The Retro Branding Strategy - What's it All About?
With all the trends going around in marketing/advertising, the retro branding strategy has become increasingly popular. It not only creates a sense of nostalgia that resonates with consumers on an emotional level but it reminds us of a company’s value over a long period of time.
So, what is it about this retro branding strategy trend that makes it so influential in today’s marketing landscape? How does it influence the way a brand is viewed or perceived, and most importantly, how does it influence consumers’ purchasing decisions?
What exactly is a ‘retro branding strategy’?
Retro branding is when companies bring back old styles and designs to make people feel nostalgic. This can include using marketing and advertising tools like old logos, old packaging, and even vintage style ads. By using ‘blasts from the past’, brands hope to make people remember good times from their younger years and feel a deeper, more authentic connection with their brand.
The psychology and appeal behind nostalgia
According to many psychologists, nostalgia serves as a coping mechanism, which allows folks to seek solace and comfort in fond memories during times of stress or uncertainty in their lives (something we all need post-pandemic!). With the current economy, this make more sense as to why many brands are looking to hop on the retro trend as a strategy.
When consumers encounter forms of retro branding, it triggers nostalgic emotions associated with simpler times, childhood memories, or well-received cultural moments from the past. In turn, this emotional response creates a sense of familiarity and warmth on a subconscious level, making retro-inspired brand designs and campaigns deeply appealing to consumers.
Putting retro branding strategies into practice
You notice other big brands reverting back to past looks and feels, so why not give it a shot if you’re due for a brand refresh? However, this retro strategy comes with a lot of preparation to make it a success. Below are some tips to get started:
Researching Target Audience’s Nostalgic Preferences:
- Conduct research into the target audience’s demographic data and cultural background.
- Analyze past trends, icons, and cultural moments that resonate with the target audience.
- Utilize surveys and focus groups to gather insights into specific nostalgic preferences.
- Identify key elements from the past that evoke strong feelings of nostalgia among the target audience.
Incorporating Retro Elements into Branding:
- Redesign logos, packaging, and marketing materials to reflect vintage aesthetics.
- Integrate retro-inspired imagery, fonts, and colors into branding elements.
- Create advertising campaigns that evoke the spirit of a past era.
- Use storytelling to highlight the brand’s heritage and connection to the past.
Balancing the Old with the New:
- Maintain authenticity while incorporating retro elements into branding.
- Find creative ways to modernize retro aesthetics and make them relevant to contemporary consumers.
- Experiment with blending vintage styles with modern design trends.
- Continuously monitor consumer feedback and adjust branding strategies accordingly to ensure they resonate with the target audience.
Getting started with retro branding
In today’s brand landscape, retro branding is a big deal because it taps into our love for the past on an emotional level. Brands are using old-fashioned styles to make us feel connected and nostalgic, standing out amongst the noise and making us feel like we’re part of something special. By mixing old looks with new ideas, the retro branding strategy trend helps brands create strong emotions, and continue to grow – even in our fast-changing modern digital world.
Want assistance with your retro branding? Our brand strategist can help. Contact aaron@weareblueridge.com.
BRCM Wins 5x for Award Winning Creative Services
Recently, Blue Ridge Creative Marketing was recognized 5x for award winning creative services in the CommunityVotes 2024 Wilmington. We took home platinum awards in FIVE separate categories (Advertising, Digital Marketing, Web Design, Graphic Design, & Social Media Marketing), as part of the Business Services category. BRCM is stoked and honored to have been nominated by Wilmington community members for our unique offering of creative services. We’re grateful to our clients, to the community of Wilmington, NC, and to CommunityVotes for celebrating our dedication to excellence and our award winning creative services.
What is a CommunityVotes award?
Since 2014, CommunityVotes has operated its Community Voting awards platform and serves many communities across the country, including Wilmington, NC. The goals of this impartial and grass roots organization include honoring businesses and other professionals for their work, along with providing area residents with insight into trusted service providers in their community.
On the CommunityVotes platform, community members are responsible for nominating and voting. First, businesses are nominated, and the total number of nominations determines which nominees move on to the Voting Round. In this next round, community members must sign in using their email and can only cast one vote for each available sub-category within the designated main categories. These votes determine the Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners in addition to any honorary recognitions.
These Platinum Awards recognize our award winning creative services and commitment to our clients
Driven by everyday people who want to recognize the skills and talents of area professionals, the CommunityVotes platform is like the People’s Choice awards for local businesses and service providers. Thank you to our clients who have enjoyed our work and dedication to customer service and took the time to nominate us. Thank you to the business owners in the community who may have recognized our efforts in providing excellent and unique creative services for the local community and beyond. The BRCM team is pleased to have contributed to businesses and individuals throughout the ILM community which resulted in our nomination and recognition as Platinum Winners in five distinct categories.
A disabled-owned creative agency with over 10 years in business working with a number of unique clients in a variety of industries, BRCM is proud to have received CommunityVotes 2024 Wilmington Platinum Winner awards for our Wilmington creative marketing work. We’re proud to continuing to provide advertising, digital marketing, web design, graphic design, & social media marketing services to the Wilmington area and in other communities throughout the Southeast and we look forward to working with you and providing you with our platinum-level creative services!
Wacky Brand Extensions Fueled by Millennials & Social Media
Thanks to social media, the rapidness in which we (Millennials in particular) consume content, and the sheer amount of content being thrown at us every single day has created an era in which brands crafting a well thought-out and carefully crafted message in the form of an advertising campaign or TV spot is just not enough for most… in other words, you need something extra to help you break through the clutter and cut through the noise if you want to be seen as “cool” – enter: brand extensions - and it’s starting to get weirder and weirder (or, more innovative, depending on how you look at it).
Product and brand extensions are not a new thing, but, they are becoming more commonplace and off-the-wall than ever before. Millennials and their love for social media helped fuel this “brand extension” arms race and get us where we are right now.
Just within the past month, we’ve seen KFC teaming with Crocs for a special edition, chicken bucket sandal (fried-chicken scented, of course), branded McDonalds Quarter Pounder ingredient candle sets, and, just in time for Valentines Day, Pepsi unveiled a Crystal Pepsi branded engagement ring (could you imagine being proposed to with one of these, ladies??).
Not joking here. Crystal Pepsi was boiled down to its most basic carbon form, ground into a powder, then added in to the process of making a 1.53-carat, lab-grown diamond. This “stunt” was luckily just a stunt, though, as part of a larger social media based contest in which a winner will be announced via social media, (naturally) just in time for “National Proposal Day” on March 20th.
Additionally, Oreo has decided to team up with streetwear brand Supreme (something it seems like every brand and their mother wants to do right now) for a special edition Supreme Oreo that features the brand’s signature red/white color combo, complete with the Supreme logo right where the Oreo logo would be. It looks tasty. But, no one will be eating these…
And, for brands, it’s working! Which keeps them on their toes thinking of the next crazy thing that might help them cut through the clutter. Just to help illustrate just how popular and crazy the demand is for some of this stuff, a 3-pack of these Supreme Oreo cookies RMSPd for $8, but, you can’t buy them through retail and longer. they sold out, of course! If you really want some though, place your bid: there have been bids as high as nearly $90,000 on eBay!
It’s all part of our current culture in which brands’ broader want/need to be included in the pop-culture conversation – part of a continuous cycle that’s been going forever (in some form or another) – has been accelerated by Millennials’ tastes and the popularity of social media and free press as a marketing tool.
Here’s a rough outline of how the cycle works for brand extensions:
First, a brand makes something “extra” or does some kind of cool stunt to help stand out and set itself apart (to cut through the noise) in order to try to be included in the broader pop-culture conversation. If the people “approve”, it’s able to join the “cool kids club” and ride the wave of free press and internet stardom while it lasts. If it fails, it risks becoming seen as a laughing stock. It can backfire, and the brand is seen as not with the times, or irrelevant (very “un-cool”, man).
Of course, this world of wackiness is just the current iteration of the whole process. Sometime in the future, novelty fatigue will be upon us, and sooner or later, we’ll be seeing these types of brand extensions and promotional products appearing at yard sales and collectible stores galore. Just like we’ve seen in the past with things like branded t-shirts and mugs.
What’s next, no-one quite knows yet. But, one thing is for sure: it’s getting crazier and crazier (or, more and more innovative, if you look at it that way), and millennials and social media are helping to keep the arms race going at a faster pace than ever before.
Digital & Data Stifling Creative Quality in Advertising
Creative quality advertising is crucial, but the continual rise of data-driven marketing is beginning to hurt the “specialness” of traditional creative advertising as we know it.
The ability for brands and companies to see immediate, measurable results through increasingly specific data points, while good for looking at short-term results, is dragging down the quality of content being produced by some of the largest ad agencies in the world – leading to large corporations creating in-house creative departments or bringing in brand consultancies more and more. This overuse of research testing and relying on data over creativity, results in basically asking the consumers to be creative. This is not only a certain road to “genericization” of communication. It’s also just lazy thinking.
A majority of marketers now claim this continual digital growth is having an overall negative impact on creative quality of ads. In fact, a recent study by Sizmek, which surveyed more than 500 brand marketers across the US and Europe, shows that the ad industry is still largely struggling to nail down the marriage of digital advertising and powerful, thoughtful creative work. In other words, the relationship between creative and digital is being rocked by an intense industry focus on data, A.I. and privacy practices. While these things are all certainly important, the level of focus on them is becoming increasingly detrimental to creativity and originality, which is good for no one and leads to advertising messages being short-lived, disposable throw-aways, meant to capture someone’s attention for a moment and then disappear into the abyss forever.
Marketers seem to agree. Nearly 70% of marketers surveyed in the study believe that “digital growth in advertising has come at the expense of the quality of creative.” While nearly 84% say A.I. means nothing without the creative to support it. Creative innovation has always been at the heart of forging relationships with customers through branding and advertising. The explosive growth of digital marketing and data-driven digital targeting has opened new doors to personalization and reach (which is a great thing!), but marketers acknowledge that creative has not always kept pace (not so good). This, in turn, hurts brand loyalty, which is what brand owners truly hope for. Regardless of digitization, screen size, or ad format, a great advertising campaign can be a key driver for establishing and maintaining brand loyalty. But these are becoming harder and harder to come by these days.
The current focus by companies and large agencies on short-term, instantly measurable, disposable viewership is an unfortunate byproduct of the digital age we’re currently living in. Sustainable advertising campaigns designed to create and reinforce brand loyalty will be a thing of the past if we don’t start paying more attention to creative quality and storytelling like the great ad campaigns of yesteryear. Let’s get back to developing creative, compelling, and interesting content and campaigns that catch viewers attentions, spark their imaginations, and help increase brand loyalty for large and small brand alike.
This certainly doesn’t mean data is not important or something to look at and consider, it just means that it also needs to be truly balanced with creative quality moving forward — not come at the expense of it.
3 Examples of Creatively Awesome Brand Actions
Firs of all, what is a brand action, anyway?
Let's just face it: despite media being bombarded by all types if ads in different media formats throughout an average day, It's getting harder and harder to gain the consumers' attention. Attention spans are shortening, and what used to cut it just ain't cutting it anymore (for the most part, anyway).
So what exactly are brand actions? - OOH tactics and other events and "stunts" to cut through the clutter and connect with consumers by giving them an experience. These brand activations or brand actions are becoming all the rage in the industry. While there have been many excellent and very creative brand actions and activations over the last few years, I wanted to showcase just three of the top creative brand actions/activations from the past couple years.
#1. Burger King - Google Home "Hack"
As smart speakers have started invading homes and reacting to what is happening around them, Burger King decided to take advantage of that new presence in its customers’ homes.
In a TV spot, they decided to talk directly to Google Home speakers, triggering an action with the “OK Google” formula, so you can learn more about their most iconic product, the Whooper.
This hack had so much momentum Google decided to block that specific request, generating even more PR for Burger King in the end. One of the great brand actions of 2017 and wonderfully creative idea (although Google might have not been so amused).
#2. Absolut Vodka - "Never Gonna Gif You Up"
This is the story of how the brand got 780 million organic views using wit, stop motion and a lot of vodka.
Giphy, the world’s largest GIF platform serves 2 billion gifs to users on a daily basis and Tinder reports that users who start conversations using GIFs have a 30% higher reply rate than those who don’t. The way these GIFs are used poses an exciting opportunity for brands, as they’re shared as a form of self-expression from one person to another.
If a brand could create GIFs relevant enough for a certain audience, they could effectively inject the brand into their target audiences’ online conversations without having to rely on intrusive ads. So, this is exactly what Absolut did.
#3. Pedigree (UK) - "Dog Dates"
1.2 million older people in the UK are labeled as chronically lonely. Pedigree, following the direction of their Feed the Good campaign, decided they could make a difference by pairing seniors with local dogs and sending them out on a date together.
Armed with the belief that ”a dog is a conversation waiting to happen,” program participants took their dog date for a walk and met new people through the instant ice-breaker of their canine companion. The program got elderly people out of their homes and into social settings, without the responsibility of owning a pet themselves. And it worked brilliantly, both as a way to get lonely seniors out and socializing, and Predigree gaining more grade awareness amongst consumers. (Here's a link to the case study)
The Case for Investing in Creative Advertising
Why creative advertising?
As a business, trying to persuade folks buy stuff can be a hard task. As consumers we’re constantly being fed advertisements and brand experiences thousands of times per day, but, due to all the ‘noise’ around us these days, the ability for there average consumer to actually remember those advertising exposures is extremely limited. Not to mention, our attention spans are continuing to shrink as well. There’s no shortage of theories and ideas for cutting through all this ‘noise’, and in many cases there’s actual research to support those ideas and theories. What we do know, however, is this: Creativity and creative advertising correlate to sales and sticking in the minds of consumers. it can really be distilled down to three main reasons why —
RECOGNITION:
It’s simple: consumers remember creativity. According to a 2004 study, creative advertising, when compared to other more “traditional” media, stood out from the crowd, attracted attention, and was much more memorable for being more noticeable to consumers. In fact, a 2008 study from the Journal of Advertising, stated that “creative advertising was found to enhance recognition, and this positive effect increased over time.” This is because creative ads tend to present new information in connection with old info in ways that add a greater level of meaning for the audience. Memory can be defined as the process of making meaningful connection between new and old ideas. A great creative ad or idea can help do the heavy lifting for you.
ENTERTAINMENT:
It’s well known that creative content is entertaining content. As consumers, we watch tv, browse social media, and search for things on Google mostly for a form of entertainment. The places we go for entertainment are also the places we have come to accept as places we are more likely to see an advertisement. Hard sells are boring, they’re disruptive and not very attractive. Creativity makes advertising appealing in and of itself (to the degree that an ad can be appealing for a consumer). Creative ads are also better for consumers, and our media partners. Another recent study found on tandfonline.com, looked into the unintended impact of creative on an audience. It found that creative work has a positive impact on the audience’s own creativity and, in turn, produced a positive perception of the media [the ad] was placed in. Don’t forget: you can get even more creative by deciding where and when to place an ad. Think “outside the box” on this!
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY:
The bottom line: creative content sells! The idea is that if consumers enjoy a products branding, and they remember the product or service from its branding, they’re more likely to end up buying said product or service. In other words, If the audience is entertained, and if they remember the product, there’s a strong correlation with the purchasing decisions. According to the Cannes Lions research, companies that win their annual Creative Marketer of the Year “outperform the stock market by a factor of 3.5”. They have also found campaigns that “go viral” make larger commercial gains than average and have more positive brand effects. As for the cost of this creativity, Cannes demonstrated these viral campaigns on average had half of the budget of the average campaign. to sum it up, creativity can actually help you save money. It is well known in the ad industry that creativity is the key to doing more with less [of a budget].
When it comes to investing in creativity, the bottom line is that it’s a no brainer. Creativity and creative advertising produces greater recognition amongst consumers, is shown to be farm more entertaining than a traditional “hard sell” ad, and can actually help save you money if you are doing it effectively. These three big things help prove that businesses who are ready to think outside of traditions and norms when it comes to branding and advertising, are more often than not rewarded for their ability to buck the norm. It just makes sense. Businesses who invest in creative advertising and branding are winning. Is your company or business interested?
