For many, the future is a scary thought. Nostalgia is set to become an extreme sport as brands, technology, and institutions find innovative ways to recreate the only safe space we really know: the past. A renewed interest in history is making an immersive comeback as people gravitate to experiences, content, and legacy-preservation tech that keeps the past alive.

As outlined in our 2023 Top Trends report, we expect to see more large-scale, immersive experiences that bring history to life, AI-generated art that pulls from past and present styles, a surge of historical fiction and non-fiction in entertainment, and tech that preserves the memories of loved ones post-mortem.

We’ve taken one of those trends, Living History, and brought it to life through signals and thought starters. Our goal is to illustrate how marketers can begin to translate trends into culture-relevant business-driving activities. 

For example: The metaverse can be a portal to the exploration of past worlds — like 80’s shopping malls or fictional towns from your favorite TV shows. Retailers can facilitate access to these virtual spaces by selling products inspired by a specific time, place, or entertainment property. A store selling retro Atari game apparel (or an 80’s movie makeup color palate) can have a custom QR code tag that, when scanned, takes you to a metaverse portal for immersion into 8-bit games like Frogger or Space Invaders

For more examples, click ‘download PDF’ below.