In Back to the Future, Marty McFly didn’t have to imagine Hill Valley Farmlands as Doc described. He could drive the DeLorean back to 1955 to see it himself. The closest thing we have to the DeLorean is our memory. Therein also lies the biggest misconception about memory - we think it is objective like time-traveling to the past. In reality, memory is remarkably inaccurate. 

On the one hand, the inaccuracy of memory is frustrating. On the other, its revisionist nature gives rise to one of our most treasured feelings: nostalgia. Nostalgia' is such a strong feeling that many brands today design products, ads, and content strategies to facilitate it. 

Stranger Things’ Nostalgia-Based Content Strategy

Stranger Things, the biggest Netflix Original of the season, turns the nostalgia dial to 100. The Duffer Brothers’ (creators of Stranger Things) content strategy for the show is a clear homage to the 80s. Here are some key examples:

• The Frozen Eggo waffles are Eleven’s obsession. The fast and easy breakfast that every household carried in the freezer.

• Lucas drinking from the infamous New Coke of the 80s while dressed as Ralph Macchio’s character The Karate Kid. The failed launch of the reformulated drink was a big pop culture moment of ‘85. Coke discontinued the drink but brought it back for a limited time for the release of the third season.

• The characters wear vintage clothing inside a mall filled with vintage stores like Radioshack, Walden Bookstore, Sam Goody, and Wicks N Sticks (plus a throwback GAP store!).

The numbers speak for themselves. The third season of Stranger Things broke Netflix’s record for most-viewed series on Independence Day weekend, reaching 40.7 million households. Only four days after its release, 18.2 million viewers had already binge-watched the entire new season. Whether it was humor or horror pulling the viewers in, one theme remains constant — Nostalgia.

The Psychology of Memory and Nostalgia

If the success of Stranger Things is any indication, nostalgia works. To understand why we need a deeper dive into the science of memory and how it connects to nostalgia.

Recall the biggest misconception about memory - it feels like an objective replay, but in reality, it is unreliable, subjective, and impressionable. At its best, it is our brain’s trace of actual past events. But like tracing lines on a photograph, the resulting sketch is missing vital information. 

That’s the strange thing with memory. Unlike Marty McFly, we can never actually go back in time. All we can ever do is experience the present moment. Memory is the act of recalling past experiences into the present moment by replaying them in our minds. Unlike hitting play on something previously recorded, memory is not a faithful recount of past events. Memory is inaccurate and highly revisionist. Recalling a memory is as much a creative process as it is a search into objective history.  

To complicate things further, there are several subtypes of memory, each involving distinct systems in the brain. For this conversation, let's restrict the discussion to the most relevant form of memory for nostalgia, explicit memory. Explicit memory is the kind of memory that results from experience we’re consciously aware of. 

When it comes to explicit memory, the brain is a pattern-seeking machine that learns and builds a vast network of associations. Think “tree,” and you can’t help think “leaf”; think “peanut butter,” and you automatically think “jelly.” Related items in our lives become closely associated in our brains over time. 

Association is not only true of how we learn but also key to how memory retrieval works. The right cue in the present environment can retrieve the memory of a past experience. A scene in Stranger Things set outside a Radioshack could trigger a 20-year-old memory of visiting Radioshack with your parents. 

Nostalgia lives inside this trigger-based retrieval. When enough cues from our memories are present, our brains will not just bring back the memories of the past, but a more general vivid feeling from the past as well. 

Nostalgia is specifically a positive memory resulting in a pleasant feeling or emotion state, all activated by a trigger in the present experience. It could be a song, an outfit, a smell, a taste, or anything in between. 

Why is nostalgia only positive? Because it is by nature a very general, gestalt feeling. It is looking back on the past and remembering the forest, not the individual trees. Research indicates this kind of gestalt thinking results in a positive mood. Conversely, when we’re in a negative mood, we focus on the details (trees over the forest). 

And so, when looking back very generally on an event, we tend to see it in a positive light. As the past evaporates in time, our brains tend to wash over the negative details. And this ‘positive glow’ of our memory of the past provides the warm comfort of nostalgia.

Brands Use Nostalgia Marketing to Influence Our Consumer Behavior

Positive experiences with someone or some brand result in a positive relationship. Nostalgia is specifically a positive memory triggered by cues. This leaves open a door for nostalgia hacking. In theory, if you can create triggers for nostalgia, you can create a positive relationship that can nudge consumer behavior in an intended direction like binge-watching a season or buying a throw-back pair of sneakers. Neuromarketing is at play here.

In hindsight, it isn’t surprising that Stranger Things is Netflix’s record holder. Just think of all the triggers in the show. For one, it is set in small-town Indiana, where kids can run, bike, walkie-talkie and play outdoors, a rich setting for nostalgia. Next, the show pays meticulous attention to blend in iconic music, reference vintage movies, and remake the entire aesthetic of the 1980s. Every part of the show systematically triggers the best nostalgic memories of childhood for the viewer, whether they be real or vicarious.

Netflix isn’t the only one looking to make viewers feel nostalgic. Levi’s doubled down on nostalgia marketing. America’s most famous denim company launched a whole Stranger Things inspired clothing line based on the 80s aesthetic. 

Similarly, Adidas used nostalgia marketing to drive a massive comeback. Adidas brought back their vintage shoes like the Superstars and Stan Smiths from the ’70s and ’80s. Being the first American tennis player with an endorsement deal, Stan Smith never expected his shoe to become one of the most raved about lifestyle shoes of the early 21st century. Since 1971, more than 50 million units have been sold and give or take 20 million of those sold when Adidas revived the shoe in 2014. Ironically, most of the buyers today have no idea who Stan Smith is despite wearing his name on their feet!

Adidas’ global sales soared from $15.7B to $24.6B from 2014 to 2018. Adidas surpassed all but Nike to become the second-largest sporting goods company in the world. Adidas isn’t the only one copy/pasting the nostalgia marketing strategy. The Nostalgia Legend is none other than Disney, who is in the business of selling nostalgia.

Notice all the live-action remakes coming out of Disney? It isn’t a coincidence. Chances are you were a kid when Lion King or Aladdin entered your life. Chances are, you are now a parent or at least the age-equivalent of a parent. 

If you’re a content company built on selling childhood experiences, how do you capture the adult market once the children get older? Step one, create remakes of childhood classics. Step two, release them decades after the original to match the timing of the now-adults having kids of their own. This way, we get a healthy dose of nostalgia while our kids experience a kind of vicarious nostalgia as well! 

Nostalgia marketing works financial wonders for Disney. The release of Aladdin reached over $1 billion in global box office sales while Lion King surpassed the $1 billion mark. Both did so within a month of their release. 

The eye-watering revenue does not mean the brands are evil per se. They are smart. The smartest brands understand the science of memory and where nostalgia fits into the memory retrieval process. The positive emotions inherent in nostalgia are of great value to brands. It makes it all-the-more easier to see why nostalgia can drive our behavior, from the shoes we wear to the movies we watch. 

The Duffer Brothers (creators of Stranger Things) make no subtle hints of their love for the ’80s. They wholeheartedly admit that the pop culture references made in Stranger Things are on purpose, hoping the people of their generation and after can catch a glimpse of the era. 

We may never be able to travel back in time. Luckily, we can put on a pair of Stan Smiths and binge-watch Stranger Things. It’s worth appreciating the effort required to recreate the past; it might be the closest we’ll ever get to flying in a DeLorean.

What’s Next?

References

Bloomberg: Adidas Wants to Copy the Stan Smith Success Story, Richard Weiss

Statista: The Adidas Group’s net sales worldwide from 2000 to 2018 (in million Euros)

TechCrunch: Stranger Things 3 racks up most viewers in first four days for a Netflix Show Ever, Darrell Etherington

The Cut: ‘The Kids Think I’m a Shoe’ Stan Smith the man & Stan Smith the sneaker, Lauren Schwartzberg

The Hollywood Reporter: Box Office: ‘The Lion King’ Roars Past $1B in Global Ticket Sales, Pamela McClintock

Variety: ‘Aladdin’ Flying Past $1 Billion at Worldwide Box Office, Dave McNary