Research Note: Nostalgia as the Future for Branding Entertainment Media? The Consumption of Personal and Historical Nostalgic Films and Its Effects

Abstract

Nostalgia is increasingly and successfully used as a means to brand entertainment media. However, there is a significant gap in empirical investigations which consider the effects of different types of nostalgic responses to films. Hence, the contribution of this chapter lies first in answering the question of which films evoke which type of nostalgia in media recipients. In our investigation of 41 movies released between 2010 and 2013 we found that not only wellknown and old, but also relatively unknown and very recent film stimuli are capable of evoking personal and/or historical nostalgia. Secondly, our main studies (n ¼ 217) reveal that personal and historical nostalgia through films have significant positive effects on attitudes towards the media brand, buying intentions, affective response, and mood. The results of our study help to apply both kinds of nostalgia to media branding to gain competitive advantages in times of digitalization, saturated media markets, and media crises.