Nostalgia Marketing: Amazon’s Holiday Wish Book

I picked up my mail the other day and trashed all of the junk mail, but there was something else there that I did not automatically discard into the receptacle. It was a small, colorful catalog with a decal indicating that it was Amazon’s Holiday Wish Book and had a message reading “Joy Delivered”. Now mind you, I don’t have any kids and if a brand wanted to truly target me with their marketing materials, I’d go for a Chewy Pet Holiday Gift book so I could spoil my husky pup or a Black Rifle Coffee Company spread with their new blends to get my morning started…but I kept it. I brought it home to flip through and see how Amazon was attempting to connect with their audience.

Inside the pages were pages and pages of toys that any child would be happy to flip through for hours. It took me back to when I was a kid and my sister and I would fold pages, draw black Sharpie circles around items and rip pages out to formulate our own wish list in the hopes that Saint Nick would bring us every item we had carefully assembled onto each of our lists. It took me back to the “good ole days” of being a kid again and it is this connection resonates with consumers - this return to their past that we don’t know we love until it happens. Nine out of ten say they have positive feelings when remembering their past. Nostalgia marketing elicits emotion – it takes us back to a fond memory that ignites positivity and a sense of instant connection with a brand. In a matter of seconds, a brand is able to cut through the clutter and provide that instant of wonder - a form a connection in a fraction of the time of a normal campaign. It could be an item…a phrase…a song. Anything that gets us to 88mph and takes us Back to the Future.

For a brand, nostalgia marketing is not a new thing and there is nothing super strategic about tapping into a memory – it’s been around for decades and it works. This concept might not break the mold, but a GREAT tie into a nostalgic idea that grabs people’s attention will break the internet and social media. Content that makes people happy is more likely to be shared and thus increase engagement with a brand. These blasts from the past connect with the older generation and connects extremely well among millennials and Gen Z. Millennials alone represent 25% of the population and have spending power of over $200 billion.

Whether it’s a social campaign looking to drive engagement or an experiential space designed by a brand to take attendees back to their childhood, nostalgia is a useful tactic in generating awareness, engagement and ultimately a strong brand relationship with consumers. Amazon did it right to connect with me and I’ll be circling items and folding corners of pages…this time for my niece and nephew this Christmas.

Netflix’s Stranger Things connected with audiences and Season 3 garnered a record 26.4 million viewers…in the first FOUR DAYS!

Adults everywhere scrambled back to their Mario childhood during the holiday season of 2016 to get their hands on Nintendo’s Classic Mini before it sold out everywhere