As individuals grow older, they experience the new age, as they watch the new generation and the content being produced today, it is only fitting that they wish to go back to the media, content, products and experiences they grew up with. Nostalgia Marketing campaigns bank on this emotional pull, offering a way to reconnect with their past, which is especially enticing in times of uncertainty and unrest.This also takes root in the knowledge that the media that people consume from a young age shapes them as individuals, and becomes intertwined with their identity. For older generations, these memories are much more developed and abundant, making them more susceptible to campaigns that rekindle those feelings. When it comes to income, older generations tend to have more disposable income than younger generations. This makes them an advantageous target for Media Giants such as Netflix and Disney+, who bank on the willingness of this target audience to pay for the chance to relive or introduce their families to their favourite childhood/teenage media. Shows and characters they loved in their younger years, this induces a sense of continuity. This drives “intergenerational engagement” with nostalgic content, leading it to be appealing to a wider audience. This marketing strategy is also benefited by the rapid pace of technology. Media giants like Netflix and Disney+ are well aware of how to bank on this emotional pull. They’ve created vast content libraries to tap into the nostalgia market. In this immense race and focus on the creation of original content, streaming platforms have instead opted to expand their media libraries. These platforms market themselves on “Themed Libraries”. Disney+ has a curation of old Disney classics, Pixar films and other classics, while Netflix has a section dedicated to the accumulation of movies and T.V. shows from the past decades. In essence, nostalgia marketing taps into emotional, financial and cultural factors that make older generations far more receptive to campaigns that promise a return to beloved and fond memories from their youth.
26 Oct 2024
Radhika Sharma
