Ride the Newstalgia wave
A white alligator appeared late one night outside the blue door of our beachfront hotel in Daytona Beach, Fla.
That's the lie my parents told me to stop me asking to go to the pool; it worked.
Now when I take my little girl to the beach, I wonder if she feels the magic I felt back in 1993 at the (long-gone) Mermaid Motel, sipping Sprite from a silver can squeezed in a squishy pink Koozie.
Thirty years later, I remember those trips warmly. I remember the Mermaid Motel being a palace. It wasn't.
That's how #nostalgia works, though.
And that's why some of the biggest consumer brands in America are leaning on it to recapture a new generation of consumers. Pizza Hut. Miller Lite. Most NFL teams, donning throwback unis.
The latest brand to hitch its wagon to nostalgia is #MountainDew. The green caffeine drink has announced it's going back to using the full name "Mountain Dew" for the first time since 2005 -- like others, calling on its pre-Great Recession identity.
If recent history is any indicator, it'll work. Brands like Miller and Pizza Hut saw huge lifts in sales following retro re-branding efforts.
So why not community banks?
Many community banks have proud histories, often spanning 50 years or more. There’s a tradition of stability in community banking which stands in stark contrast to the new-kid status FinTechs possess.
So use it — but not with coffee table books or branded back scratchers, please. Do it right. Do it cool.
Don’t have a throwback logo? We didn’t either - so we created one, and it was one of the most popular campaigns my former bank ran.
Consumers have told you what they’ll do if you lean in to your history, own your old look and create cool throwback swag. They’re here for it.
The same way I search Facebook Marketplace every so often in search of a pink Mermaid Motel Koozie.