Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media. On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show, we explore changes to business tools for Facebook Messenger with Kelly Noble Mirabella and YouTube’s Q4 2019 earnings reports […]
Nostalgia marketing is the advertising equivalent of comfort food.
In a time when most marketing focuses heavily on the future, it transports us back to a simpler place where our current problems don’t matter and the hustle and bustle of modernity just melts away. Instead of anticipating the next great thing, nostalgia marketing urges us to focus on the things we already know are great.
It would appear that advertisers have caught on. Over the past five years, nostalgic ads have been popping up left and right — with millennials as their main target.
Although these ads are getting more common, marketers have known that millennials would be a nostalgia-fueled generation for some time now.
Even in 2015, when many millennials were still young adults, nostalgia was a hot topic in publications like Digiday.
“Millennials are coming of age in an age of economic turmoil — a difficult job market,” Cassandra McIntosh, a senior insights analyst at Exponential, told Digiday. “Therefore, they end up romanticizing simpler times much more — even those times they weren’t around for.”
To give you inspiration for your own nostalgic campaigns, we selected 15 examples of advertisements that use nostalgia marketing. Watch them and see if you get the telltale bittersweet pangs associated with nostalgic feelings.
In 2019, Motorola gained buzz when it re-introduced a new and improved Razr which featured a folding touchscreen when opened.
In the commercial announcement, you see an old-school Razr lifting off of a table and flying through the air as its old layers peel off to reveal a new design. The phone then opens to reveal the Android-like touch screen.
2. Nintendo
Many children of the ’80s and ’90s remember playing Nintendo-based video games with their siblings. But, for the children growing up with siblings, many also remember the sad feelings related to growing apart or drifting away from a relative. This commercial highlights both of those memories by telling the story of two Nintendo-loving brothers who grow apart, argue as teenagers, and then happily reunite as adults to play the new Nintendo Switch together.
This commercial not only reminds people of what it was like to grow up with siblings, but it also reminds you of the great fun you had playing video games as a child. Then, because the brothers connect and chat virtually as the play Switch games at the end, it shows how Nintendo’s technology has evolved to connect old friends and relatives all around the world.
3. Australia Tourism Board
Instead of promoting a traditional ad that simply showed off Australia’s most beautiful destinations, Australia decided to disguise a tourism ad as a star-studded trailer for a fictional reboot to the ’80s film, Crocodile Dundee.
As those who watched the original Dundee series get excited by clips from the film, starring Chris Hemsworth and Jason Sudeikis, its revealed that Hemsworth tricked Sudeikis into a tourism ad. Despite the trickery, Hemsworth and Sudeikis still both agree that their trip to Australia was still the best vacation they’d ever taken.
This was a clever way to embrace the television and movie reboot trend of 2018 and 2019, while still highlighting the best Australia has to offer for tourism. Because it features actors who are popular in the present day, it’s also hilarious for both people who followed the Dundee films or either of the main characters in the fake reboot.
4. Spotify
In 2016, music-streaming service Spotify unveiled a new spokesperson — er, spokes-dragon — in a 30-second ad produced by Wieden + Kennedy New York.
Falkor and his boy companion Atreyu (now a heavily bearded 44-year-old man) are both characters from the beloved 1984 fantasy film The NeverEnding Story. W+K even got the original actors to reprise their roles (Noah Hathaway as Atreyu and Alan Oppenheimer as the voice of Falkor).
The pair appear just as the film left them over 20 years ago: gliding through the clouds while the movie’s dramatic theme song plays in the background. “I can’t believe people still listen to this song!” Atreyu exclaims. His dragon agrees, they share a laugh, and the two speed off into a grainy, ’80s quality CG sky.
5. Freia
The tagline of Freia, a Norweigan chocolate company, is “Et lite stykke Norge” (A little piece of Norway). This spot for the company produced by SMFB Oslo fully encapsulates the sentiment in a simple, joyful way.
The plot follows a Norweigan expat in New York navigating a hectic life as a fashion stylist. When he returns home to his apartment one evening, he finds a half-eaten bar of Freia chocolate in his otherwise empty fridge. After just one bite, he’s inspired to hop on a plane back to Norway to visit his father and soak up the majestic landscape of his homeland. The ad ends with the stylist discovering a modest hair salon for sale in what is presumably his hometown.
The message is clear: A taste of Freia chocolate is inherently connected to Norway, no matter where in the world you may be.
6. Adobe
Bob Ross — the beloved ’80s painting guru who passed away in 1995 — experienced an unexpected resurgence in popularity in 2016. After Netflix added his classic TV show, The Joy of Painting, to its streaming lineup, Ross became a trending topic on Instagram. Adobe took notice, and decided to pay homage to the late painter in a series of tutorial videos promoting their new Adobe Photoshop Sketch for the iPad Pro.
Authenticity was central to this nostalgic campaign. Adobe and agency Lekker Mediacollaborated with Bob Ross Inc. to make sure every detail was accurate, right down to the brand of clothing Ross wore on his show. Children’s book illustrator Chad Cameron, who plays Ross in the series, channels the artist’s relaxed, unpretentious demeanor perfectly.
“Bob’s wish was to inspire as many people as possible to be creative and to share it with others,” Joan Kowalski, media director at Bob Ross Inc., told Adweek. “Adobe’s ‘Joy of Sketching’ series reminds us that a company as big as Adobe shares in that hope.”
7. Oikos
Although it originally aired from 1987-1995, Full House has become a nostalgic childhood symbol to multiple generations thanks to syndication. But before Netflix revived the show with a 2016 reboot, Dannon reunited a few of the show’s stars in an ad for Oikos, the company’s line of Greek yogurts.
John Stamos is joined by his former cast members Bob Saget and Dave Coulier in this Y&R Vinizius-produced spot. The trio doesn’t explicitly reprise their Full House roles, but the dynamic is undeniably reminiscent of their days on the sitcom.
8. Nike
In 1973,Billie Jean King won a tennis matchagainst male player Bobby Riggs, which was coined “The Battle of the Sexes.” The historic tennis game was the first time a female tennis player was matched against a male.
King’s tennis match winproved Riggs wrong. It also proved that men and women could compete equally on the tennis field and in other sports. On a bigger scale, it further empowered women, who were often stereotyped as wives, homemakers, or secretaries at the time. With King’s win, it became harder to ignore that gender stereotypes were false and that women could win and even lead amongst men.
During the match, King worean iconic pair of blue Adidas tennis shoes. Years later, to celebrate the 45th anniversary of King’s win, Adidas launched a limited edition line of BJK shoes with the female tennis legend’s face and initials on each pair.
To announce the shoe line, Adidas launched a series of simple commercials showing Billie Jean King spray-painting piles of shoes blue. Here’s an example of one of the ads:
To further promote the line, Adidas alsohad booths at the U.S. Open tennis matchwhere fans could bring any brand of shoes and have an artist paint them blue with Adidas’ special BJK logo.
According to Adidas, the overall campaign led to a20% boost in tennis shoe sales. And, now that the campaign is over, people are auctioning off these limited edition shoes on eBay forupwards of $1,000.
9. Tesco
Nothing screams nostalgia like old home movies. In this extended holiday ad from British grocery chain Tesco, we watch a family grow and age over the years through the lens of their Christmas home videos. Set to a poignant theme, the ad is intended to stir up fond holiday memories for viewers.
“We wanted to show what a real Christmas is all about — not a perfect, airbrushed one — but the ones we recognize from our own lives,” David Wood, Tesco’s U.K. marketing director, told Adweek. The ad was produced by Wieden + Kennedy, London.
“You might not remember us,” the ad’s narrator begins, “but we met in the ’90s.” The commercial goes on to highlight all things ’90s — fanny packs, Tamagotchi, bowl haircuts — even the Oregon Trail PC game makes an appearance.
Column Five Media, the creative agency behind the ad, set out to create a nostalgia-driven viral ad that would reintroduce Internet Explorer to ’90s kids. “The idea of a brand like Internet Explorer being forward-thinking enough to make such a story-focused, Gen Y-centered commercial was pretty newsworthy,” the agency wrote in a behind-the-scenes blog post. “Focusing that story on ’90s nostalgia, which we knew was popular with Gen Y and not yet fully realized in video form, is what made [the ad] shareworthy.”
11. Chili’s
Chili’s ads are usually characterized by close-up shots of glistening hamburgers, sizzling bacon, and french fries still glowing with fryer oil. So this 2016 ad produced by Boston-based agency Hill Holliday was a departure from the casual dining chain’s typical go-to formula.
The commercial depicts the Chili’s origin story through a series of retro vignettes. We see the laid-back founders playing ring toss, lounging on the hood of their car, and — of course — flipping classic Chili’s burgers in their first restaurant. The ad taps into traditional Americana — a form of nostalgia for small town American life, middle class values, and neighborhood restaurants where everyone knows your name.
12. Apple
Apple regularly features celebrities in their advertising, but they made a notably nostalgic casting decision for this iPhone 6s spot. Everyone’s favorite sweet-toothed Muppet, Cookie Monster, might have switched to a more balanced diet, but he appears whipping up a batch of his favorite chocolate chip cookies in this ad.
The nostalgic force is strong in this Target video promoting Star Wars: The Force Awakens merchandise. As part of a larger campaign to encourage fans to share their Star Wars memories online, Deutsch LA produced this two-minute compilation of Star Wars fans’ home movies.
In the video, young fans dressed as little Princess Leias, Luke Skywalkers, and Han Solos brandish lightsabers and give their best Chewbacca impressions, all while the classic Star Wars theme plays in the background. The result is an endearing campaign that’s sure to resonate with longtime fans and new converts alike.
14. Bacardi
For their 150th anniversary back in 2012, Bacardi released a series of print and television ads showcasing the brand’s party-starting heritage. The trip down memory lane was intended to give the company a shot of authenticity, reminding consumers that Bacardi has stood the test of time.
The goal according to Leo Premutico, co-founder of WPP agency Johannes Leonardo, the agency behind the ad, was “to depict a moment in time that lives in history” and offer “an eye to what’s next, an exciting future.”
15. McDonald’s
When McDonald’s removed antibiotics and artificial preservatives from their chicken this year, they wanted an ad campaign that not only informed consumers about these changes, but also tapped into nostalgia surrounding their famous nuggets.
“There’s an undeniable level of nostalgia tied to the McDonald’s brand and its food,” Britt Nolan, Leo Burnett USA‘s chief creative officer, told Adweek. “We set out to capture that relationship in a sincere, simple way that today’s parents can relate to and feel good about sharing with their own kids.”
How to Nail Nostalgia
The key to nailing nostalgia is to understand what motivates your audiences, how they were raised, and where their deepest interests lie. To do this, do a little research or develop buyer persona’s that grew up in certain generations to learn what makes them think.
To learn more about building and analyzing your buyer persona, check out this helpful guide. For more great advertising inspiration, here’s a roster of 2019 Clio Gold-winning ads.
Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in September 2016, but was updated for comprehensiveness and freshness in February 2020.
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media. On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show, we explore changes to business tools for Facebook Messenger with Kelly Noble Mirabella and YouTube’s Q4 2019 earnings reports […]
Is a billboard an affordable marketing tool for a design firm or copywriter? Don’t laugh it off. I spoke with Bart Bradshaw, host of the Built to Stay podcast, who educated me all about the latest in outdoor advertising. It’s not as expensive as you think and depending on your niche, it could definitely make you stand out. Listen to our companion interview on choosing a niche.
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media. On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show, we explore changes to business tools for Facebook Messenger with Kelly Noble Mirabella and YouTube’s Q4 2019 earnings reports […]
Four U.S. senators sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey urging Twitter to ban leaders of the current regime in Iran from using its services. Twitter declined to comment. The letter was signed by Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and it was also sent to…
If you want to get traffic from Google, how would you go
about it?
Chances are you are either going to leverage SEO or pay for
some ads.
But what if there was another way to get traffic from Google? A way that didn’t take as long as SEO and didn’t cost money like paid ads. And no, I’m not talking about Google News… there is actually an easier way.
It’s so effective that it drove 18,800 visitors to my site in the last 3 months. Just look at the screenshot above.
So, what is it?
Google Discover
Similar to how you have feeds on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, did you know Google has a feed for you.
It’s called Google Discover.
If you mainly use Google on your laptop or desktop computer, chances are you haven’t seen it. But if you have the Google mobile app or the Chrome mobile app, you probably have already seen it.
Here’s what it looks like on an iPhone:
This is Google’s version of a social feed.
Here’s how it works… Google Discover results, which appear below the search box on the Google mobile app and Chrome mobile app, show a summary of web pages as cards. These cards are a scrollable list of topics, almost like a social feed, that you can browse on your mobile devices.
Tapping one of these cards from Google search home will send
you directly to the page you just clicked on.
And if you are wondering why you are seeing certain stories
that others may not be, it’s because the recommendations are based on search
history, interactions with Google products, and who you choose to follow
directly via Google Discover.
But here is where it’s getting interesting…
Google Discover is everywhere, you just don’t know it
Discover results for some topics also appear within the
search engine results under the label “Interesting finds.”
If you click one of these stories, it’ll take you directly to that web page, or, if you click to see “more stories” at the bottom of the Interesting Finds card, it’ll bring you to a new Google Discover user interface where you can follow that topic, follow related topics, and explore related Discover listings.
Now if you have a Pixel phone, you’ve seen Discover a lot, but again you just haven’t realized it.
By simply swiping right on your Pixel phone home screen you
get a customizable and personalized feed just like the image above.
Now, you may be wondering, how is this different than just
using Google News? Because they have a top stories section which is kind of
like a feed, right?
Unlike top stories, Discover doesn’t limit rankings to what’s published most recently.
If Google thinks a user would find earlier content
interesting, then Discover might show it. Discover also features videos, sports
scores, entertainment updates such a movie, stock prices, event info for things
like a music festival, and much more.
Google is positioning Discover as a content hub for all of your interests just like Facebook is doing with their feed.
In other words, this is Google’s version of your Facebook
feed.
Similar to following a hashtag on Instagram, you can follow
a topic of interest on Discover. Also, similar to Instagram’s Explore Page, you
don’t need to follow anything to get content you might like. Discover is aiming
to show you content you’d be interested in before you even know you want
it.
The key is “before you knew about it.” Just like how Facebook and Instagram do the same thing.
So, why should you care about Google Discover?
Because it can drive you a ton of traffic.
Just check out one of the clients of my ad agency, Neil Patel Digital. Look at their Discover traffic.
They generated 3.64 million impressions in the last 28 days
and 79,000 clicks to their site.
That’s a ton of traffic. In addition, all of those impressions help with branding.
Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.
So, all of those impressions you can generate from Discover are great because they will help put your brand out there. It helps with the concept called the Rule of 7, in which when someone sees or interacts with your brand 7 times, they are much more likely to become a loyal customer.
This can also help with Google’s E-A-T algorithm updates. It is the best way if you want to build up your expertise and credibility as an author. Discover is a simple way to help you get there.
So, how can you get more traffic from Discover?
How to optimize for Google Discover
Luckily, it’s not as complicated as SEO and the results happen
much faster. Still not instant, but over time you should see your Discover
traffic continually rising.
Here are 3 simple tips that will help:
Be sure to use high-quality images. Images appear with every Discover result, so relevant and high-quality images that accompany your content is important. And just like with your headlines and titles, try to choose images that are more likely to entice clicks. Images that are shocking or evoke curiosity will do the trick.
Content is king, but if you don’t write about the right stuff then you won’t show up. Check which topics Google suggests following inside of Discover to see if those topics align with your website. If it does, consider using their suggested topics as a guide to what people are interested in and write similar content. Of course, you don’t want to copy others, you want to go above and beyond so you can one-up your competition. Use Brian Dean’s skyscraper technique to do this.
Hopefully, when you’re creating your website content, you’re already taking some time to think about maximizing your content. What do I mean by that? Maximizing your content means thinking about your website as an API for your content. So yes, your content lives on your site, but hopefully, you’re creating it keeping in mind how it can be posted or promoted in other areas so you can secure backlinks and attract social engagement across other relevant channels. To do this you need to focus on topics with shareability, topics that are trending, topics with growing interest, and also focus on leveraging clickbait and enticing titles and headlines. Remember that Google Discover is like a social feed. If you’re only trying to make your content work hard for you on your site, you’re not getting enough out of it.
Once you make a deliberate effort to go after Discover
traffic, it’s time to measure how you are doing.
Now, on the left side, you’ll see a navigation menu.
I want you to click on “Discover.” (You’ll only see this option if you hit a minimum threshold in Discover traffic)
You’ll now see a report that looks something like this.
Compared to the screenshot I showcased earlier, I barely get
any Discover traffic.
Why you may ask?
Do you notice a trend with my chart? Well, I tend to publish content every Tuesday and that’s the day I get Discover traffic.
Similar to any other social network (and unlike traditional SEO), you mainly see traffic as you post new content. It’s not long-term traffic that is consistent, instead, you keep getting quick bursts of traffic.
I only blog once a week, but if I write multiple pieces of
content a day, my Discover traffic would skyrocket.
Conclusion
Whether you are a fan of Discover or not, it doesn’t matter. As a marketer, you need to look at it as another channel.
Data has already shown that it is popular and as long as
Google keeps pushing it, people will use it.
So why not leverage it to your advantage and harness it to drive traffic and sales for your site?
Plus, you should never rely on traffic from just one channel alone because the moment an algorithm change happens, it can crush your traffic. That’s why you need to take an omnichannel approach and leverage any relevant channel out there.
So, what do you think of Discover? Do you use it on your
phone? Have you thought about leveraging it for traffic to your site?
Nostalgia marketing is the advertising equivalent of comfort food.
In a time when most marketing focuses heavily on the future, it transports us back to a simpler place where our current problems don’t matter and the hustle and bustle of modernity just melts away. Instead of anticipating the next great thing, nostalgia marketing urges us to focus on the things we already know are great.
It would appear that advertisers have caught on. Over the past five years, nostalgic ads have been popping up left and right — with millennials as their main target.
Although these ads are getting more common, marketers have known that millennials would be a nostalgia-fueled generation for some time now.
Even in 2015, when many millennials were still young adults, nostalgia was a hot topic in publications like Digiday.
“Millennials are coming of age in an age of economic turmoil — a difficult job market,” Cassandra McIntosh, a senior insights analyst at Exponential, told Digiday. “Therefore, they end up romanticizing simpler times much more — even those times they weren’t around for.”
To give you inspiration for your own nostalgic campaigns, we selected 15 examples of advertisements that use nostalgia marketing. Watch them and see if you get the telltale bittersweet pangs associated with nostalgic feelings.
In 2019, Motorola gained buzz when it re-introduced a new and improved Razr which featured a folding touchscreen when opened.
In the commercial announcement, you see an old-school Razr lifting off of a table and flying through the air as its old layers peel off to reveal a new design. The phone then opens to reveal the Android-like touch screen.
2. Nintendo
Many children of the ’80s and ’90s remember playing Nintendo-based video games with their siblings. But, for the children growing up with siblings, many also remember the sad feelings related to growing apart or drifting away from a relative. This commercial highlights both of those memories by telling the story of two Nintendo-loving brothers who grow apart, argue as teenagers, and then happily reunite as adults to play the new Nintendo Switch together.
This commercial not only reminds people of what it was like to grow up with siblings, but it also reminds you of the great fun you had playing video games as a child. Then, because the brothers connect and chat virtually as the play Switch games at the end, it shows how Nintendo’s technology has evolved to connect old friends and relatives all around the world.
3. Australia Tourism Board
Instead of promoting a traditional ad that simply showed off Australia’s most beautiful destinations, Australia decided to disguise a tourism ad as a star-studded trailer for a fictional reboot to the ’80s film, Crocodile Dundee.
As those who watched the original Dundee series get excited by clips from the film, starring Chris Hemsworth and Jason Sudeikis, its revealed that Hemsworth tricked Sudeikis into a tourism ad. Despite the trickery, Hemsworth and Sudeikis still both agree that their trip to Australia was still the best vacation they’d ever taken.
This was a clever way to embrace the television and movie reboot trend of 2018 and 2019, while still highlighting the best Australia has to offer for tourism. Because it features actors who are popular in the present day, it’s also hilarious for both people who followed the Dundee films or either of the main characters in the fake reboot.
4. Spotify
In 2016, music-streaming service Spotify unveiled a new spokesperson — er, spokes-dragon — in a 30-second ad produced by Wieden + Kennedy New York.
Falkor and his boy companion Atreyu (now a heavily bearded 44-year-old man) are both characters from the beloved 1984 fantasy film The NeverEnding Story. W+K even got the original actors to reprise their roles (Noah Hathaway as Atreyu and Alan Oppenheimer as the voice of Falkor).
The pair appear just as the film left them over 20 years ago: gliding through the clouds while the movie’s dramatic theme song plays in the background. “I can’t believe people still listen to this song!” Atreyu exclaims. His dragon agrees, they share a laugh, and the two speed off into a grainy, ’80s quality CG sky.
5. Freia
The tagline of Freia, a Norweigan chocolate company, is “Et lite stykke Norge” (A little piece of Norway). This spot for the company produced by SMFB Oslo fully encapsulates the sentiment in a simple, joyful way.
The plot follows a Norweigan expat in New York navigating a hectic life as a fashion stylist. When he returns home to his apartment one evening, he finds a half-eaten bar of Freia chocolate in his otherwise empty fridge. After just one bite, he’s inspired to hop on a plane back to Norway to visit his father and soak up the majestic landscape of his homeland. The ad ends with the stylist discovering a modest hair salon for sale in what is presumably his hometown.
The message is clear: A taste of Freia chocolate is inherently connected to Norway, no matter where in the world you may be.
6. Adobe
Bob Ross — the beloved ’80s painting guru who passed away in 1995 — experienced an unexpected resurgence in popularity in 2016. After Netflix added his classic TV show, The Joy of Painting, to its streaming lineup, Ross became a trending topic on Instagram. Adobe took notice, and decided to pay homage to the late painter in a series of tutorial videos promoting their new Adobe Photoshop Sketch for the iPad Pro.
Authenticity was central to this nostalgic campaign. Adobe and agency Lekker Mediacollaborated with Bob Ross Inc. to make sure every detail was accurate, right down to the brand of clothing Ross wore on his show. Children’s book illustrator Chad Cameron, who plays Ross in the series, channels the artist’s relaxed, unpretentious demeanor perfectly.
“Bob’s wish was to inspire as many people as possible to be creative and to share it with others,” Joan Kowalski, media director at Bob Ross Inc., told Adweek. “Adobe’s ‘Joy of Sketching’ series reminds us that a company as big as Adobe shares in that hope.”
7. Oikos
Although it originally aired from 1987-1995, Full House has become a nostalgic childhood symbol to multiple generations thanks to syndication. But before Netflix revived the show with a 2016 reboot, Dannon reunited a few of the show’s stars in an ad for Oikos, the company’s line of Greek yogurts.
John Stamos is joined by his former cast members Bob Saget and Dave Coulier in this Y&R Vinizius-produced spot. The trio doesn’t explicitly reprise their Full House roles, but the dynamic is undeniably reminiscent of their days on the sitcom.
8. Nike
In 1973,Billie Jean King won a tennis matchagainst male player Bobby Riggs, which was coined “The Battle of the Sexes.” The historic tennis game was the first time a female tennis player was matched against a male.
King’s tennis match winproved Riggs wrong. It also proved that men and women could compete equally on the tennis field and in other sports. On a bigger scale, it further empowered women, who were often stereotyped as wives, homemakers, or secretaries at the time. With King’s win, it became harder to ignore that gender stereotypes were false and that women could win and even lead amongst men.
During the match, King worean iconic pair of blue Adidas tennis shoes. Years later, to celebrate the 45th anniversary of King’s win, Adidas launched a limited edition line of BJK shoes with the female tennis legend’s face and initials on each pair.
To announce the shoe line, Adidas launched a series of simple commercials showing Billie Jean King spray-painting piles of shoes blue. Here’s an example of one of the ads:
To further promote the line, Adidas alsohad booths at the U.S. Open tennis matchwhere fans could bring any brand of shoes and have an artist paint them blue with Adidas’ special BJK logo.
According to Adidas, the overall campaign led to a20% boost in tennis shoe sales. And, now that the campaign is over, people are auctioning off these limited edition shoes on eBay forupwards of $1,000.
9. Tesco
Nothing screams nostalgia like old home movies. In this extended holiday ad from British grocery chain Tesco, we watch a family grow and age over the years through the lens of their Christmas home videos. Set to a poignant theme, the ad is intended to stir up fond holiday memories for viewers.
“We wanted to show what a real Christmas is all about — not a perfect, airbrushed one — but the ones we recognize from our own lives,” David Wood, Tesco’s U.K. marketing director, told Adweek. The ad was produced by Wieden + Kennedy, London.
“You might not remember us,” the ad’s narrator begins, “but we met in the ’90s.” The commercial goes on to highlight all things ’90s — fanny packs, Tamagotchi, bowl haircuts — even the Oregon Trail PC game makes an appearance.
Column Five Media, the creative agency behind the ad, set out to create a nostalgia-driven viral ad that would reintroduce Internet Explorer to ’90s kids. “The idea of a brand like Internet Explorer being forward-thinking enough to make such a story-focused, Gen Y-centered commercial was pretty newsworthy,” the agency wrote in a behind-the-scenes blog post. “Focusing that story on ’90s nostalgia, which we knew was popular with Gen Y and not yet fully realized in video form, is what made [the ad] shareworthy.”
11. Chili’s
Chili’s ads are usually characterized by close-up shots of glistening hamburgers, sizzling bacon, and french fries still glowing with fryer oil. So this 2016 ad produced by Boston-based agency Hill Holliday was a departure from the casual dining chain’s typical go-to formula.
The commercial depicts the Chili’s origin story through a series of retro vignettes. We see the laid-back founders playing ring toss, lounging on the hood of their car, and — of course — flipping classic Chili’s burgers in their first restaurant. The ad taps into traditional Americana — a form of nostalgia for small town American life, middle class values, and neighborhood restaurants where everyone knows your name.
12. Apple
Apple regularly features celebrities in their advertising, but they made a notably nostalgic casting decision for this iPhone 6s spot. Everyone’s favorite sweet-toothed Muppet, Cookie Monster, might have switched to a more balanced diet, but he appears whipping up a batch of his favorite chocolate chip cookies in this ad.
The nostalgic force is strong in this Target video promoting Star Wars: The Force Awakens merchandise. As part of a larger campaign to encourage fans to share their Star Wars memories online, Deutsch LA produced this two-minute compilation of Star Wars fans’ home movies.
In the video, young fans dressed as little Princess Leias, Luke Skywalkers, and Han Solos brandish lightsabers and give their best Chewbacca impressions, all while the classic Star Wars theme plays in the background. The result is an endearing campaign that’s sure to resonate with longtime fans and new converts alike.
14. Bacardi
For their 150th anniversary back in 2012, Bacardi released a series of print and television ads showcasing the brand’s party-starting heritage. The trip down memory lane was intended to give the company a shot of authenticity, reminding consumers that Bacardi has stood the test of time.
The goal according to Leo Premutico, co-founder of WPP agency Johannes Leonardo, the agency behind the ad, was “to depict a moment in time that lives in history” and offer “an eye to what’s next, an exciting future.”
15. McDonald’s
When McDonald’s removed antibiotics and artificial preservatives from their chicken this year, they wanted an ad campaign that not only informed consumers about these changes, but also tapped into nostalgia surrounding their famous nuggets.
“There’s an undeniable level of nostalgia tied to the McDonald’s brand and its food,” Britt Nolan, Leo Burnett USA‘s chief creative officer, told Adweek. “We set out to capture that relationship in a sincere, simple way that today’s parents can relate to and feel good about sharing with their own kids.”
How to Nail Nostalgia
The key to nailing nostalgia is to understand what motivates your audiences, how they were raised, and where their deepest interests lie. To do this, do a little research or develop buyer persona’s that grew up in certain generations to learn what makes them think.
To learn more about building and analyzing your buyer persona, check out this helpful guide. For more great advertising inspiration, here’s a roster of 2019 Clio Gold-winning ads.
Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in September 2016, but was updated for comprehensiveness and freshness in February 2020.
If you want to get traffic from Google, how would you go
about it?
Chances are you are either going to leverage SEO or pay for
some ads.
But what if there was another way to get traffic from Google? A way that didn’t take as long as SEO and didn’t cost money like paid ads. And no, I’m not talking about Google News… there is actually an easier way.
It’s so effective that it drove 18,800 visitors to my site in the last 3 months. Just look at the screenshot above.
So, what is it?
Google Discover
Similar to how you have feeds on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, did you know Google has a feed for you.
It’s called Google Discover.
If you mainly use Google on your laptop or desktop computer, chances are you haven’t seen it. But if you have the Google mobile app or the Chrome mobile app, you probably have already seen it.
Here’s what it looks like on an iPhone:
This is Google’s version of a social feed.
Here’s how it works… Google Discover results, which appear below the search box on the Google mobile app and Chrome mobile app, show a summary of web pages as cards. These cards are a scrollable list of topics, almost like a social feed, that you can browse on your mobile devices.
Tapping one of these cards from Google search home will send
you directly to the page you just clicked on.
And if you are wondering why you are seeing certain stories
that others may not be, it’s because the recommendations are based on search
history, interactions with Google products, and who you choose to follow
directly via Google Discover.
But here is where it’s getting interesting…
Google Discover is everywhere, you just don’t know it
Discover results for some topics also appear within the
search engine results under the label “Interesting finds.”
If you click one of these stories, it’ll take you directly to that web page, or, if you click to see “more stories” at the bottom of the Interesting Finds card, it’ll bring you to a new Google Discover user interface where you can follow that topic, follow related topics, and explore related Discover listings.
Now if you have a Pixel phone, you’ve seen Discover a lot, but again you just haven’t realized it.
By simply swiping right on your Pixel phone home screen you
get a customizable and personalized feed just like the image above.
Now, you may be wondering, how is this different than just
using Google News? Because they have a top stories section which is kind of
like a feed, right?
Unlike top stories, Discover doesn’t limit rankings to what’s published most recently.
If Google thinks a user would find earlier content
interesting, then Discover might show it. Discover also features videos, sports
scores, entertainment updates such a movie, stock prices, event info for things
like a music festival, and much more.
Google is positioning Discover as a content hub for all of your interests just like Facebook is doing with their feed.
In other words, this is Google’s version of your Facebook
feed.
Similar to following a hashtag on Instagram, you can follow
a topic of interest on Discover. Also, similar to Instagram’s Explore Page, you
don’t need to follow anything to get content you might like. Discover is aiming
to show you content you’d be interested in before you even know you want
it.
The key is “before you knew about it.” Just like how Facebook and Instagram do the same thing.
So, why should you care about Google Discover?
Because it can drive you a ton of traffic.
Just check out one of the clients of my ad agency, Neil Patel Digital. Look at their Discover traffic.
They generated 3.64 million impressions in the last 28 days
and 79,000 clicks to their site.
That’s a ton of traffic. In addition, all of those impressions help with branding.
Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.
So, all of those impressions you can generate from Discover are great because they will help put your brand out there. It helps with the concept called the Rule of 7, in which when someone sees or interacts with your brand 7 times, they are much more likely to become a loyal customer.
This can also help with Google’s E-A-T algorithm updates. It is the best way if you want to build up your expertise and credibility as an author. Discover is a simple way to help you get there.
So, how can you get more traffic from Discover?
How to optimize for Google Discover
Luckily, it’s not as complicated as SEO and the results happen
much faster. Still not instant, but over time you should see your Discover
traffic continually rising.
Here are 3 simple tips that will help:
Be sure to use high-quality images. Images appear with every Discover result, so relevant and high-quality images that accompany your content is important. And just like with your headlines and titles, try to choose images that are more likely to entice clicks. Images that are shocking or evoke curiosity will do the trick.
Content is king, but if you don’t write about the right stuff then you won’t show up. Check which topics Google suggests following inside of Discover to see if those topics align with your website. If it does, consider using their suggested topics as a guide to what people are interested in and write similar content. Of course, you don’t want to copy others, you want to go above and beyond so you can one-up your competition. Use Brian Dean’s skyscraper technique to do this.
Hopefully, when you’re creating your website content, you’re already taking some time to think about maximizing your content. What do I mean by that? Maximizing your content means thinking about your website as an API for your content. So yes, your content lives on your site, but hopefully, you’re creating it keeping in mind how it can be posted or promoted in other areas so you can secure backlinks and attract social engagement across other relevant channels. To do this you need to focus on topics with shareability, topics that are trending, topics with growing interest, and also focus on leveraging clickbait and enticing titles and headlines. Remember that Google Discover is like a social feed. If you’re only trying to make your content work hard for you on your site, you’re not getting enough out of it.
Once you make a deliberate effort to go after Discover
traffic, it’s time to measure how you are doing.
Now, on the left side, you’ll see a navigation menu.
I want you to click on “Discover.” (You’ll only see this option if you hit a minimum threshold in Discover traffic)
You’ll now see a report that looks something like this.
Compared to the screenshot I showcased earlier, I barely get
any Discover traffic.
Why you may ask?
Do you notice a trend with my chart? Well, I tend to publish content every Tuesday and that’s the day I get Discover traffic.
Similar to any other social network (and unlike traditional SEO), you mainly see traffic as you post new content. It’s not long-term traffic that is consistent, instead, you keep getting quick bursts of traffic.
I only blog once a week, but if I write multiple pieces of
content a day, my Discover traffic would skyrocket.
Conclusion
Whether you are a fan of Discover or not, it doesn’t matter. As a marketer, you need to look at it as another channel.
Data has already shown that it is popular and as long as
Google keeps pushing it, people will use it.
So why not leverage it to your advantage and harness it to drive traffic and sales for your site?
Plus, you should never rely on traffic from just one channel alone because the moment an algorithm change happens, it can crush your traffic. That’s why you need to take an omnichannel approach and leverage any relevant channel out there.
So, what do you think of Discover? Do you use it on your
phone? Have you thought about leveraging it for traffic to your site?
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