Soumil Arora
Nostalgia sells, big time.
Be honest, who doesn’t like to relive a bit of the ‘good ol’days’, whether it is in the form of an old hero returning back to action, seeing a modern iteration of an iconic team kit from the past or even returning to old venues! In the modern day, sporting organisations have identified this at breakneck speed, exploiting (or creatively using it, depending on who you ask) small aspects from the past for what is traditionally called in the world of pro wrestling as a ‘nostalgia pop’
What are these Nostalgia Pops worth?
These nostalgia pops, they’re super lucrative! In the world of cricket, an entire series of retired legends called the ‘RSWS’ was carved out, banking solely on the big nostalgia pops. Guess what? They succeeded, to an extent of being paid TV rights to air the event on national TV and on the popular OTT platform VOOT, along with racking up millions of views consistently on YouTube!
In football, top brands like Nike and Adidas have used throwback jerseys as their go-to design approach to fall back on. In the past few years, almost every big club has consistently had a throwback jersey as a part of their 3 annual team kits, with fans openly bringing the ‘shut up and take my money’ meme to life and shelling upwards of 85-90 GBP to procure one!
While we shall get to how Formula 1 strategically uses nostalgia to its advantage, we must first discuss the major problem with this cash-cow approach: sustainability.
Live by the Master Oogway Line
“The past is history. The future is a mystery. Today is a gift, which is why we call it the present.”
In a way, nostalgia is like fossil fuels: if you keep throwing back to something every now and then, very soon, a time will arrive when you will have nothing to throw back to. For all this while, the intent has been on milking the past, and not building something for the future, which, years later, can be thrown back to! The basic modern human problem, isn’t it?
In pro wrestling, a visit from the heroes of the glory days, for instance, Stone Cold Steve Austin or Dwane ‘The Rock’ Johnson, always brings up a sharp spike in the TV ratings and a deeper imprint in the digital footprint. But there’s a catch: each of these visits brings a marginally lower spike every time. Why is that?
Simple: the law of diminishing marginal returns.
Media Credits: Mercedes AMG F1
At the core of nostalgia is novelty: seeing something new or something you haven’t seen for a while. Eventually, abusing this will wear down the novelty and will diminish the numbers, until one no longer has anything to throw back to.
At this stage, yours truly may sound like a retired legendary artist who works as a design advisor at the Paris School of Art, calling himself the ‘intellectual savior of modern art.’ Far from it! The idea here is basic economics and human psychology, the two pillars on which marketing stands upon and nostalgia seems to be the favourite child among a group of marketing tactics.
Formula 1’s approach
Quite often, critical essays on Formula 1 like this one end up living up to their namesake and criticize Formula 1’s approach on a particular aspect. However, in this case, Formula 1 and Liberty Media have been rather shrewd in using nostalgia as a tool.
Firstly, when Liberty Media bought into Formula 1, they recognized the vast potential their media assets could have: the next thing you know, Formula 1 is a media giant, having one of the the biggest social media footprints of any sports across the globe, all by boosting the accessibility to the sport through its content on YouTube and Instagram.
F1 has effectively used nostalgia and its vast vault of video content to expand their global reach
A big part of this content is using the past, which means meeting our old friend, nostalgia. The reason why it works in a sustainable approach for Formula 1 and not a WWE is that for Formula 1, tales and stories of the past are used as a tool to complement the present, and not to get a cheap rating.
An example of this is Formula 1’s Top 10 moments or Top 5 moments from X circuit, two series that have transformed Formula 1’s digital reach. These ‘nostalgia pops’ here serve as a reminder of the drama of the sport to the old ones and advertise to the new fans (who mostly join in through these mediums) the beauty of the sport.
Formula 1’s special livery conundrum: don’t jump on it!
Secondly, comes the matter of throwback helmets and car liveries. Luckily, throwback helmets are a bit of a rarity these days: drivers are bound by sponsors and their own brand, compelling them to have a helmet bearing their identity for most of the season.
Thankfully, the same can be said with special car liveries. The Mercedes 125th Anniversary throwback livery may have not worked out on track, but it was a very pleasant surprise, much like the Ferrari 1000 GP special livery from last season. In the same way, McLaren’s stunning Monaco special Gulf livery for 2021 raised tons of eyebrows and got millions of hearts throbbing. Thankfully, McLaren knows the deal: they kept their promise and will not use the livery again – that’s what keeps it special!
Media Credits: McLaren Racing
One may wonder, ‘Well then, how do we create an iconic livery?’. The answer isn’t that hard: persistence. Back in the day, from the mid 70s to the early 90s, every season, at least 2 cars bore the classic Marlboro Red and White design for around a decade and a half. Of course, beyond a point, many fans may have been bored and may have been looking for change, but looking back today, we only have fond memories of that design. The reason? It was ever present in an era where the sport grew and had new iconic moments.
Imagine a team like Ferrari starting out today, sticking to only one colour: by year 5, they will be called stale for choosing to continue with only one colour. Imagine if Ferrari switched colours every year! Would they be half as iconic as they are today?
Iconic liveries aren’t born then, they are made. They take time to get to the legendary status, like the silver McLarens of the recent past or even more recently, the Williams Martini cars. Of course, by the end, they seemed repetitive and boring, but ask yourself this: ‘Do you look back today and have special memories?’ That is how you sustainably build a vault for future throwbacks, if that ever is the focus.
Throw forward, not back!
Nostalgia is the easy way out, the Draw 4 card in a game of UNO or the DRS pass in Formula 1. Sure, it is a means to the end that the audience would love to see, but overexposure always looms large, not just from your screens!
Formula 1 experimenting with NASCAR’s idea of consistent livery changes multiple times a year could be a wreck
In this case, flirting with the idea of one special weekend where each team can change their livery must not be done the NASCAR way by having a throwback weekend. With 70 years of history, we may exhaust it rather soon, hence the intent of designing special but not throwback liveries for that weekend.
Think of it like having your in-laws over (I wouldn’t know!). Once a year for a few days? Bring it on, it should be fun to catch up! However, what if they come over twice every quarter and live with you for 2 weeks each time? Uncomfortable? A special livery may not taunt you on a million things, but once the novelty wears off, the common feeling of blandness and drab is all that remains.
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