You may have felt it already today. That sudden smile from a familiar jingle, a childhood snack, or a throwback ad. Nostalgia hits us in the heart. It’s not just about remembering, it’s about reconnecting with moments that shaped who we are.
We’re diving deeper into why nostalgia matters so much to people, and how brands can tap into those feelings in ways that feel genuine, not gimmicky. Because when you understand the emotion behind the feeling, you unlock a powerful way to connect.
We will hit on 5 top takeaways from our research, as well as feedback from the nostalgia leadership event with buzzback and Brand Genetics, to create a playbook for brands who want to lean into nostalgia successfully.
History, heritage and then the positive sentiment superpower of nostalgia are an overlapping Ven diagram – but crucially not the same. Even the most nostalgic of 100-year-old + brands must continue to actively evolve their legacy to stay relevant (and benefit from said nostalgia). These dimensions are very much present in the research buzzback conducted with over 1,200 people across generations in the US and UK.
As it turns out, nostalgia is quite multi-faceted and key associations vary across generations. It’s rooted in tradition and heritage for Gen X and Boomers, while Gen Z and Millennials associate it with comfort and authenticity. Another key dimension that keeps coming up is the idea of simplicity and returning to basics, shedding off stress and complexity.
Creating memories for a new generation of consumers requires balancing your heritage with thoughtful and intentional innovation that centers your best qualities. Leaning too much into the new (see Tropicana packaging disaster) is a risk but so is not evolving at all!
Consumer centricity empowers bravery. Managed well, your consumers are a brilliant acid test for evolution. Your associations of the brands heritage may not be theirs!
We can overestimate what our consumers associate with our brands. The best teams are guided by what consumers are nostalgic for without bundling everything into the same basket.
"We had much more freedom to update our color pallet than we ever imagined, consumers really didn’t mind!”
The great experiences that we have with brands now create the nostalgic moments of tomorrow.
Decoding what consumers love experientially, especially in social bonding or ‘ritual moments’ and getting your marketeers to consistently invest in maximizing the impact is the bedrock of memory making – and it is today’s memories the create the most powerful nostalgia of tomorrow.
“Nostalgia isn’t just about the past; it’s about evoking a feeling that you want to experience in the present too – being part of bonding moments”
Nostalgia is multi-sensorial and varies across generations and markets. Nonetheless, when we asked consumers to take a dive into senses associated with their nostalgic era, key cues relate to bright colors, homemade smells and playing outdoors.
Taking the time to identify the unique sensorial triggers of your brand experience— colors, tastes, aromas, tactile feelings—will allow you to improve your impact today and create the anchors to continually transport consumers to back to enjoyable moments.
In stressful times, where people feel increasingly isolated, there is a desire to return to the comfort of past experiences that cue a sense of connection. This certainly intensifies the pull to nostalgia, but it is just as much a need in those that never experienced the ‘first time round’ (see fauxstalgia as evidence!)
Whether it be the vinyl return, smart phone free socializing or Polaroid cameras – thinking about activations and partnerships that focusing on positive, comforting experiences, that have a rose tint of authenticity, familiarity is a crying need from stressed out consumers.
GenZ are more likely than older generations to purchase a product from brands that partner with original creators and would rather buy a re-released product rather than a retro-inspired new product (~60-65%).
“My friends went for Polaroids at the wedding – yes for the photo style, but also as we needed to be intentional about each one we took as they were limited.”
Marketing for behavior change is exceptionally hard – but it also has potential to miss out on that nostalgia gold dust.
So, while marketers and advertisers are often eager to leave their mark and search for “the next big thing,” it is easy to overlook what was right in front of you. If your brand is constantly changing where it shows up, consumers never get the chance to develop a sense of nostalgia for it. Work with behavior rather than trying to change it.
A few brands showed up as unaided associations amongst consumers that are strongly associated with nostalgia. These brands are well-knowns with a consistent playbook and a history of leaning into their heritage. We can learn a thing or two from how they behave.
Maintaining an authentic connection to your category tropes is not to be ignored. Moments where your brand and category are authentically shown up and dominating are likely to be the memories that hold!
Consumers are looking for brands to bring back these good vibes and simpler times, seen via their suggestions for going back to original recipes or more basic offerings.
“Beer and sports will always go hand-in-hand, why should we be ashamed to do the same nostalgia plays when ultimately that is what works?”
Alongside the golden rules of ‘them not us’ and ‘we not me,’ brand leaders have found scalable success by looking at a societal level. Leveraging the amalgamated aspirational memories of a moment in time. Whether that be harnessing butterfly clips or 90210 – this means that brands can look out of category and context to harness the same nostalgic magic.
Equally, our collective consciousness can create associations between products and experiences, even if those experiences are not our own. Sometimes, we gravitate towards the aspirational ideas associated with a product, more so than the specifics.
This can be seen as we uncovered younger generations desiring old clothing designs from eras they were not born into, or low-tech games to help ease the stresses of their high-tech daily routines.
We want to feel like we could enjoy beers with a big group of friends, even if we only have two friends. We want to feel like our meal could have been prepared by a grandmother, even if it was ordered takeout.
Work on understanding your audience as a cohort, in and out of category – synthesizing the anecdotes of many can empower your team with an authentic but aspirational toolkit to inspire nostalgia.
Collective memories, especially those tied to emotionally significant events, enhance personal connections by providing a framework for processing emotions. Familiarize yourself with the moments, memories, and products that shaped how your target audience now views nostalgia.
For example, among GenZ it’s about comfort, Millennials associate nostalgia with authenticity, while GenX and Boomers think it’s tradition, heritage, and patriotism.
“Whose grandma’s kitchen? It is not about me re-creating a personal memory, but something familiar and aspirational for the audience at large. We wanted to create an idealized experience where our customers felt like they had lived it before or at least wished they had.”
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