Pre-digital is a growing biz

New York magazine recently wrote about the revival of pre-digital communications. There are numerous new businesses that are peddling everything from typewriters and vinyl records to movie projectors and writing supplies, all of which were left for dead with the advent of the digital age.

This resurgence is fueled by a couple of factors:

1. History moves in cycles. We’ve discussed the recent nostalgic marketing trend in our blog and newsletter – because nostalgia evokes potent memories and emotions of comfort.
2. The collectible factor. There’s a passion and delight in finding rare, limited available items. Not to mention the buying and selling of rare items is big business. For example, it’s reported that eBay users buy and sell six vinyl records each minute (or an average of one every ten seconds) totaling more than three million records each year.

In a nod to the revival of the written word, we’ve learned of Gilded Age Greetings, via Pursuitist, a Florida-based luxe etailer that launched a couture line of greeting cards. Couture meaning lavish, one-of-a-kind greeting cards, miniature works of art created in the style of illuminated renaissance manuscripts using 15th century craftsman techniques, fine materials (e.g. gemstones) to produce some of the world’s most expensive greeting cards.

In fact, many things that used to be popular re-surface again. Think about it: Hollywood spends a lot of time and money producing spin-offs and remakes. Some of the manufacturers use retro elements in their packaging and advertising – like Tide did earlier this summer – for a limited time, P&G offered its three products such as Tide, Bounce and Downy in original early version of their package – vintage package on the outside, today’s performance on the inside. And models – Nike launched an Air Jordan 13 Retro Playoff sneaker, a reiteration of the original version that was introduced in 1998.