We have a tendency to romanticize memories, focusing on the positives. Nostalgia offers a perfect conduit.
It’s been scientifically proven that nostalgia drives consumers not only to buy, but to spend more. It’s no surprise, then, that marketers have long leveraged that human trait of accentuating the good over the bad when they revel in nostalgic feelings.
Seinfeld and sweet memory
Data point: The streaming behemoths are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the rights to old-school fan favorite television shows. Netflix reportedly forked over more than half a billion dollars on Seinfeld;Â NBCUniversal spent $500 million on The Office;Â and WarnerMedia paid $425 million-plus for Friends after Netflix lost the rights to the latter two series.
Clearly they want to hook people now, at the dawn of the streaming wars, and they’re trying to do it by grabbing the programs that people watched and loved the most — those shows they treasured back in the day.
A 2014 study published in the Journal of Consumer ScienceOpens a new window actually found that provoking a person to think of the “good ol’ days†can subconsciously make her or him more disposed to opening that wallet.
On the other hand, the researchers discovered that when we think of the present or future, we tend to snap it shut.
The lesson here is obvious: Design products and campaigns that elicit nostalgic sentiments in targeted consumers and you should see an uptick in your number of customers and average spending.
According to the study’s co-authors, “when people have higher levels of social connectedness and feel that their wants and needs can be achieved through the help of others, their ability to prioritize and keep control over their money becomes less pressing.â€
Nostalgia marketing = emotional marketing on steroids
Ultimately, nostalgia marketing is simply another form of emotional marketing.
We know that customers are more likely to respond to, engage with or spend favorably on an ad that triggers an emotional response.
Nostalgia marketing, though, can elevate this personal resonance to the next level because of the powerful emotional hold it can have on consumers. It works so well because it connects company and individual, inherently creating brand trust by aligning something that makes consumers nostalgic — a show, toy, song, or anything with a brand that evokes affection.
It’s similar to the element that makes socially responsible marketing so popular. While campaigns that highlight social responsibility strive to create value-based connections with audiences, nostalgia marketing is subconscious, emotional and highly personal.
Its success in marketing and advertising campaigns reduces to this emotional bond established between consumers and the product or service.
As Lauren Friedman writes for ForbesOpens a new window , “In an age of impersonal digital media, building social connectedness through nostalgia is an easy way for companies to leverage the optimistic feelings that often accompany walks down memory lane.â€
The key to millennial hearts?
Experts find nostalgia marketing can wrap a particularly tight grip around millennials.
Nostalgia is effective with this generation, as Kate Wolff explainsOpens a new window , “due to the rapid technological revolution they’ve experienced in their lifetimes. They’ve seen the birth of the internet, the rise of social media and the societal influx of virtual reality and artificial intelligence…At the same time, they’ve mourned the loss of CDs, photo books, film development and video cassettes.
They’re the first age cohort to grow up with technology, and the last to remember life without it. As a result, they love to reminisce about how things used to be.â€
Traditionally, millennials are critical of brandsOpens a new window  they feel treat them as sales targets. Nostalgia, though, can cut through that wariness, associating brand messaging with positive references from the 80s and 90s, humanizing the organization and building that meaningful relationship marketers increasingly aim to forge.