Nostalgia isn’t a Magic Wand

From the moment the game’s music began, I knew that Pokemon Go had me hooked. I remember playing (read: obsessing over) the original Gameboy version and there’s something about Pokemon Go’s in-game music that just feels so familiar and inviting. It was like the game transported me far, far away from the world of #adulting and gently dropped me off on the corner of childhood and innocence.

Reliving positive memories from the past makes us feel good and it’s these kinds of good feelings that can make consumers receptive to brand messaging, products, and offerings. Tapping into nostalgia can make it easier to reach consumers on an emotional level and also helps to humanize brands — forging meaningful connections with consumers.

All the feels that Pokemon Go gave me and the game’s record-breaking success shouldn’t come as a surprise. The game, despite tons of bugs and server outages around its launch, was successful because it brought together a unique interface and addictive game mechanics with a popular, nostalgia-inducing piece of intellectual property. And when you start pulling on the emotional strings of millennials, a generation that commands incredible amounts of both trendsetting power and spending power ($200 billion of direct purchasing power and $500 billion of indirect spending), success isn’t that far off.

Nostalgia as a marketing tactic goes beyond simply remaking or updating a license or popular intellectual property. In some cases, it’s possible to tap into the general feeling or spirit of a time in the lives of your audience in order to establish that deep, emotional connection. The binge-worthy, new original series from Netflix, Stranger Things, leverages familiar, cinematic tropes from classic ’80s family thrillers like E.T. and Gremlins to stir feelings of nostalgia in its 2016 audience. In a masterful way, the series is both a smattering of clever references to ’80s pop-culture, the aesthetic, soundtracks, and general feeling of the films that made an incredible impact on the childhoods of viewers and an intense, original and contemporary story.

It isn’t an exact science but there are several things to keep mind when creating campaigns, products, or offerings that successfully leverage nostalgia:

• You’ve got to build, not bite. Most fans will agree, the original was fine. Remaking or “refreshing” an intellectual property is a fine way to introduce a story to a new generation but any attempt to do so should build on or somehow add to the original’s universe. For example with the re-release of Powerpuff Girls, the promotional site that Carrot built PowerPuffYourself.com didn’t just introduce the brand to a younger generation, it let the new wave become the brand through a simple to use avatar generator. #Client
• Nostalgia isn’t enough. Shows like Stranger Things aren’t simply relying on synth-laden soundtracks and Dungeons & Dragons references to entice audiences. The successful show is built on top of a narrative that, apart from the feelings of nostalgia that the show’s aesthetic evokes, would be exciting and interesting to a 2016 audience. Nostalgia is frosting not the main ingredient. (Maybe this is why, by all accounts, Fuller House failed, and Stranger Things didn’t)
• Keep it relevant. — By adding a layer to our reality through the use of contemporary technology (GPS data + Augmented Reality) Pokemon Go brought the original game’s concept of exploring the world and discovering Pokemon in the wild to life in a new and exciting way. Whether you grew up obsessed with Pokemon or not, playing the game can be fun and enjoyable because the mapping system makes the adventure hyper relevant to you and your surroundings.

Overall, if your trip down nostalgia lane suffers from potholes, your throwback isn’t going to evolve into a money-printing machine. You’ll need to really create a valuable and relevant product — one capable of satisfying the most die-hard fans and attracting new ones — if you’re going to connect emotionally with your audience and separate them (especially those darn millennials) from their disposable income.