Nostalgia for the good old days of the 1990s, 1980s, and 1970s exploded onto the content scene in the last decade. With more millennial-aged authors serving as digital content creators, a sea of articles and photos surged across social media recalling childhood fixtures like super-soakers, pogs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and pet rocks. Suddenly, it was like a great untapped reservoir of nostalgic marketing had been discovered, and more content producers jumped aboard.
Nostalgia-driven content gained enough influence to make the business case for movies and TV shows such as Girl Meets World and Goosebumps to get off the ground, and drove tons of likes, comments, and shares across the board. But all good things must come to an end at some point, right? Haven’t we seen enough articles about things we loved 20 years ago and how great they were?
Has the day of reckoning arrived for nostalgic marketing content?
According to the data, the answer is a resounding, “No!” We examined over 300,000 individual pieces of content from major companies in the financial, entertainment, insurance, and media industries across 2015 and 2016 to find out how nostalgic content is performing.
The results are in! While the total volume of nostalgic marketing content is declining, engagement levels with nostalgic content are on the rise, especially in the last six months. Here’s the impact of nostalgic content by industry:
Entertainment
Within the entertainment sector, 1.7 percent of all social and blog content posted between June 2015 through December 2015 was nostalgic. Of that content, 13.7 percent performed at least 1.5 times greater than the average engagement level for the posting company. Comparatively, in the first six months of 2016, only 1.5 percent of content was nostalgic, but 14.4 percent performed at or above the same 1.5 times average engagement rate threshold.
Insurance
The insurance sector saw an even more dramatic shift. In the second half of 2015, 148 posts were nostalgic, with only 9 percent earning a 1.5 times or greater engagement rate. In the first six months of 2016, however, there were half as many nostalgic posts than the latter half of 2015, but a whopping 20 percent of those generated a successful amount of engagement, more than double the amount in 2015.
Media
The media sector stayed relatively consistent in the publication of nostalgic content year over year, accounting for 0.7 percent of posts from June through December 2015 versus 0.5 percent from January 2016 through June 2016. However, 2 percent more content surpassed the 1.5X engagement threshold to date in 2016.
So what’s the takeaway? Nostalgia marketing works across many diverse industries. When used strategically, posts about the golden days are still a powerful force that make a difference in how content is viewed and, more importantly, engaged with. Here are some examples of top performing nostalgic marketing content you can use for your brand:
Product posts
Post products or objects related to your brand that were common 20 to 30 years ago, but that are now a rare find. For example, Staples created a great #TBT post for Facebook, featuring a typewriter from 1986.
“Where are they now?” posts
Create posts about the people who made (pop culture) history. People are already used to seeing this type of resurfaced content on their Facebook profiles. Ticketmaster, for example, used this technique to update its audience on past Grammy Album on the Year winners.
Retrospective posts
What advice would you give your high school self? is a popular query. This type of reflective content not only generates a high number of shares, but the advice people leave in the comments can be great source for future posts about mistakes to avoid, common misconceptions, etc. Check out this great example from TIAA-CREF:
Vintage posts
Feature art inspired by vintage media, as in this Facebook post by Anteriors.
Trend posts
Looking at what people wore a couple of decades ago is bound to be relatable to many, and interesting to all. If it works well for your brand, try comparing older fashion trends, or hold a contest for your audience to win retro wear and gear!
The bottom line: Nostalgia works.
Nostalgia is a powerful emotional trigger for brand marketing. But like all content, too much repetition gets boring. You can keep posting about those super-soaker pool fights from 1994, or how scary the clown in Stephen King’s “IT” was — just don’t do it as much as you wish you could. Keep your #TBT’s diverse with different post types and topics. Experiment with content on different channels as well to find out which networks are most receptive to nostalgia.
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