Nostalgic Advertising Enhances Brand Name Recall by Reactivating Brand‐Related Autobiographical Memories, Especially for Familiar and Personally Relevant Brands

ABSTRACT Consumers are more likely to choose brands they recall easily, yet achieving brand name recall is increasingly difficult amid saturated markets and aging populations. While nostalgic advertising is known to boost persuasiveness, its role in enhancing brand awareness remains underexplored. This study investigates whether nostalgic‐autobiographical advertising improves brand name recall more effectively than factual‐semantic advertising by reactivating brand‐related autobiographical memories. Across three within‐subjects experiments, adult participants were exposed to either factual ads emphasizing brand information or nostalgic ads evoking personal brand experiences, featuring 12–16 brands from their youth. Results from delayed free recall tasks showed that nostalgic ads enhanced brand name recall more than factual ads, particularly when strong prior brand memories existed. Manipulation checks confirmed that nostalgic ads more effectively reactivated autobiographical memories, using self‐report measures (Studies 1 and 3) and pupillary and saccadic eye‐movement data (Study 2). Importantly, Study 3 demonstrated that this effect held for both younger and older consumers with ads tailored to generation‐specific brand experiences. These findings contribute to marketing theory by showing that nostalgic ads can strengthen brand awareness through memory‐based mechanisms, and they offer actionable insights for marketers aiming to improve brand recall by aligning nostalgic content with consumers' brand experiences.