Nostalgic Vibes FTW
Why invoking the past prints cash
While doomscrolling I stumbled upon this image showing the ‘evolution’ (devolution) of Jaguar’s logo:
As soon as I saw this picture I thought “how the hell did this happen?” which, of course, is the thought that always sparks the beginning of an epic interwebs rabbit hole (very enjoyable feeling tbh).
This stupid stupid stupid logo redesign was part of an overall rebrand effort ahead of Jaguar’s - or should I say jaGUar’s (you can’t unsee it once you see it) - launch of a new all-electric car lineup.
It’s also one of the biggest fumbles in marketing history.
Weird colors everywhere, bizarre word-salad copy that I would swear was AI-generated if I didn’t already know that Jaguar spent millions hiring an ad agency to come up with it, overall tacky aesthetics.
A complete disaster all around.
It’s not hard to figure out what the ad agency was thinking.
Jaguar is a boomer brand. When you think of a Jaguar, you imagine a fat old grandpa behind the wheel. If you say the words “cool car” to a random person on the street, literally no one will think of a Jaguar. The brand will die once their customer base does (i.e. very soon).
They were correct with identifying the problem. But their solution is a catastrophe.
The whole rebrand is throwing away the biggest benefit that boomer brands have over modern disrupters: nostalgia.
The current zeitgeist is anti-modern. I don’t even know what to tell you if you can’t feel it.
People have strong negative opinions about modern technology. Tech moguls are talking like Bond villains w/r/t AI and freaking everybody out. Parents worry about their kids becoming addicted to social media the way past generations worried about cigarettes and heroin.
Everything modern sucks.
Old-fashioned baby names are even making a comeback (thank god).
And it’s not just the olds longing for the past. It’s very common for zoomers to fantasize about living in the Before Times. 90’s is back in fashion, etc.
An easy way to bank off this trend from your bedroom
That’s why creating a nostalgia-focused social media account is an easy wifi money side hustle.
Spend some time digging and you’ll notice that most of these nostalgia accounts are focused on the millennial generation.
There’s a good reason for that.
I remember reading this book a long time ago called Seasons of a Man’s Life. It talked about how men in their 30’s naturally start becoming nostalgic for the era they grew up in and have strong feelings about it being much better than the modern world.
It’s something that every generation goes through. I’m assuming we’ll see a wave of zoomer nostalgia in ten years or so.
But for now millennials are the peak consumers of this type of content.
I don’t recommend making a viral revenue-share-focused account your main wifi money pursuit (live by the algo, die by the algo), but if you’re looking for something low effort to do on the side, tapping into nostalgia is as easy as it gets.
You can build a huge following FAST, even just reposting content.
What does that mean for Real Brands?
When everyone hates the modern world, the way you sell products is by grounding them in the past.
“Copy Nothing. Delete Ordinary.”
Wtf does that even mean?
How about:
The sign you’ve arrived. For three generations.
Symbols of success never change.
The car chosen by the men who built the world you live in.
Boomer brands like Jaguar should dig deep into their archives and bring back the old logos (especially non-minimalist ones that have color). Create video ads and image ads in black-and-white. Ideally the viewer should at first think that they’re actually watching an old video before the Reveal. The models in the ads should look like normal humans who look the way humans have always looked, not the weird androgynous “alt” people.
Outside of marketing, they should even bring back the old car designs instead of the modern electric-dildo-with-wheels-looking monstrosities they have on their site right now.
It’s very easy for huge legacy brands like this that are actually old.
But you can still tap into the nostalgia vein even if you’re just some guy with a Basic Entrepreneur Bro white-labeled e-com business.
Create an old-timey logo with colors and without modern fonts and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD don’t do anything weird with the capitalization or lack thereof (jaGUar). Hype up the “history” of your product’s ingredients/components. Find a way to tap into nostalgia any time you talk about your company’s story (you wanted to create something just like your grandpa used when you were a kid).
You get the point.
Modern, futuristic tackiness is out.
Classic vibes are in.
People are longing for the past. Give it to them and you can make a lot of money.
The Jaguar team screwed it up so bad, I’m almost wondering if it was intentional. No one in marketing can be that dumb.