Nostalgia Advertising

Nostalgia marketing is, in my opinion, one of the most effective kinds of marketing for established brands. Not only can it be used as a reboot for a company- a way to get something that used to be good back in the game- but it's an effective way to reengage an older demographic. Companies will always be thinking of new ways to get younger people to buy their brand, but that only includes some of the population, and marketing mongers should be on the prowl for more. This is where nostalgia kicks in.

To get an older generation involved with a product that's being revamped for future generations, advertisers need to reconnect with their roots. Day to day products like shampoo or toothbrushes probably wouldn't benefit from nostalgia advertising because no one has nostalgia for those things. No one group of people has a collective memory of their first toothbrush. For other kinds of products like toys or clothing, advertisers have tapped into nostalgia because they realize that "consumers view the past through rose-tinted glasses and are ready to spend on any product or service that can help them recreate the feelings of warmth and security they felt during happier times" (source). And nowadays, "retro" products are highly desirable to young people, so nostalgia marketing actually sells to both generations in one go. The only real problem with it that I can think of is that it can be a slippery slope if the advertisers don't do the old product justice.

Take, for instance, video games. Video games that have been around for a while have desperately loyal fanbases that would do pretty much anything to get their favorite games back- I should know, I've been there. So if you consider games like Pokémon, Sonic the Hedgehog, Crash Bandicoot, or Banjo Kazooie, every time they revamp their games to bring it into the new generation of video games, their old supporters follow. If we look at Banjo Kazooie, we can see the strategy being used blatantly in their advertisements for the new generation. The old games were great, filled with adventure and good game design, and when the time came to bring back the Banjo, the designers knew to feed off of the old games' success.

The commercial stirs up all kinds of emotions for faithful fans, and caused a lot of buzz and excitement for the new game to come out. However, the new game was literally aimed to "broaden the demographic," and broke the fourth wall in the game in order to tell the audience. The thing is, even though the final product was hardly like the original and strayed from the idea given to the fans in the preview, that trailer did get people excited for the return of Banjo. The nostalgia kicked in and devoted fans bought the game left and right, but most of the were disappointed by the results.