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In their marketing strategies, brands are finding that nostalgia is an ever more effective way to connect with consumers. Why? Because it appeals to hearts rather than minds.
But it’s not just about bringing back memories: nostalgia elicits positive emotions and lowers the audience’s ‘immune defence’ against and suspicion towards advertising, thereby increasing their trust in brands.
One of the most powerful tools for creating nostalgia is music: songs have a unique ability to trigger memories and feelings associated with personal and collective past experiences, making them emotional bridges between brands and consumers. Which is why more and more ad campaigns use old tunes: melodies, rhythms and vibes from the past that generate an instant and visceral emotional connection with people.
In this article, I’ll be exploring the ever closer relationship between marketing, nostalgia and music in advertising and brand storytelling.
I’ll begin with a brief overview of research in the field, before looking at adverts that have used well-known tunes to tap into the audience’s nostalgia.
As ever, happy reading!
Nostalgia in marketing: what does the science say?
Countless studies have shown the powerful synergy between marketing and nostalgia. Below I’ve picked out four of particular interest: the first three are from academics at prestigious universities and business schools, while the fourth is from Nielsen, the company that leads the world in media audience measurement.
- ‘The past makes the present meaningful: nostalgia as an existential resource’, a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, showed that nostalgia strengthens people’s sense of self-continuity and improves mood, which in turn leads to greater receptiveness to advertising messages.
- According to the paper ‘Nostalgia for early experience as a determinant of consumer preferences‘ published in the Journal of Consumer Research, nostalgia can increase likelihood to buy and emotional engagement with a product.
- Using a hypothetical customer journey, the study ‘Nostalgia Weakens the Desire for Money’ published in the Journal of Consumer Research suggested that consumers exposed to nostalgic stimuli show a greater willingness to spend, because it reduces perceptions of money’s value.
- Nielsen found in 2021 that adverts with nostalgic elements achieved, on average 9%, greater brand recall than those without.
So there we have it: serious science and real data that proves the power of nostalgia in marketing. And music is one of the most effective ways of generating this emotion in audiences.
When sound is used to build and reinforce brand identity, we call it audio (or sound) branding.
I’ve already talked about it on this blog, so if you want to learn more, check out my article Sound branding: how to go beyond visuals and design your brand’s sonic identity. There is, however, a key concept worth recapping here, which is this: because hearing is such a crucial sense, sound has the power to create visual images and automatic projections. For instance, when we hear a moo, we’ll think of a cow before we even see the animal. The same goes for songs, sounds and music. And according to a survey conducted by Spotify, music is the leading trigger for nostalgia.
But when it comes to actual practices and case studies that involve nostalgia-evoking music, what’s out there? Let’s take a look…
Adverts, music and nostalgia: some textbook examples
As promised, we’re now going to look at five brands that have used melodies from the past (or that recall the good old days) to play on audience nostalgia.
In choosing examples, I deliberately avoided the inane and the ubiquitous – in other words, classical music or over-used tracks like What a Wonderful World.
Got your own examples? Share them in the comments!
1. TIM – Wherever you are, we’ll be there
Our first case study comes from Italian telecoms giant TIM.
The tune is from Alan Sorrenti’s Figli delle stelle: an Italian pop song that was a global hit in the late seventies. In the ad, we hear the song’s musical style shift from one era to another as the technology featured on screen evolves, too. It’s a neat way of showing how communication has been transformed over the last 50 years, and how the company has stayed by people’s side as society has changed. The ad’s slogan is Wherever you are, we’ll be there.
2. Tesco – Become More Christmas
To soundtrack their 2023 Christmas ad, Tesco used a song released in 1995: How Bizarre by OMC. It’s a subtle nod to a generation now entering middle age, but who 28 years earlier were teens listening to the tune on repeat on their Walkmans. Now, as parents, they’re the key decision-makers in the household – especially when it comes to stocking up for Christmas…
3. Waitrose – Cheeky Christmas campaign
That same Christmas, Tesco rival Waitrose used Depeche Mode’s eighties hit I Just Can’t Get Enough for their ad. Although the song’s arguably been overused, I still picked the ad because it manages to breathe new life and meaning into the track.
4. Lidl – Ooh Aah… Just a Lidl Bit
To promote their Coupon Plus campaign, Lidl turned to a Martine McCutcheon lip-synching hit Ooh Aah… Just a Little Bit by Gina G. The result? A memorable wordplay and a big dose of nineties nostalgia!
5. Pearl & Dean – Pearl & Queen
To celebrate the release of Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, cinema advertising agency Pearl & Dean took things a step further by playing with its own audio logo, “Asteroid”. It asked two of Queen’s founding members, Brian May and Roger Taylor, to reboot the jingle, Queen style.Below you’ll find the original version, followed by the remake!
Nostalgia and Gen Z: a paradox?
I’ll be honest: before writing this post and sharing my thoughts above, I’d rarely thought about the relationship between nostalgia, brands and marketing.
This is likely because most marketing and customer engagement activity today looks forwards rather than back: that’s because brands are increasingly interested in younger generations (Gen Alpha and Gen Z), who are famously focused on the future and innovation.
In reality, this seeming paradox is resolved by data that tells us how nostalgia has a hold on younger people, too. According to a survey conducted by Spotify a few years ago, 70% of Gen Z users regularly listen to music made in previous decades, especially the eighties and nineties.
It’s phenomenon known as newstalgia, where retro elements are fused with contemporary aesthetics and language to generate new forms of identity and expression.
In fact, GWI highlights how more than a third of Generation Z feel nostalgic for the nineties, despite most being born after 2000.
All of which means advertisements that use music from the past can connect with young consumers, too: not so much because these tracks are part of their lived experience, but more because they embody a style, an atmosphere, an appealing idea of authenticity.
The real question isn’t whether you should use nostalgic music: the answer is clearly that you should. Rather, from looking at the case studies above and the many others out there, the real questions revolve around the relationship between brands and their musical choices.
They include the following key questions raised in an insightful article from The Conversation:
- What is the rationale behind these matches?
- How do the musical choices made help brands, the companies behind them and their main di business and marketing KPIs?
- What effects do these choices have on the journeys of current and potential customers?
I’ll leave you to ponder these for your next advertising project😉 Until next time!