The '90s Are Back Thanks to Nostalgia Marketing

OMG guys – the '90s are back! Girls are wearing scrunchies in their hair. Full House and the Gilmore Girls are on TV. And the Spice Girls are going on tour.

For those of us who are Gen Xers and Millennials, all of this feels so reminiscent of our childhoods. But it’s not all about remembering our first boy band crush and pulling out old clothes. All of these throwbacks are actually a clever marketing ploy called nostalgia marketing.

Nostalgia marketing works for a number of reasons. Largely, it makes people feel good. It helps them think back fondly to their childhood. Not only can using nostalgia in marketing help companies connect with their customers, but its effectiveness is also supported by scientific research. A 2014 Journal of Consumer Research study found that nostalgia weakens the desire for money. Several experiments in the study led to conclusions that people were willing to pay more for products and part with their money “due to its capacity to foster social connectedness.”

Small Business Trends offered 10 tips for using this kind of marketing that include tapping into themes and imagery, mixing the old with the new, getting the details right and not overdoing it. Overdoing it can lead to the campaign feeling fake to people, especially since people are relating the current marketing to things they remember well from childhood. If the details aren't right, it won't feel authentic to consumers. 

The key to nostalgia marketing is connecting these classic themes with modern ideas and technology. Forbes advises brands to “keep a finger on the pulse of modern culture, listen to what people are talking about, and plug into those ideas to create new marketing campaigns.” The ads can't be an exact replica of the old ads or they'll feel out of touch. They also can't be the static ads of old either. The marketing campaign needs to bring the nostalgia to new formats, whether it be social media, phone apps or memes. 

In recent years, there have been many brands tapping into nostalgia, the '90s nostalgia in particular. Tech giant Microsoft produced an ad filled with fun '90s products and integrated it with the hashtag #childofthe90s. Using this popular hashtag would help spread Microsoft's ad to a broader audience thanks to modern social media. 

BP used the '90s boy band craze and featured a Backstreet Boys hit in their ad. Seeing "regular people" singing along with this classic hit feels relatable - both from the perspective of belting out the song when we were young and still knowing all the words when it comes on the radio today. 

Pepsi brought nostalgia to emojis with a throwback of one of their early '90s ads featuring Cindy Crawford. With this ad, Pepsi successfully connected a modern idea, emojis, with a classic ad.

In a unique nostalgia offering, iHeartRadio introduced a new feature called Graduation Playlist where you can get a playlist of songs curated based on the year you graduated. Unique collaborations are a great way to modernize a nostalgic idea. 

Now, we’re seeing more than just the '90s generation getting a throwback (the popularity of the Netflix series Stranger Things set in the '80s comes to mind). Certainly, appealing to different generations in marketing would appeal to different sets of consumers. But the '90s appear to be currently trending so businesses should continue to jump on board in more new and unique ways.