Throwback Thursday has become a social medial mainstay. But despite an origin dated as early as 2003, it wasn’t until 2012 that the trend truly exploded, shortly after the introduction of hashtags on Instagram. By July 2012, #TBT was already the 15th most popular hashtag on Instagram with 9.1M photos.
The #TBT trend has become so ubiquitous to our cultural lexicon that Time published a profile of the most-liked #TBT’s from 2014.
The list was a veritable who’s-who of celebrity personalities, including Kim Kardashian, Ellen DeGeneres, Beyonce, and even Joe Biden. (SPOILER ALERT: Justin Bieber‘s #TBT took the top spot with this Instagram of fatherly love.)
But the #TBT trend isn’t for celebrities alone. Many brands have managed to bring Throwback Thursdays into their social media strategy successfully. We used our competitive intelligence platform to identify some of the most impactful and most creative #TBT’s from the brands in our database. A few might inspire you!
Birchbox Pairs Beauty #TBTs With Contemporary Counterparts
The beauty product subscription service Birchbox has found the perfectly on-brand #TBT use case. The brand launched a weekly #TBT Beauty Edition series to “revisit beauty fads of years past and match them with their contemporary counterparts.”
Do you guys remember the Hairagami?! Talk about a #TBT: http://t.co/xX8cztAhFL pic.twitter.com/YTqQdir4Ub — birchbox (@birchbox) June 26, 2014
RT if you’ve ever used cold cream!!! ‘Favorite’ if it’s still in your collection! http://t.co/gFR2Ts3tK1 #TBT pic.twitter.com/cnXzcRL7MJ — birchbox (@birchbox) October 23, 2014
The series both makes their audience laugh at past fashion trends (and themselves) — and plugs a “21st Century update” of the old product. That’s a content marketing one-two punch!
Intel & Starbucks Score With #TBT Origin Stories
The whole point of a #TBT is to appeal to our penchant for nostalgia. With the tweet below, Starbucks played its #TBT nostalgia cards just right. With 3.8K retweets, this #TBT tweet saw 5 times as many interactions as the brand’s average. Everyone loves an origin story!
That one time 43 years ago when Starbucks first opened in Pike Place Market. #Seattle #tbt pic.twitter.com/DKuJmVECU0
— Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks) October 9, 2014
Intel also scored with their throwback tweet honoring the 50 year anniversary of Moore’s Law, the groundbreaking observation known as the “golden rule of the electronics industry” from Intel co-founder Gordon Moore.
50 years of #MooresLaw has transformed our lives: processors then and now. http://t.co/xBRUkEqzPx #TBT pic.twitter.com/EuAbmRtKte
— Intel (@intel) April 16, 2015
To promote this historic milestone, the Intel marketing team shared their commemorative blog post on Twitter with the #TBT hashtag. The tweet earned 3 times more interactions than the brand’s average tweet, driving more awareness for the company culture post.
J.Crew Uses A #TBT To Build Buzz For An Exclusive Collaboration
Always a digital marketing leader (more on that here), J.Crew is a frequent Throwback Thursday user, particularly on their Instagram account.
We used our platform’s keyword search feature to find J.Crew’s most successful Instagram #TBTs. The product announcement below was a top #TBT performer for the brand.
With just the right touch of aspirational nostalgia for a fashion-forward childhood you most likely didn’t grow up with, J.Crew drove up the buzz for their exclusive collaboration with Lacoste.
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