Not Letting Bygones Be Bygones
Maybe it was seeing the question ‘What was your favourite sweet as a child?” posted on errrrrrr.com, or having recently inched closer to the 40 year old mark and finding mind and body less supple than it used to be; or perhaps it's seeing the local kids shaking up the neighbourhood recently, with summer water fights and bike races – but I’m feeling a little nostalgic.
That could be why I noticed the ‘Celebrating 130 Years’ on the store front of the local Cargo homewares store, as I breezed past with my shopping bag emblazoned with the history of the Marks & Spencer logo.
“Forget swine flu, the new epidemic sweeping the country’s creative agencies is nostalgia fever!” says Retail Marketing Maxim. This trend seemed to kick off last year with the wonderful Hovis ad, before Virgin Spiced things up with their 25 years Still Red Hot Campaign, sweeping us back to the 80’s.
On the retail front it was two giants, Marks & Spencer and Sainsburys that really grabbed us by the bygones; their nostalgia-based campaigns coming out within days of each other. Amidst a little humming and hawing over who exactly introduced the avocado to the UK, (M&S conceded it was Sainsburys), the campaigns have been trotting around stirring up fond memories of days that, in our tired minds, seemed easier.
In David Sprotts article “The power of reflection: an empirical examination of nostalgia advertising effects” he notes there can be no coincidence that this trend has appeared at a time when we struggle with the current climate. Nostalgia campaigns bring us comfort and reignite the "we will fight them on the beaches" spirit. All done, of course, in the hope that we will spend our somewhat more limited resources with 'an old friend'.
In a world where we find ourselves overloaded with viral marketing, click on this or scratch that to win an iDongleWhatsit and customer call centres that offer every option but ‘press 1 to talk to a real live human being’…then the soft cushion of nostalgia gives us somewhere to sit down and take a breath, while appealing to a base human need to ‘go home’.
I certainly think that’s a large part of it Becki. The good old days, and companies cleverly reminding us that they are ‘reliable old friends’. Interesting that the Drapers article refers to our “fragile consumer pysche” http://tinyurl.com/qmjsty
It seems to be Fashion Retail, and department stores with a clear focus on fashion, that are capitalising mostly on this style of campaign. Though obviously Sainsburys, Hovis and Virgin, as mentioned here, have also stepped up the nostalgia. Cadbury too – their bringing back of the much missed Wispa bar was very timely.
I thought it was interesting to see Cath Kidston announce growth in both their profit and turnover on Monday. Drapers listed one of the reasons for their success “a trend for nostalgia on the high street”. Perhaps in these often uncertain times we yearn for ‘the good old days’?