07/14/22

Retail Trend: With Gen Z, History Repeats Itself

By syncing present-day expressions and activations to visual, aesthetic, and experiential elements of the past, brands can both create viable products and inspire valuable connections. If you are trying to do something new, tie it to something old.

While utopic visions of tomorrow once preoccupied the cultural imagination, it lately seems as though the contemporary current of the zeitgeist is pointing the other way. The media Gen Z is consuming, alongside the the content they are creating and engaging with, is increasingly nostalgia-driven. Nostalgia fuels a key emotional need, and familiarity provides more than just a foot in the door for brands – it all but guarantees a warm greeting.

LimeWire, Winamp, and Napster find a second life in web3
The popular P2P sharing sites of yesteryear are finding new success and enjoying a second life as Web3 music platforms. These reborn platforms are coupling nostalgic name-recognition with innovative offerings, using familiarity to help drive web3 on-boarding among today's generation. Read More

Wally’s ‘Home of the Great American Roadtrip' since… 2020
Think: a 1970s or ’80s family road trip, that’s what the uber-popular Wally’s gas station and convenience store brand is all about. That nostalgia-heavy aesthetic is paying off in TikTok and Instagram engagement, as well as in merch sales, as the new brand, launched in October 2020, redefines the pit stop. Wally’s

The country pub makes a comeback by leveraging nostalgia, fine dining
The Guardian covers how “country pubs,” long tied to the identity and history of local areas, are being revamped as gastro-forward, luxury dining and hospitality destinations that connect visitors – often young, urban food-forward tourists in search of something nostalgic and “real” – to the unique “terroir” of the country. The Guardian

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