Nostalgia, so they say, ain’t what it used to be, and the lesson for anyone in advertising and marketing is to exercise particular care when tapping into the past to bring back memories of good times in order to punt your product or service.
Go too far back, and you’ll lose your audience on age grounds alone – and despite the reality that the “grey Rand” is the most powerful around, many agency clevers think the world belongs to the young.
The mistake of misjudging audience demographics
As an aside, when I was working years ago on a newspaper that shall remain nameless, the editor was enamoured by researchers who revealed that the best target to go for was the 19- to 24-year-olds.
Said editor then decreed that we flood the paper with articles about football, fashion, and kwaito music – the natural stamping ground for that age demographic.
That decision ignored the reality that, even in those days, people in the 19-to-24-year-old age group simply did not read newspapers.
Research showed that, as they married and had families, they did come back to print.
The result was that we lost 20,000 buyers (20% of our then circulation) and, even in the days before competition from online, we could never get them back.
That memory, I admit, did pass through my mind when I looked at the Shoprite ad, which revived its legendary “Rand-a-Rama” promotions from way, way back in the day.
Shoprite’s nostalgic trip with “Rand-a-Rama”
They chose to put the promo ad into the form of a tribute to the also-legendary Jam Alley TV programme, which was such a hit for the SABC back in the 1990s.
A mix of music, competitions, and nonsense, the show was the sound and video track to the lives of many South Africans.
Looking back on some of that old Jam Alley work, as I did after I saw the Shoprite ad, I realised it looks hopelessly dated now.
But at the same time, I must admit I hankered after that feeling of innocence, energy, and the optimism of a country gaining its freedom at long last.
The Shoprite execution manages to capture that and show that you can successfully take a trip down memory lane.
And there will be plenty of Shoprite customers who would go along willingly for that trip.
At the same time, it also has a call to action because you cannot escape the lure of a 40% saving or that you have just seven days to take advantage of it.
It’s colourful, it’s energetic, and it’s effective.
Orchids to Shoprite, agency Ninety9 cents, Spitfire Films, and director Katlego Baaitse.
Elon Musk and Tesla: A marketing disaster
If there was an award for the Most Pathetic Piece of Marketing of the Year – if not all time – then it has to go to Elon Musk and Tesla.
Dude, flashing a swastika salute (whatever excuse your fanboys and fangirls offer in your defence), supporting fascist political parties, and then taking a chainsaw to the US government through the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) – did you expect the world to just smile?
Sales of Elon’s Tesla electric vehicles are tanking so badly all over the world and in the US that he had to call in the heavy artillery… President Donald Trump.
And the orange oke obliged him by doing a shameless pitch for Tesla in front of the White House.
If that doesn’t tell you something about the nature of the relationship between the two and how they will use the US government to extract as much money for themselves as they can, nothing will.
However, from a marketing point of view, all it does is show that you cannot sell your cars based on their intrinsic value.
Instead, it highlights how your own behaviour has so badly damaged your brand that you need the most powerful man in the world to rescue you.
It won’t Make Tesla Great Again – and all it gets you is an Onion, Elon.
