Activation Gallery: Nostalgia Marketing
In 2023, Liberty Mutual ran a number of video advertisements saying, “Research shows, people remember commercials with nostalgia” while offering random nostalgic references, such as an old-school home video of Christmas morning or a Y2K fad.
Karla (Cook) Hesterberg, director of content marketing at HubSpot, wrote in a blog post last year, “Nostalgia marketing is the advertising equivalent of comfort food.”
We saw nostalgia marketing seemingly reach new heights last year in the wake of Barbiecore. But that likely won’t be the end or peak of nostalgia’s creative inspiration as its success endures and transcends generations.
For example, typeface technology company Monotype identified nostalgia as a leading trend in type and brand design that will shape the wider cultural zeitgeist of 2024 — including 1990s and Y2K nostalgia for musical subcultures (e.g., raves & grunge) and the comeback of classic serif fonts — in its annual Type Trends report.
Below is a sampling of various brand and retailer activations from the past year that leverage nostalgia.
While Girl Scout Cookies have never gone away from the culture, they do still seem to evoke a sense of nostalgia in many consumers and former Girl Scouts. Procter & Gamble’s Native took advantage of this when it launched a limited-edition collection of personal-care products inspired by the cookies exclusively at Target. Stores stocked the line on a green endcap, while Target promoted the product alongside deals within Target.com.
7-Eleven partnered with Bandai Namco’s “Pac-Man” video game franchise last summer on a sweepstakes awarding an ultimate arcade package, including a custom arcade machine. The retailer heavily promoted the sweepstakes, which leveraged a slew of qualifying brands, on social media and within stores via signage plugging 7Rewards deals. 7-Eleven also temporarily renamed some of its proprietary drinks for Pac-Man’s ghost antagonists and launched a 7-Eleven x Pac-Man apparel collection sold through 7Collection.com.
PetSmart introduced a line of licensed Care Bears for Pets toys and apparel inspired by the classic plush teddy bears, first launched in 1983. In stores, the colorful line occupied prime endcap space featuring a rainbow header reflecting the classic Care Bears branding.
Disney partnered with Target to promote its 100th anniversary celebration by launching an exclusive, limited-edition Disney100 Retro Reimagined collection at the retailer ahead of the holidays. Items included puzzles, shirts, pajamas, backpacks and toys with Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars characters. A Christmas-themed display fixture in the apparel department and a Retro Reimagined display in the toy department stocked the line, while digital and social media activity supported online.
The J.M. Smucker Co.’s Meow Mix tapped the boy band phenomenon of the 1990s in launching an iteration of its iconic Meow Mix jingle through the recurring “Remix” campaign. The effort included a TV spot and digital and social media support featuring NSYNC’s JC Chasez as well as the brand’s made-up cat boy band, dubbed the Tabby 5, mimicking a ’90s-style music video.
Mondelez International’s Sour Patch Kids launched a digital Halloween campaign in October encouraging consumers to face their past. The brand tapped the self-proclaimed “queen of owning your past,” Rebecca Black, to promote the campaign and an accompanying TikTok challenge. The challenge asked consumers to dig up photos of their past choices — photos they may have wished to forget — for a chance to win a grand-prize $5,000 and Halloween candy from the brand.
Danone’s Silk tapped some Gen Z celebrities, including Brooklyn Beckham, for a campaign that brought back the mid-1990s milk moustaches from dairy ads to promote Silk’s plant-based Nextmilk. The brand launched a ‘Stache filter on TikTok and promoted a sweepstakes rewarding a year’s supply of Silk and the chance to be the face of a Silk billboard in New York’s Times Square.