An article full of new content talking about not new things
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Everyone's taste is a little bit different. Some people like salty, others prefer sweet. Some like cars, others prefer trucks. You can have a friend that prefers horror movies, and another that only likes action packed thrillers. That's not even accounting for the wars that people get into over brand preference! Are you Team Pepsi or Team Coke? Are you an Apple enthusiast or an Android lover? What kind of shoes are you wearing? Nike? Adidas? Something else? People have individual tastes that form their identity; It helps a person express who they are.
Take all those individual tastes and work in a little memory power now. We all have that one movie series from our past. You know, the one that you watched on repeat (and maybe still do). The one that you refer to as a classic. The one that you still quote every chance you get. Maybe you remember that old pair of shoes that used to be your favorite. The ones you hiked up a mountain in, or traveled to Europe in, or met your best friend in. Do you have a product that you used to love back in the day before it disappeared into the abyss never to be seen again? How would you like to re-experience that movie series, or those shoes, or that product again?
For many people, "Reboot Culture" will ring as an entertainment industry term. Most will associate it with the reboot of a movie, a TV series, a video game, or something along those lines. In reality, using the power of nostalgia that this "Reboot Culture" allows can be incredibly powerful and doesn't need to be limited to just one industry.
So how does "Reboot Culture" extend beyond the entertainment industry? How can nostalgia be used in marketing? And is "Reboot Culture" a good thing?
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Look at all these fancy terms
The longer a company is around for, the more likely they are to indulge in a product reboot, but what those reboots look like will differ from industry to industry. If you think of a reboot as if you were looking at a movie series, you may imagine that the reboot will follow a similar storyline (or identical storyline) with a fresh cast of actors and a nice HD feel to what's on the screen. Great! But pretty much none of these characteristics can be carried over to any other campaign outside of the entertainment industry.
And yet these other industries have managed to make it work.
The biggest thing to look for is the words that get used. We come to think of "Reboot Culture" as only dealing with... well... reboots. And yet there are so many other ways that marketing can use language to get the idea across.
Remaster.
Retelling.
Spiritual Successor.
Classic.
Retro.
It's all meant to play off those positive memories of the good ol' days. It's a show of how unique a product, service, or design used to be and it's a calculated return to form. When done correctly, these nostalgia campaigns are extremely effective.
But just how effective are these campaigns? Enough that they feed "Reboot Culture" (and in fact keep "Reboot Culture" going) to the point that you really don't have to look very hard to find examples once you know what to look for.
Do you have a favorite sports team? They likely have official team merch available for you to buy. Unless they are a brand new team, I'm willing to bet that they've also released a line of "Retro" gear. This is nostalgia based selling.
Remember when Coke used to come in big glass bottles as supposed to cans or plastic bottles? Every time you see a rollout of these glass bottles, it gets marketed as a "Return to Form" or "Vintage", likely with some market speak along the line of "Old look, same great taste" or something. This is nostalgia based selling.
Clothing trends are always rotating through different looks. When was the last time you saw a clothing trend that marketed itself as an "80s Look" or brought something "Back into style". This is nostalgia based selling.
It's a strategy that is used across the board and integrated in some way across every industry.
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Thanks for the memories
Nostalgia is powerful. Go sit around a campfire with friends or family and you'll inevitably reach the point in the conversation where people reminisce on the past. It's positive memories that drive these feelings and, whether they want to admit it or not, brands and products typically play a role in creating that memory. It's that building of identity that holds power, and tapping into that is how "Reboot Culture" works. It's why we can get the 800th mini-series of Star Wars and people will still jump on it instantly. It's why people attend vintage car shows to watch as restored 50+ year old vehicles go toddling down the road. It's why people start collections, be it action figures or cards or bottles. So how can marketing work this angle?
As I made mention to before, the longer a company or business (or product, or service, or design, or...) is around, the more likely it is to benefit from "Reboot Culture". The whole point of marketing is to drive engagement, impressions, and sales. Baking the essence of nostalgia into a brand is critical. This is why often you'll see the same trends in marketing when a nostalgia based campaign is started.
You'll see the same taglines pop up. "... since 1940, or 50, or whatever". "30 years serving you, or 50, or 100, or whatever". The aforementioned "Old look, same taste" pops up here too.
The logo will be replaced with what it was however many years ago.
The color scheme and design of the product will be rolled back to what it looked like however many years ago.
The product will be promoted by someone who was extremely relevant however many years ago.
All of this in pursuit of picking away at those memories. Marketing arms of companies want to be associated with these memories as it represents an opportunity for another sale. Want to relive the old days? We got you covered. As an added bonus, it can play off people's attachments to brands and identity. "You're not a true fan of this brand unless you buy the throwback version of our product" types of marketing and targeting are typically enough to drive sales. Work in a little bit of FOMO with "limited time only, get it before it goes away again" action and you've effectively used marketing to move a product from the past.
All in good fun
"Reboot Culture" thrives on positivity as a result of the nostalgia it capitalizes on. As a company or a brand, you want to associate yourself with good things in the eyes of your target market. Any way you can weave yourself into the lives of your consumer base as a driver of happiness is often the path forward. So it's no surprise that there is a fun factor in any nostalgia driven marketing and sales campaign. These campaigns typically call back to your youth and the energy that came with it, and it best achieves this through strength in numbers.
For many people the best memories come from being with another person or group of people. Naturally, bringing people together will help to drive the end goal of a nostalgia campaign forward. The sense of community blends with the sense of identity, and the end result is that you can create a truly special experience for those that buy in. It means that experiencing the memories and the nostalgia becomes an experience in and of itself. Again, think of any time you've gone to a sporting event on a night where your team dons "The Retro Jersey" and how much more special that feels. It's more powerful and, in some way, feels more fun.
At the end of the day, the goal of any marketing campaign run by a business is to make money. I've mentioned this before and will mention this again in the future. But if the end user or the person buying into "Reboot Culture" has their experience improved and made more positive as a result of the emotion and sense of community you've created in that effort, is that the worst thing in the world? In the day and age of Doomscrolling, I would argue a little happiness and fun, however small, is worth the investment. Used correctly, "Reboot Culture" can be used to your advantage as an extremely powerful tool.
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Should the past be left in the past?
While it is important to recognize that "Reboot Culture" exists, it cannot be treated as a silver bullet end-all-be-all for making a successful campaign. Companies move forward for a reason, and if they want to move backwards (even temporarily), it needs to also be for a reason. Like anything else, feeding on nostalgia involves knowing your customer base and reading the room. If your company was not highly regarded at a certain point in its history and has since managed to put the past behind it through hard work and an expertly managed strategy, taking a trip to that past and reminding people of those troubled times isn't a good play to make. Even if you had a fantastic early reputation, a complete one-to-one trip down memory lane may not be advisable due to how society in general has changed.
And that's not even considering the most important part...
Is the "Reboot" any good?
The biggest hurdle with any nostalgia driven campaign is that while it has the benefit of being instantly attractive to fans of the original, it will inevitably be held against the original. Not only that, but the true original will already be held to such a high standard that anything less than a home run will come off as a failure. In attempting to recreate the magic that was once your brand, you may end up doing more harm than good (Just look at what was done to the Friday The 13th movie series, and no, it wasn't good). You still need to sell a product at the end of the day, and not only the product but the entire brand's core could be up on a podium. Sometimes it's best to let the past be the past.
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Remember where you came from
"Reboot Culture" isn't going away anytime soon. We're in the age of information, and everything exists in archives somewhere. We will always be pulling out the digital history book and looking at trends come and gone, and there will always be opportunities to revisit those trends. It's up to businesses and industries to decide when to revisit those and what that revisit looks like. When done properly, the power of nostalgia will kick in and drive the business forward. For companies that may one day look to capitalize on this effect, look to build those relationships and memories early in your life cycle. Do what you can to make an impression on your consumer base that people can relate to as part of their identity. Become part of the positive experiences people have. Do this successfully and perhaps one day you and many others can celebrate where you are and where you came from.
~IR
What are you nostalgic about? Have you noticed yourself buying into a nostalgia driven campaign or participating in "Reboot Culture"? Or maybe you just have a comment to add? Check out the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn page and let everyone know. Don't forget to follow or like the page for updates! And share this article if you feel others should give it a read!
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