Throwback: I love it!

Who does not love to revive past experiences? 

Well, I do!

I can spend hours looking at old photos and videos, or simply playing with my parents and grandparents old devices, machines, and products.

Nostalgic marketing is all about reviving a brand, brand image, or product that was very equitable in the past, and present them in a contemporary way.

When using a nostalgic marketing strategy a brand is able to reconnect with the past, leading their consumers to generate memories about the past experiences with the brand or product being promoted, and if these memories are positive, an emotional connection between the consumer and the brand will be created, thus the repercussion of the campaign is set up to be very successful.

Another advantage of using nostalgic marketing through a brand's perspective is that it is relatively cheaper to produce a nostalgic campaign by using an existing brand image, than to create a brand new one.

However, nostalgic marketing may turn to be a con to a brand in the way it may generate negative memories of the past in some consumers, or it may alienate groups that do not have the knowledge of what is being revived by a brand, therefore they cannot feel nostalgic about it.

Moreover, if too many changes are made in a product or brand image in order to make it more contemporary, the public may not feel nostalgic either and may nor relate to it as well as they were intended to. Thus, nostalgic marketing would not be successful.

As I said before I love nostalgic campaigns. So, I went on the internet and searched for some successful and creative examples of nostalgic marketing. My favorite is this one by Volkswagen Netherlands, I found at imediaconnection.com. They made a campaign called Fanwagen, a car built by Facebook fans and equipped with social media's features such as relationship status in license plate, and many others. The Fanwagen was built over one of Volkswagen iconic cars and at the end one of their Facebook fans won the car.

What do you guys think about nostalgic marketing? Have you had any experiences with it?

- Isa