ICM - Leeds Design Agency

Yesterday I had the pleasure of my first day at ICM Creative Communications as their new Account Manager. For what is probably the first time ever, this is not meant with any kind of sarcastic undertone – It really has been a pleasure and I am looking forward to working with the clients I have briefly exchanged emails with, as well as with my lovely colleagues who have done a wonderful job of making me feel very much at home.

One of the tasks on my to-do list was to write my about me page for the ICM website, of which one section particularly struck me. As I started to assemble my list of ‘5 favourite songs’ it quickly became apparent that my choices were made on the memories that the songs provoked. The feelings of nostalgia were so powerful that they were more than capable of shaping my likes and dislikes.

This started me thinking about the uprising of advertising utilising nostalgia as a marketing tool. It is no coincidence that with an economic decline and uncertain times consumers are encouraged to look back to a warmer, fluffier time when everything was nicer and we all skipped through the forest and talked to bunny rabbits…(that was just me then…) It isn’t like this is a new idea, but there has certainly been a noticeable increase in the past year or two. This correlates directly with the uprising of nostalgia in popular culture generally.

For example, take the 2008 Hovis campaign celebrating 122 years of the Hovis brand.

The advert lasts a staggering 122 minutes and stars a cast of 750 extras depicting over 100 years of life in the UK. This to me is a prime example of using nostalgic symbolism to encourage consumers to place trust in a brand.

Then there is the use of music to encourage the viewer to think back to an era that was perhaps happier. The new Next campaign harks back to the 80’s with Blondie’s ‘Heart of Glass’ for a more subtle nod to nostalgia advertising.

A relatively new (and some would say lazy/clever) slant on the nostalgia genre is to simply reuse an iconic retro ad as Milky Way have done here:

The cynic in me rolls her eyes at this advert, sneering at the campaigns utter lack of imagination. The six year old in me wants to watch it over and over again…whilst eating a Milky Way…

Just as I thought the rush of the nostalgic adverts was beginning to die down, along comes this little piece of loveliness from Flora.

Maybe the genre is evolving, maybe it is calming down, but I don’t believe it is going anywhere fast. For the sake of creativity I hope the powers that be continue to be original in their advertising and steer away from the easy option of re-running/creating montages of old adverts. It is also reassuring to know that some strong brands don’t rely on this style – check out the Guinness 250 Years advert:

Brilliant and not ‘running with the obvious’.