Nostalgia is defined as a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for or return to some past period.
What groups drive licensing sales? Millennials: a large consumer group composed of those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s; Generation X: those born right before the millennials, between 1965 and 1981; and baby boomers: parents and grandparents of millennials and Generation X. What do these three groups have in common? Nostalgia.
The yearning for the good ol’ days is not limited to those of Tom Brokaw’s Greatest Generation or the baby boomers. We see a continual trend in licensing for all things nostalgic by those of the millennial generation as well. Millennials, grandchildren of the baby boomers, are the ones driving the trends in licensing, including categories such as fashion, sports, home entertainment, board games, coloring books, and home cooking.