Happy St Swithin’s Day! 

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It’s July 15th, thought to determine the weather for the next 40 days and 40 nights according to folklore. Rain or shine, whatever the weather today should be setting the trend *frantically checks MetOffice*.    

However, there are those among us who know this day means so much more that just a weather update. It’s the day the Em and Dex meet in 1988, and the day that we check in on their lives and they intertwine and drift apart. It’s the day that see’s Em tragically *spoiler alert* killed, and that brings Dex to his knees in the following years until eventually he’s able to find solace in this day as their day. Yes, I am of course talking about One Day, the famed novel by David Nichols.  

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The book was published in 2009 and transformed for screen in 2011 following the roaring success of the novel. The film came out to quite mixed reviews, Anne Hathaway in particular was slated for quite a dodgy Yorkshire accent, but the general response was that given the beloved source material, the film itself was disappointing. It currently sits at 37% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7/10 on IMDB. 

You might think that would be the end of the road for One Day. That the semi-failing film would end any returns to the story, but not 13 years later Netflix drops it’s 8 part series to pretty universal acclaim. Currently sitting at 92% on Rotton Tomatoes and 8/10 on IMDB. Everyone and their dog had binged the series on it’s release in February of 2024 and got the emotional closure required following the flop of the film.  

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But all this begs the question, why does some IP keep delivering? How can it be that we accept 3 iterations of the same story in less than 20 years? Well at PASHN we’ve concluded that the answer is simply nostalgia!  

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This is nothing new, the use of nostalgia in marketing has long been leveraged, with Forbes reporting in 2016 it’s particular success with millennials. They highlighted that where modern digital media feels very impersonal, the emotional hook of nostalgia can help to humanise a brand and forge meaningful connections between the past and present.  

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More recently in 2023, Social Media Strategies Summit reported that 77% of Americans confirmed that during uncertain or difficult times (of which we have plenty!) nostalgic memories act as a source of comfort. And that 15% of Gen Z and 14% of millennials prefer thinking about the past that about the future.  

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So, how can you make this work for your campaign? When it comes to marketing, it’s less about providing a realistic look back in time, and more about rousing those positive emotions associated with our collective history. If you can provide an ad that allows your target audience to drift back into those warm fuzzy feelings of yesteryear, even for a moment you might find you’ll build up brand awareness and loyalty.  

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Perhaps this is why One Day has worked so well as a piece to revisit, as Chitra Ramaswamy wrote, One Day taps into the poetry of day to day life, perhaps something we should all be trying to do. 

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So, whatever you’re doing this St Swithin’s day, if you’d like to pick our brains on the best channels to place your nostalgic campaign, let us know!