There is a lot of nostalgia in marketing right now
Mia Feilman: Foreign. Has the shelf life of a trending sound. This is Got Marketing, where we unpack campaigns, marketing news, and what actually sticks. There is a lot of nostalgia in marketing right now. Y2K fonts, grainy filters, early 2000s references are being dragged back like they never left, and most of it feels manufactured. Nostalgia isn't just an aesthetic. It's not, let's throw a Britney Spears track over it and call it a campaign. I think there's something deeper going on. When the world feels uncertain, people don't look for what's new. They look for what feels familiar. And that has pretty massive implications for how we market.
Andrea Andrick explores why nostalgia is working right now in marketing
So today I'm joined by Andrea Andrick, who's been unpacking exactly this, why nostalgia is working right now, where brands are getting it right, where they're getting it wrong, and what this actually means for your marketing strategy. Because this isn't about going retro. It's about understanding what your audience needs from you right now and whether your marketing is meeting them there. So welcome to gut marketing. Andrea, I'd love to hear from you what you think we're actually looking at here. Is it a trend, a tactic, or something more structural?
Andrea Andrick: Thanks for the welcome. I actually agree with what you just said, and that is when things feel a little bit chaotic, when the world is uncertain and there is anxiety in general, people tend to turn to nostalgia because it is an overwhelmingly positive feeling. Feeling. And I think the brands that are able to read the room and read the cultural moment have understood how to tap into that.
Mia Feilman: So you wrote a really cool substack on this topic. Absolutely loved it. And then you pitched me to come onto the podcast and. Sensational pitch, by the way. I reject about 95% of the pitches that I receive. So well done for being in the. In the top 5%. Uh, I can spot a digital marketing strategy nerd a mile away.
Andrea Andrick: It's me.
Mia Feilman: Yeah.
Andrea Andrick: Yeah.
Mia Feilman: Okay.
Marketers should be incorporating more nostalgia in their marketing if they can
So in your substack, you spoke about processing fluency, and you specifically about familiarity, reducing cognitive effort. Can you unpack that for the people like me who've got smoothies as brains at the moment?
Andrea Andrick: Um, yeah, absolutely. So basically, that concept is just your brain finds it easier to process things that it already knows or can predict or knows what to expect. So that processing fluency is, like, really quick, when we know what to expect, when it's familiar, when your brain can file it alongside similar experiences or similar moods, vibes, whatever. So that's really what nostalgia is. It's that longing for those moments. And I think our brains tend to remember everything through rosy coloured glasses. So, you know, uh, uh, it was the best days of my life and it was, you know, this moment. So it's interesting, however, what's happening right now because we're seeing this conversation play out like on a big scale. In the article I mentioned there's like billions of views on TikTok alone around nostalgia. We're definitely seeing trends in Q1, there were like three separate social media trends that were nostalgia based. So this is a, uh, signal, this is telling us something. And that I think is people are looking for that positive emotion and that positive feeling that nostalgia brings. Because the research actually shows that it's not just about looking towards the past, but it's making you feel more secure in the future. And when we're lacking that, I think we always reach for the throwback or that nostalgic moment. I mean, I remember growing up like I was super into the 70s, for example, and so I think there's always an element of that. But it's a really interesting cultural moment right now.
Mia Feilman: Yeah, I was reading that nostalgia is not just an emotion, it's actually a really powerful psychological tool. It improves mood and it improves, you know, all sorts of somatic traits. And so it's actually a self regulation as opposed to just like, oh, that's cool, that's, that's a bit, that's an aesthetic. There's actual benefits to
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Mia Feilman: it for people. And so I feel like marketers should be incorporating more nostalgia in their marketing if they can, because it is soothing to the audience.
Andrea Andrick: Yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the things that I was saying in the article as well is that it is so linked to our, uh, psyches. You know, a certain song or a certain scent or being in a similar situation will put you right back into that time and place. And that's the power of nostalgia. I think that's why it is such a powerful tool. And as you said before, as a strategy slash biopsychology nerd, this is the stuff that I think brands should be really more, I, uh, don't want to say concerned, but like they should be investing more of their uh, brain power and strategy into understanding their this. Because all of the tactics and all of the things will change all the time, but we as human beings haven't changed that much.
Mia Feilman: Yeah, and nostalgia just goes through cycles, doesn't it? It's like it's definitely having a moment now because there's a war raging in Iran and there's these fuel prices and all of this is Making us quite nostalgic. But like it, it never really goes away. Sometimes it fades into the background and there are times where people are much more optimistic and there's less nostalgia. But it has been back to back crises since COVID Like we have not had a minute of respite. And so nostalgia marketing is, you know, it just keeps refreshing, I would say.
Andrea Andrick: Yeah. And I would take it even a step further and say, you know, as somebody who's a millennial, we are now millennials and Gen Z now make up a lot of that buying power in the market. Right. And I think for us, what we've lived through, I don't want to sound dramatic, but really that Y2K moment, I remember quite fondly as being quite optimistic. And then, you know, it was followed up by things like 9, 11 and the GFC and so on and so on. And not to even mention what's happened in the last three months. But I think that's why this particular nostalgic moment is so strong right now, because there's a lot of us who are fondly remembering those times and anything that reminds us of them.
Mia Feilman: Yeah, you are so true. That Y2K era was incredibly optimistic. Everything was like futuristic and forward looking. And now we're actually seeing the opposite future focused tech optimism. Like, oh, we're going to go through this, you know, amazing tech revolution has been replaced with past orientated tech fatigue with AI and people craving stability. If you're listening to this and thinking I need to get my marketing sorted, that's exactly what we do. Inside Marketing Circle. It's a marketing community for up to 45 women building brands where we focus on strategy first, then execution. So you're not just doing more, you're doing the right things. I'll link it in the show notes.
Trust is down across the board, people trust governments less, brands less
So do you think we've lost trust in the future?
Andrea Andrick: Yeah, I think so a little bit. But trust is down across the board. I think people trust governments less, trust brands less. And so I think people are also just very overwhelmed at the breakneck speed at uh, which all of these things are changing and moving and how fast paced it is and you know, the 24 hour news cycle where you're constantly bombarded with a lot of info. So I think it absolutely makes sense that people are reaching, ah, for what's comforting, what's safe, what they know and what's familiar.
Mia Feilman: Yeah, let's unpack the familiarity thing a bit more because as, uh, small businesses we're constantly told to be innovative and disruptive and different. But Our customers are telling us that they want something that feels familiar. So those two things are kind of in conflict.
Why does something being easy to process get interpreted as more trustworthy
So let's start with why does something being easy to process get interpreted as more trustworthy?
Andrea Andrick: I think there's a couple of reasons. One of them we touched on just before, which is your brain is able to categorise that familiarity alongside safe, comfortable thoughts. And I think that another one is that repetition. Because we live in this algorithmic world, right? We spend a lot of time online, we spend a lot of time on social, we spend a lot of time scrolling. And all of those algorithms are constantly serving up new, new, different, different, different. I think when brands can establish that familiarity, where they have topics that they talk about, themes that they discuss repeatedly, a content format that looks and feels familiar, that repetition breeds familiarity, which breeds trust.
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Andrea Andrick: And that, I think, is a really important one for brands specifically to remember. Because like you said, when we're constantly being told to do new things, it can feel really scattered and not strategic. And so I think there's actually a lot of power and a lot of ease to be brought back, both for consumers and for brands by creating these repeatable, familiar loops.
Mia Feilman: Oh, I love, I love everything that you said. Because it basically just makes the case for campaigns, right? Repetition builds familiarity, familiarity reduces friction. So, I mean, you're just selling campaigns better than I can, I think.
Andrea Andrick: Welcome, Mahat, to your new co host.
Do you think we're overvaluing originality at the expense of recognition
Mia Feilman: So do you think we're overvaluing originality, um, at the expense of recognition?
Andrea Andrick: That's a really interesting question, Mia. I actually think it has been the opposite for a long time. I think brands have been told to jump on trends, to rinse and repeat what everyone else is doing, and originality kind of fell by the wayside a little bit. And I'm actually really excited for that to return. I think that what we're entering now is an era of less is more, um, really excited to see more creativity in the market when it comes to campaigns, when it comes to regular content within the boundaries of creating what's familiar or creating repeatable formats. So. So I actually think rather than, you know, download these 100 AI hooks, I'm really excited to see originality. And that's why I called out that Chanel campaign as an example in the article, because it plays on familiarity in a really interesting way.
Chanel's new campaign is a remake of Kylie Minogue's music video
Mia Feilman: Okay, let's talk about the Chanel campaign, which is basically a remake of Kylie Minogue's music video and it features Margot Robbie and. Yeah, that. What's the song? What's the song?
Andrea Andrick: Oh, I think it's come into my world.
Mia Feilman: Come into my world. Yeah.
Andrea Andrick: One I want to say.
Mia Feilman: Yeah, yeah. So this is an example, in your opinion, of nostalgia done well. So tell us from a strategist perspective why you think this is good.
Andrea Andrick: I was just grabbed by it immediately. So that first trigger of like, hey, wait a minute, I've seen this before. The song comes on and you're like, oh, I remember this. I know this. The way that they've done it, it's not just the production value, obviously, they've recreated it in a very, very high quality way. But it doesn't pretend to be original. It doesn't try to just copy that idea or do it for its sake. Like, it actually features Kylie at the start of the video. She's singing the song. It's a nod to the era in a very, um, I want to say modern way. Because even for audiences who might not know Kylie, um, they certainly know Margot Robbie. Like, she's very of the moment. Um, so I think it's all those things combined. It's very layered for me. You know, both Ozzy's recreating this, like, very iconic original campaign, but without pretending like it's an original idea or, you know.
Mia Feilman: Yeah, I think you've stuck on something really important there. When people say originality, creativity, they think you need to create something that's never been done before. And that's. That's actually not true. Like this video, the Chanel video, is an iteration and it is a new expression of that idea and actually that throwback to Kylie's original video. So if anyone hasn't seen this, Kylie kind of multiplies in this video and she's. It's. It's actually a one shot, it looks like, which was very, very early days to have a single shot, so no cuts. And she's going around in sort of this loop and as she's going around, the people multiply. And then Chanel has recreated that with Margot Robbie multiplying. But each time she's got a new handbag. And the fact that it is familiar, but it is an interpretation of the video makes it even more creative because you've been inspired by this video and you've managed to create something new as a result of it. It's not having to come up with the first, you know, like the first seed of an idea. It is perfectly possible for you to iterate upon other people's ideas. All artists take inspiration from other artists.
Andrea Andrick: Totally agree with that. And to, uh, take inspiration from yourself. So if we're talking about this in the context of small businesses and even medium sized businesses. There is not endless budget here.
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Andrea Andrick: There is refining an angle, refining an idea and finding different ways to talk about it. And I think that's the, uh, that's probably the through line if we're talking about creating familiarity for a lot of small businesses. But yeah, like with that Chanel campaign, I'm going to be perfectly honest with you, I didn't even notice the handbag. I was just so excited about the concept in the video and I actually watched it a few times to um, to then go, oh, wait, let me actually look at the product. So that's another thing that I think it does really well that, that subtlety of weaving the, the product isn't the storey. Like there's a storyline.
Mia Feilman: Yeah. I do have a criticism of it though. Sorry, I can't help myself. It's just who I am as a person.
Andrea Andrick: I love it.
Mia Feilman: Sorry, it's not AI, clearly, but it can look like AI. And I don't know if that was the right decision in 2026.
Andrea Andrick: Yeah, that is a really, really interesting point and I think definitely one worth kind of marinating in a little bit for everyone. But yeah, for me, I think it really struck a chord. Just the whole, like, as a whole, you know, I've been thinking a lot
Mia Feilman: about this idea of building a business that fits your life, not the other way around. Which is why I've been listening to the Mumbition podcast by Mums and Co. It's honest conversations with women running businesses while also doing everything else. Parenting, life. The mental load. Each episode is short, practical and actually useful. Not just inspiration for inspiration's sake. If that's your world, it's well worth a listen.
Mia says fast fashion is a lazy example of nostalgia
All right, so that's a great example of nostalgia. What about a lazy example of nostalgia?
Andrea Andrick: Oh, gosh. Mia, have you walked through a shopping centre recently?
Mia Feilman: I can't say that I have to be honest. I avoid them like the plague.
Andrea Andrick: I mean, usually me too, but I, I had to go and buy like something from Mecca and I thought, you know, I'll just go in and I
Mia Feilman: don't ever need anything from Mecca. I just go. But yes.
Andrea Andrick: Yeah, it was just uncanny. I kind of felt like, has everyone just walked off some kind of set from like the late 90s or early 2000s, like, you know, fast fashion, I think is a good, bad example of this. If you look into any of those stores at the moment, they look like uh, exactly how they looked 30 years ago. And it's Funny, because, you know, we know that a fashion cycle is roughly 30 years. It's kind of confronting when it's happening to you and you're like, oh my God. But I think it's just almost costumey in its approach. A, uh, caricature of the trends of the fashion that we were wearing 30 years ago. It feels almost put on. And I think what this kind of, what I was trying to get at in the article as well when it came to this was this like performative offline ness. The, oh, uh, look at these twee analogue hobbies that I now have because I want to like scroll less guilty. But it kind of feels like we're still doing it for the feed. Uh, you know, when I see somebody who's like 15 wearing like multiple lace camis and low rise jeans, I go, oh, uh, I don't know, what do you feel about that?
Mia Feilman: I have to say I have noticed the little lace slips with the over m. The jeans. It's sometimes over jeans, sometimes just like that, but it kind of looks like an underlayer, you know, like, you know, if you're wearing a white dress, you need a little cami slip, but that's what you're supposed to wear on the outside. And I was like, oh, those are back. Yeah.
Andrea Andrick: I don't know if it's a symptom of me kind of feeling a bit cringe about it because we've lived through it, but it feels a little bit costumey and um, feels like all of the fast fashion brands have gone, oh, look at this trend, let's just plaster it, you know, and that, that's a bad execution for me. I agree.
Mia Feilman: And also, we don't need more fashion in the world. And so this idea that we can just go and try to tap into a trend just to make money just feels it's all off for me.
Andrea Andrick: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mia Feilman: And it's gonna, it's gonna have a micro shelf life and then everyone's gonna have these camis and slips that are gonna go into the back of the wardrobe and get donated and end up in landfill. And what was it for? What was the point?
Andrea Andrick: I absolutely agree with that. And to that point, it's like, go to the op shop and get them because I'm pretty sure, pretty sure they're there.
Mia Feilman: Mhm.
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Mia Feilman: Already. Yeah.
Andrea Andrick: But what was also really interesting to me when it comes to the whole fashion thing is like it's only last year or 18 months ago that we were cringe. Oh, millennial fashion is so cringe. Like skinny Jeans are cringe. Uh, no show socks, side parts, like, all of it was cringe. And it's like the pendulum is kind of swung and it's gone. Oh, but now we're doing this throwback.
Mia Feilman: Yeah.
Andrea Andrick: It's kind of like a whiplash. Right. I think the shelf life of a trend today compared to the shelf life of a trend 30 years ago, everything's been so compressed down and that's where it starts to feel like, put on.
Mia Feilman: Yeah, totally. Also, I have a cow's leak. I can't do the centre part. For goodness sakes. I have to do a side part. Leave me alone.
Andrea Andrick: I've tried it. It looks horrible on me.
Mia Feilman: It looks terrible on me. No, no. I've got this weird kit. Anyway, anyway.
Creating familiarity in small business requires understanding your audience and your customer
So if I'm a small business owner listening to this, um, what do I actually do differently next week?
Andrea Andrick: I think what we're speaking about here, when we talk about nostalgia, is this feeling of safety, of familiarity. Right? We're tired. We don't want transformation, we want comfort. And so if I was looking at, um, what I could do differently as a small business, I would be looking at how do I create that? First of all, it requires really deeply understanding your audience and your customer. And, you know, I think you and I can talk about this for days, but that really looks like understanding. Who are they? What triggers them to purchase, what are their drivers, what resonates? Once you understand that, creating that familiarity should become easy. And I would say it also takes a little bit of a feedback loop to say, okay, let me see what I've done in the past that's really resonated. Well, how can I recreate that, you know, from a. From a tactical point of view, from a strategic point of view? I would say that, you know, your brand theory, your brand point of view, what your brand stands for, that's the constant that should never change. And, uh, if anything, you should double down on that and be unafraid to repeat yourself, because with all of this content that we're consuming on a daily basis, you know, if you've said that one thing once, I'm not going to remember it, but over time, the more you repeat yourself, the more I will associate you with that message or that point of view or. Or that angle. And, you know, I hate to say it, uh, but the algorithms also learn in that way through that repetition. So the more that you can repeat yourself and not be afraid of it, you know, and if you think, God, I'm so boring, keep going. Like, that's what I would say. I would say that, you know, you get sick of talking about that topic. You probably haven't talked about it enough yet. So if I was a small business, I would be so happy to hear that because it would mean that I could say these are the three or four topics or themes that I want to talk about that I'm passionate about, that I can talk about 24 hours a day and, uh, just talk about them. And within those boundaries, I think is where that creativity and originality can happen. Because then all of a sudden you've got to turn on those critical thinking skills to say, how can I say this in different ways?
Mia Feilman: Exactly. And so when we think about creativity, it still requires those constraints. So when I think about familiarity, I think about it in a very FMCG way, because that's my background. And so it's like, stop going through a brand refresh. Seriously, do you need to update your logo and your colours again? Honestly, it is the perfect procrastination tool for female founders. I don't want to do the things that hurt my brain, like figuring out my messaging and my strategy. So I'm just going to go through a brand refresh because that's going to put me underground for a year where I can just focus on picking new colours and fonts and then I will delay the inevitable, which is that I actually need to sit with the fact that, like, my messaging or my offering, my pricing is not conveying, but, like, stop refreshing your brand is the first one. Um, that's where we can, like, refresh brand signals. Like, you know, FMCG brands who are, uh, very reluctant to change their packaging unless they really, really need to, because people remember that package on shelf. And to your point, keep your tone of voice and personality and brand archetype and work within those constraints for creativity. So it would make absolutely no sense for my brand campaign, Del Mar, if all of a sudden I started being like, no, we don't have to ever say anything negative about anyone. And everyone's amazing. And this is so. And
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Mia Feilman: entrepreneurship is just so great. And you can be anything you want to be and you can sell anything you want to sell. People be like, what has happened to Mia?
Andrea Andrick: Uh, Mia's been replaced.
Mia Feilman: Yeah, that's not creativity. That's just like forsaking everything that my brand stands for, um, in order to chase something else. So that's not creativity. So I feel like that is a really, really good point. And then what you said at the beginning about now is not the time for transformation. I think is really important because a lot of the online business coaches, you know, those course creators, mastermind founders, have traded in transformation figures. Like, you can up level your life, you can become a new version of yourself, you can, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. And people are like, you know what? That sounds really fucking exhausting. I don't want to do any of that. Yeah. Like, I'm tired.
Andrea Andrick: I just want to watch Love is Blind and, you know, edge out, you know, that's such a good point. I think we can sense this in ourselves. And I don't know about you, but the conversations that I'm having with people are exactly this. Right. And, and, you know, I just mentioned, like, watching Love is Blood, watching a sitcom that, you know, watching, uh, a reality TV show that lets you literally switch off your brain. It's got this, like, emotional and narrative arc that is very predictable. Your brain very quickly catches onto that pattern and it's the same every episode. And so your brain is resting when that's happening.
Mia Feilman: Yeah.
Andrea Andrick: And so I think if brands, uh, literally. And so I think if brands can take something from that. And I really loved your example before about, you know, FMCG packaging. Could you imagine if your favourite, I don't know, brand of yoghurt changed their packaging every three months? You would be bewildered in the aisle. You'd just be standing there looking around like, what's happening? So I think there's, there's definitely things to be said for that. But at the core of all of this, I think, is having a strong sense of brand, having a strong sense of self. If you're a founder, having that strong conviction and sense of self. If you run a business, you know, knowing what your brand stands for, that's going to be the core, that's going to allow you to be repeatable, to create familiarity. And, you know, one of the things I talk about in the article as well is don't try to just trend jack nostalgia. You can't. You know, we talked about that. In the bad example, you, if you're trying to tack on, but your brand has no connection or heritage or longevity, don't do that. Find your own familiarity. Find your own repeatable content or ideas.
Mia Feilman: Yeah, it's got to fit, otherwise it just looks shoehorned, right?
Andrea Andrick: Yeah, totally. And it's, it's funny to see, I mentioned earlier the, you know, in Q1, there were three different nostalgic trends in social. You know, it was like the one where a company will post, uh, pictures of their employees as babies or toddlers and Say this is who's running your social media. This is who you're asking to put together your campaigns. And I think that's like trying to be like a roundabout way into this nostalgic feeling. And I think the first one I saw I was like, oh, that's kind of cute. But then after a while it just started to feel inauthentic and everyone was jumping in on it. And that's where I think these social trends fail intrinsically is because you can't originally partake in that just because it's a trend.
Mia Feilman: Yeah, two things on that. I think it only works if it's a recognisable founder. So you know someone in aerie, uh, fashion brand talking about their warehouse manager that I don't know, I don't care to see a photo of them as a child. I would like to see Melanie Perkins as a child. That would be cool. Like, um, I feel like this only works if it's recognisable. And so founder led brands like you and I, I feel like it could have worked for you and I because you know, our followers primarily follow us for us.
Once trend jacking is done, then you have to abandon it
But I think what you're saying in all of this is that once it's been done and you're scrolling and you're seeing it five times, just in a 15 minute scroll, it's done, it's cooked, then you have to abandon. And that's the risk with trend jacking. Right? Is that if you can get in early enough then go for gold and you can ride that little cultural moment for its 15 minute shelf life. But then after that you have to abandon it. I am, I just cannot.
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I know it's coming for us. It's coming with the Devil Wears Prada too. It's coming right? We're about to see it all. And yeah, there's going to be some serious laggards who two weeks after the film has premiered are still going to be jumping on trends and it's going to be pretty cringe at that point.
Andrea Andrick: Yeah. And to be honest with you, like, I kind of hate that for us. I hate that these trends are so fast paced. It's one of the things that's contributing to the overwhelm, I think.
Mia Feilman: Yeah.
Andrea Andrick: But I just can't with any good conscious tell any of my clients, hey, we should jump on this trend. If it's just for the sake of the trend, it could work. I'll give you a real life example. So one of my clients shots Home Emporium, they've been in Melbourne for close to 50 years. They have a real heritage brand and that is actually their brand. And so for them to dig into the archives and find pictures of, you know, people lining up outside of shots for a sale or uh, stuff like that, that, that makes sense, that's where it works. But just for the sake of it, I don't think it works. And that's probably one of those bad executions of it.
Mia Feilman: Yeah, sure.
So if audiences are more risk averse right now, how should brand messaging shift
So if audiences are more risk averse right now, uh, how should brand messaging shift to meet that?
Andrea Andrick: I think audiences today are a lot smarter and savvier when it comes to marketing than ever before. Like there's so much information uh, online about campaigns, about how marketing strategy works, all of this stuff. So I think rather than leaning into transformation or trying to make marketing do the hard work, having some real substance behind the messages is what's going to make the difference. And one of the things that we spoke about as well is the different generations and you know, coming back to understanding your audience and how they experience things and how they um, process information, those are all really, really key things to know. For the content or the campaign to be emotionally resonant, it requires that deep thinking and understanding and you know, like I said before, being able to read the cultural moment, being able to read the room, that's where I think brands like, if you don't have that capability in house, if you don't know how to do that, that's where it's really, really helpful to work with somebody who has that kind of thinking behind it. But I think messaging should just come back to be the brand that is familiar. When everything else feels chaotic and kind of outside of our control. That's the long term brand building that I'd love to see more brands doing.
Mia Feilman: Yeah. Do you know what I'm finding? The messaging that I am seeing pop up now that I'm really loving is marketing. Messaging that reassures customers, especially ones that tells them you've got this, you, you're already doing this. Right. It's not like you are failing if you are not doing this. And like if you don't do this then like there's going to be catastrophic circumstances and you can't afford to get this wrong. And people are just so sick of needing to up level and whatever. They just want to be told, patted on the head and said you are doing a good job, like you are dealing with as best as possible. So any marketing that is reassuring them that they've made a good decision and that they're keeping it together at a Time when no one seems to be able to keep it together, I think is really, really great. That's the kind of messaging that I think is working really well.
Andrea Andrick: Well, yeah, I agree. Like, I don't know about you, but I'm absolutely sick of opening up my phone to have people yelling at me about all the things that I'm doing wrong. Yeah. How to optimise this and how to optimise that. So I completely agree with that. I think we're all a little bit over it. And the thing that's going to resonate with, I would say most audiences these days is exactly that, that reassurance, but also like a calmness, a, uh, kind of stepping away from this frenetic pace of change and constantly having to innovate.
The messaging that's agitating me the most is about how to maximise AI
Yeah.
Mia Feilman: The messaging that's agitating me the most, I don't know about you, is all about how to maximise AI for your business. And there's one particular creator who seems so good at AI, but just every single one of her videos gives me anxiety. It's like the Claude Code has just replaced the social media manager. Claude Code has just replaced Canva. If you're still using ChatGPT, you're whatever. And I'm just like, I do not want to hear this.
Andrea Andrick: I think I know exactly who you're talking about. And in fact, I've seen that creator, she pops up all the
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Andrea Andrick: time. And my brother actually sent me one of her videos and, like, fully triggered me. I went on this massive rant and he kind of said, oh, sorry, didn't know that topic was a touchy one. And do you know what? I just absolutely do not understand why these people are obsessed with replacing human jobs with AI. Like, I understand the need for small businesses to be able to do more, because it's like so much more is required now in marketing. And that's what it feels like, or that's what we're made to feel like. And they don't have the resources, they don't have the budgets. Like, I understand that instinct. I'm absolutely not blaming anyone for using AI in processes or in ways that can help them. But this messaging for me is really just annoying. Like, why are we trying to make ourselves obsolete? Like, instead of saying, AI is going to replace your marketing team, AI is going to replace your this and that. I would love for somebody to say, AI is going to fold your laundry so you can go do the creative stuff that you want to do, or even at the very minimum, AI is going to do some process ops, basic stuff. To free up your time so that you can be creative. And so I think that that is really playing into this frenetic kind of optimise. Optimise. Go better, go bigger. And what I really loved and really appreciated about Ripple last year was the. We can be enough.
Mia Feilman: Yeah, we had a AI company, they do, like, summaries from events. Like, they create AI summaries from events. And they offered to give us and all of our attendees the tool for free in exchange for us doing some videos about this particular company and how much we loved their AI summaries. And Fi and I were like, I don't think this is Ripple. I think we want people to bring a notebook and write the notes that make sense to them. And then we had Renee from Cultivate assembly, she, like, sketched meeting, like, summaries from each of the talks and we sent that to all of our attendees. And it was an. It was an opportunity for us to reinforce our brand. Back to your point of, you know, really understanding what your brand stands for. If you sit there and you're like, is Ripple the kind of brand that would use AI to summarise these talks? No, we're the kind of brand that would get this insanely talented creative strategist to sketch the summaries. So, yeah, I'm very cynical about these people who get on to Instagram and say, you can replace your whole marketing team. I don't think deep down they want that either. Uh, but what they want more than that is to have thousands and thousands of followers and become creators and be followers. And we have absolutely placed status above contribution. And that is the thing that is really irking me is that if you ask children today what they want to be when they grow up, they want to be YouTube artists, they want to. You know, everyone wants to be an influencer. I can't fathom, um, it. There is nothing I would like to do less than be an influencer. But it's like we are willing to forsake our future in order to just say whatever we need to say online to get clicks and views and followers. Yeah. Ah.
Andrea Andrick: And you know what's funny about that? It's like sometimes it feels like. And maybe I'm chronically online, but sometimes it feels like the only people who are going viral are the people who are telling other people to. To go viral. Like, we're all just out here trying to go viral. To what end? To what purpose? And I'm going to bring it back to that. You know, my core beliefs is always have a Strong sense of self, have a strong sense of brand. And that helps you answer very quickly and very easily. Those decisions, like the one you said before, like, should we say yes or no to this? If you don't have that, start there. Start with really questioning what you stand for, what is your unique point of view? Because that's what marketing is. It's about differentiation. Right? It's about finding your voice. And for founders, specifically for founders, I think that takes introspection. And I want to reject this idea that our world is now so fast paced that we don't have time for introspection, that we've deleted our attention spans and we can no longer read or consume long form. I am kind of, maybe I'm nostalgic for the time back when that's what we had to do. We had to write notes by hand and we, we had to read long form and activate our critical thinking skills. And so I think, you know,
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Andrea Andrick: if we want to bring it back to that, that's what we should be nostalgic about, not the low, low rise genes. I agree.
Mia Feilman: I, I'm also nostalgic for that for sure. And like, it can be very hard as a founder, uh, to see the forest from the trees when it comes to what does my brand stand for? In which case, I mean, just ask your customers, like, ask them. Or get other people within your small business ecosystem, in your community, people at Ripple, to say, hey, how do you think I show up? What would you say is my key differentiation? I ask people that all the time. Like, this is something I would ask you. I'm like, oh, hey, Andrea, when you think of me, what would you say is the like, X factor about me own campaign? Delmar. So, like, this is the whole point of creating community with other business owners, because we can't, we are too close to it to see. Yeah.
Andrea Andrick: I also think that your audience will very quickly tell you if the move was the wrong move, you know, that they just won't respond to it, they won't engage with it. So yeah, I think, you know, for small businesses as well, you have the benefit of this great distribution channel called social media. Use it strategically, use it wisely and reflect. Build in those feedback loops and then refine. You know, you don't have to throw everything out, you don't have to rebrand, just refine and reiterate. And that's how you create that familiarity. And that's, you know, kind of linked to nostalgia because we will be able to feel that connection at, uh, that sense. But I think if we're looking forward as well, that would be my main advice. Like iterate. Don't throw everything out. Love it.
Mia: This whole conversation has basically been an argument for campaigns
Mia Feilman: Well, this whole conversation has basically been an argument for campaigns. You don't need more content, you don't need necessarily more ideas. You need to build familiarity around a single idea over time. So it has been such a pleasure chatting with you, Andrea. I'm going to put all of your deets in the show notes and if anyone has any comments about this episode or follow up questions about nostalgia marketing, we would love to answer them.
Andrea Andrick: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, as you can probably tell, I can talk about this for forever in a day. But yeah, it's been an absolute pleasure having your thoughts and your input on it. I love the sounding board.
Mia Feilman: Let's do it again.
Andrea Andrick: Absolutely. Thanks, Mia.
Mia Feilman: Thank you. You listened all the way to the end. If you're enjoying GoT marketing, make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss what's Next.
Got Marketing podcast substack now includes podcast reviews
Want the backstage pass to Got Marketing? There's now a substack. It's the ideal companion to the podcast and it's linked in the show notes. Podcast reviews are like warm hugs and one of the best ways to support a small business. You can connect with me, Mia feilman, um, on LinkedIn and Instagram, and I always welcome your feedback and questions for future episodes.
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