Old school : the relevance of nostalgia in advertising

Abstract

As the use of nostalgia (an individual’s yearning for positive associations with the past) as an evoked emotional appeal in advertising increases in popularity in South Africa, questions begin to arise as to whom this nostalgic appeal is most relevant. For marketers and advertisers to create the most effective advertising, they need to be able to communicate with their target markets using the appeals that are most relevant to them. This study addresses this in the context of South African print advertisements by analysing whether consumers are indeed receptive to the nostalgic appeals used in the ads, and then seeking to associate their receptiveness to their demographic characteristics (age group, gender and population group). This research was conducted via an online survey and then parametrically tested. The results indicated that insufficient evidence exited to predict the relevance of nostalgia in advertising by gender or population group. However, evidence was found that suggests that the relevance of nostalgia does vary depending on the consumers’ age.Copyright