The role of nostalgia in Marketing

Our guest author explores how nostalgia marketing taps into emotions, creating lasting bonds between brands and audiences.

Sometimes, memories come knocking on our doors to bring comfort and help us momentarily forget the chaos and humdrum of the fast-paced lives that we live. The flashback of bygones helps us relive our happier, younger selves. Unlike any other human emotion, nostalgia feels like a warm cup of soup and a fireplace in winter. Nostalgia is an emotion we experience throughout our lives in different situations, and with every relation, its flavour is different.

Storytellers and marketers who understand the significance of nostalgia in evoking emotions in humans have delivered great content and ads to audiences over the years, which became popular and successful. In today’s day and age, nostalgia marketing is becoming part of pop culture by reintroducing and introducing ads which have good, old memories and precious moments of the past as their central theme.

The content game has to be extremely strong these days for brands to capture the attention of distracted audiences with low attention spans, and the element of nostalgia grabs that attention right off the bat in the initial moments. And people always remember things that make them feel a strong emotion that rattles their insides.

Humans tend to find peace and comfort in feelings and things that are familiar to them, and some brands have seized the opportunity by delivering nostalgic ads at the right time. They have understood through the audience sentiment that nostalgia helps build a long-lasting brand recall and sell better. But brands and marketers have to keep in mind that it’s the right balance of the theme, the insight and relevancy, along with great execution that eventually creates the magic.

Execution plays the biggest role in nostalgia marketing, in my opinion. Brands and creative heads to figure out whether to go ahead with a remake (like Cadbury chocolate’s Kuchh Khaas Hai - cricket field ad from the 90s), or to bring relevant characters/celebrities from the 90s (like Cred’s ads bringing back 90s comic book characters Chacha Chaudhary and Suppandi in their ads) or to use human insights from the past, or to play around with popular elements of the old times. Every concept and idea will have its own unique need and treatment.

Recently, another unique approach taken for nostalgia marketing was again by Cred - Great for Good Ad, The OGs of 90’s, featuring popular ex-India cricketers Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Mahinder Singh and Saba Karim. This adds a lot of value across two generations for a brand. After all, brands aim to make the viewers forget their mundane present and invite them to a nostalgic and memorable experience of the past, where they can get lost in the good old times as they develop a strong bond with the brand, reinforcing the brand’s identity in the minds of the audience.

Using the emotional pull of recollections, nostalgia marketing forges close bonds with customers. Brands can access ingrained emotions of happiness and comfort by arousing pleasant recollections of the past. Audiences who identify a brand with important life events or their formative years respond especially effectively to this tactic. Because customers are more likely to sense a personal connection to brands that bring back fond memories, nostalgia marketing not only encourages emotional involvement but also strengthens brand loyalty. Since customers frequently look for things that arouse pleasant feelings and memories, this emotional connection can result in enhanced trust, a positive brand perception, and eventually better sales.

It appeals to all age groups: younger audiences are introduced to "classics" from the past, creating a shared cultural experience, while elderly consumers are reminded of treasured recollections. Key components from previous decades, such as music, images, and slogans, are used in effective nostalgia marketing. Marketing messages become more relatable and powerful when retro video games, clothing, and advertising are brought back to their former glory. These nostalgic components strike a deep chord, forging strong emotional connections between brands and their audience.

Nostalgic marketing is definitely very effective owing to a high shareable quotient. While the funny, quirky ads that some brands depend on help them earn a high talking, share of voice, and even shareability, they are often short-lived and forgotten due to information overload and fatigue. On the other hand, nostalgia makes people pause and feel something. In that moment of embracing a gentle smile that comes, a tear that is shed and a memory which is relived, nostalgia marketing stays.

(Our guest author is Manan Malik, Director – Strategy & Growth at Social Panga)