Wherever you look, you can find it. Binge-watching Netflix’s Addams Family spinoff Wednesday? Humming along to Jack Harlow’s “First Class,” which samples Fergie’s “Glamorous”? Munching on a McDonald’s Happy Meal designed specifically for adults? Congratulations. You, too, have succumbed to nostalgia.

In recent years, there’s been an abundance of sentimental media that asks you to remember that? Whether that’s in the form of reboots, remakes, or revivals on TV or retro ads and logos, programming heads and marketing head honchos seem dead set on embracing the halcyon days. All the while, Gen Z trendsetters are embracing all things retro, from Kate Bush to bucket hats.

Anyone vying for consumer attention knows there’s something powerful about nostalgic media. As Don Draper once put it, it’s the twinge in your heart that’s more powerful than memory alone. Nostalgia is delicate but potent. And it really works to win over the masses.

“There’s a universality and emotionality to nostalgia,” Matt Feniger, director of cultural insights at United Talent Agency, told Marketing Brew. “In a time where everything seems so divisive and emotionally charged, nostalgia is positively connecting us over a shared experience.”

But there’s also a risk of dipping too often into the well of past ideas, and after years of nostalgia-laden media, some experts said we’re long overdue for a shift.

“I’ve been talking about nostalgia with clients for the past couple of years, and I feel like I’m getting tired of telling them about it,” Molly Barth, a senior cultural strategist at the consultancy sparks & honey, said. “And they’re probably getting tired of me telling them about it.”

Read the full story here.—KS

Sure, getting a brand tattooed on your body might sound a bit cringe extreme. But marketers seem to think people are happy to walk around in (and pay for) a T-shirt emblazoned with their favorite potato-chip brand’s logo.

Brand merch has taken off over the past couple of years, particularly among food and drink marketers. Brands ranging from Frito-Lay to Dunkin’ to Chick-fil-A to SunnyD have rolled out clothing lines featuring holiday sweaters, scrunchies, slippers, and more. Even condiment brands, like Heinz and Hidden Valley Ranch, are breaking into the merch game.

But what was once novel could soon become played out. Last week, we asked if you’re getting sick of seeing branded merch. Nearly two-thirds of the nearly 700 readers who answered said they are.

Specifically:

• 61% said yes
• 39% said no

There are several reasons why brands have hopped on the trend:

• Data: Anyone eager to get their hands on, say, a Cheez-It koozie, has to share their email, address, credit-card number, and other details with the brand. And that’s exactly the point. “At the end of the day, data is gold,” The former director of global DTC ecommerce at Kellogg told Adweek last year. “We need to be investing in capturing more of it.”
• Marketing: People who wear branded merch are paying $$ to advertise whatever logos they’re donning. As Recess founder Ben Witte told Modern Retail, branded gear is “marketing that makes money.”
• Social: In addition to wearing it, brands hope fans will post about their merch, too. Take McDonald’s, which debuted its online shop in 2019. “With the Instagram generation, people want really distinctive merchandise, and particularly, they want to deploy their fandom,” its SVP of global marketing told Ad Age at the time.

Related, unrelated: Grocery chains like H-E-B and Aldi are investing in merch, too.

Snap poll: Do you think Web3 opportunities for marketers are overhyped?

Yes
No
Not sure

Retail Brew’s Jeena Sharma recently looked into how Victoria’s Secret’s acquisition of AdoreMe plays into the company’s rebranding. Read a snippet below or click here to read the story.

The retailer’s recent acquisition of AdoreMe, a DTC women’s intimates brand known for its extended sizing, marked another signifier in its commitment to redeeming itself from a dubious past. But the question is, are all these efforts more than just a marketing gimmick and if so, are consumers actually buying it?

“AdoreMe was a huge investment and a huge signifier to the community to say, ‘We’re not just saying that we’re doing this. We’re actually doing it,’” Erin Schmidt, senior analyst at Coresight Research, told Retail Brew.

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

EOY: YouTube pulled together some of the most popular ads that ran on its platform this year.

Crystal ball: Here are some ways digital advertising could evolve in 2023.

Keep swiping: Using Instagram carousels to tell your brand’s story.

Learn: Does telling your boss they’re super wrong make you cringe? In just one week, the Brew’s Difficult Conversations at Work sprint can give you the tools you need to effectively communicate issues and solve them. Sign up now.

Show them: Visual learners make up 65% of the population—and Vimeo’s video marketing tools can help you reach them better. Wanna bring the power of cinema to your marketing suite? Discover more here.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Are you wondering what targeting innovations are coming to replace the third-party cookie? Check out this Marketing Brew report, which explores a new tool that would give publishers more control over how their audiences are bought and sold.

Read or listen to this insightful resource here.

Stat: $41 million. That’s how much OTC cold and cough brands spent on ads in October—up 62% year over year—in preparation for a nasty cold and flu season, according to MediaRadar data cited by Ad Age.

Another stat: £400,000, or $485,820, is how much advertisers could spend for a spot on ITV during England’s match against France in the World Cup this weekend, media buyers told The Drum.

Quote: “Taking a god-tier brand name associated with elite programming and replacing it with an un-Google-able mush word. Branding malpractice.”—Bloomberg Opinion editor, Mark Gongloff, in a tweet about Max, which is apparently the new name for the upcoming streaming service that’ll combine Discovery+ and HBO Max

Read: “What You Need To Know About Device Fingerprinting” (Ad Exchanger)

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Are companies second-guessing branded swag as gifts?
• Ad spend will grow next year, though slower than initially expected
• Acast further automates podcast ad buying