including Coke, Dunkin’ and Bumble Bee reunited members of and reworked songs by groups from the ‘90s and 2000s.
“Strategically, brands can avoid the ‘nostalgia wave’ by specializing in their unique brand voice and value proposition. An insights-led approach using predictive analytics can help forecast emerging nostalgia trends, allowing brands to stay ahead of competitors while maintaining relevance,” said Bynder’s Mehta in emailed comments.
Chili’s tapped into nostalgia for Eighties arcade gaming with its BurgerTime campaign.
Courtesy of Chili’s Grill & Bar
Even amid waves of nostalgia, brands have opportunities to differentiate by being hyper-specific across the cultural moments they’re revitalizing for brand spanking new audiences. For example, as an alternative of specializing in the Eighties normally, brands can goal the subculture of arcade gaming from that decade, as was the case with Chili’s best-in-class BurgerTime campaign.
“Rather than broadly referencing a decade, brands should consider more area of interest, culturally wealthy elements which have significance for his or her audience,” Mehta said. “This level of specificity helps construct brand affinity and positions the brand as an authentic voice inside the nostalgia space.”
As with any marketing tactic, brands must use data-driven insights and be honest with themselves about their brand values and identity as they key in on authenticity, the intersections between audience and cultural moments, and what truly matters to customers.
“It is perhaps tough to find alignment, and it’s, and I feel it ought to be,” said Lippincott’s Tsytsylin. “I feel it ought to be really intentional and infrequent, but I feel while you can hit all those intersection points is when nostalgia can be really powerful.”
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