A look at the charts at the moment feels like a time hop with The Beatles in the top ten and the Rolling Stones releasing a new track, just like in December 1964, writes Kirsty Green.
The video for The Beatles, mixing archive tour footage with current clips of Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo, is a true trip through the decades.
It’s no surprise the unique song is enjoying huge success – The Beatles sell, but so does nostalgia.
When things are tough, and financially in this country they are for many right now, a look back through Lennon’s rose-tinted lenses is just the tonic.
Though rarely true, our memories like to tell us that the past was easier and happier and so we embrace these wistful desires to take ourselves back in time.
It’s not just musicians who capitalise on this.
Christmas adverts for the likes of Amazon, with its sled-riding grannies, show a strong use of nostalgia to evoke the warm feelings required to help shift the financial blues – and products.
And icon David Beckham made use of it with his ‘documentary’ as wittily explored by Sarah in her blog.
But what if you’re not a chart-topping Beatle or ball-bending Beckham, how can you make the most of nostalgia in your PR?
- Seek out opportunities to look back
Maybe your business is 50 years old, you have a member of staff who is retiring after starting with you as an apprentice, or maybe you’re moving headquarters after decades in the same place. Use these opportunities to share your story and your journey. At Penguin PR, our Jenny is enjoying celebrating the launch of Nelson Distillery’s latest gin – I wish it could be Christmas Every Day, working in partnership with Roy Wood. The Wizzard frontman’s song became a Christmas hit 50 years ago but never reached Number 1 – maybe that can change this year!
- Don’t forget the emotions
If you’re truly trying to get engagement from your followers, or interest from your readers, don’t forget the emotion required for nostalgia. To make people care, you have to make your story part of their life. The detail matters for this. Archive images and videos are a great start. When I was a reporter for the Derby Telegraph, it didn’t matter how carefully I may have crafted a front-page story, I still knew people would spend more time poring over the Bygones pages, trying to spot themselves in Zanzibar’s in the late ’90s.
Think about the finer details as well, such as music and décor. What was at number one when you set up your business? Blasting out Get into the Groove by Madonna will bring back emotions and memories in your audience that just saying “in August 1985” will never do.
- Remember your audience
Following on from number 2 – think about the age of your target audience and the time in which they would have been growing up and tap into those memories. For example, if you’re wanting to sell to parents of young school children now – maybe use the memories of Tamagotchi’s and Kickers shoes that would have been a staple in their schooldays to connect them to your product. Knowing your audience, as fellow Penguin Kerry wrote about in her Barbie blog, really is the key to success.
It is the reason this year’s Christmas ads are full of cheesy hits from the 1980s, from Rick Astley to Depeche Mode, they’re the songs those of us in our 40s and 50s, busily spending our cash on kids’ presents and Christmas lunches, will have grown up with.
Nostalgia won’t be relevant for every PR campaign you embark on, but Penguin PR can help you identify the perfect opportunities to look back and connect with your audience – we don’t care if you call on a Nokia 3310 or an iPhone 14!
