Admin
July 01, 2022

Tropical Hut experienced renewed interest after a tweet went viral. Twitter user JP @dumidyeypee published a tweet showing that he is the only customer in the restaurant's Escolta branch.

The tweet reached thousands of other users and sparked nostalgia, reminding people of the good times they had in Tropical Hut. As a result, Tropical Hut received thousands of orders to the point of struggling with supply issues.

In just a single tweet, Tropical Hut just went from almost zero to 100. Why is that?
To understand why let us analyze what nostalgia and social media can do to your businesses.

The Effect of Nostalgia on People and Businesses

To give you some context, let's start with a brief history of Tropical Hut. The Que family planned to put a coffee shop inside their supermarkets. In 1965, they created the first Tropical Hut in Cubao. Tropical Hut was one of the pioneer fast-food chains in the country and it attracted individuals and families as its patrons.

“Sarap na babalik-balikan,” as their tagline says.

Over the decades, the fast-food chain grew and opened more branches across the nation, thus serving more customers. As a result, it carved the good taste of their food, and the fun times the customers experienced created happy memories.

But like many businesses, Tropical Hut had its downs. The fast-food chain went under the radar of most Filipinos in the mid-2000s and the 2010s. But on June 12, 2022, a single tweet reignited the Filipinos' fond memories of the place and revitalized its business.

As you can see, nostalgia became a bridge for reviving the interest of the Filipino masses. But what's with nostalgia that it can revitalize a business?

1. Makes people happy

Psychologists at the University of Southampton in England found that nostalgia increases positive feelings of happiness while decreasing loneliness. So remembering childhood memories, birthdays, Christmas celebrations, etc. lifts our moods and makes us feel better overall.

With Tropical Hut, the trending tweet about the empty dining halls reminded people of their happy memories in the place all those years ago. By remembering it, they have a part of them that wants to experience it again, hence motivating them to make a purchase.


2. Brings people together

We always associate nostalgic events and shows with certain groups of people, therefore, complete strangers can quickly connect and form communities because of nostalgia.

For example, strangers who grew up in the 90s can quickly relate with each other at the mention of Mara Clara, Dragon Ball, Voltes V, Princess Sarah, Text, or Sineskwela.

In Tropical Hut's case, the nostalgia wave touched many people and started many conversations about it. There were people who shared their memories with their families. And there were also people who shared their love stories that blossomed in the restaurant like Romina and Vichael Landicho's love story.

Starting these conversations played a part in making people interested in getting into what people are talking about.

To expand on the role of nostalgia in businesses, let's look at the most successful movies and franchises in the 2010s. The MCU, Star Wars, Disney Live-Action Adaptations (The Lion King, Aladin, Beauty, and the Beast, etc), Jurassic World, The Incredibles 2, James Bond, Transformers, Jumanji, etc take a large slice of the Box Office pie and enjoys a large fanbase. These movies are adaptations, sequels, or remakes of properties that are old, some even older than us. But because of nostalgia, these franchises enjoy a great deal of success.

If used right, you can also use nostalgia in your businesses. If you want to own a restaurant, you can use pop culture as your theme. Or you can use pop culture references in your marketing or ad campaigns.


What Role Did Social Media Play in Tropical Hut's Recent Success?

Social media did two things to help reinvigorate the public's interest in Tropical Hut.

1. Social media spreads information wide and fast
Social media spreads information 78.5% faster than traditional media. Because of its speed, the single tweet created by the user @dumidyeypee spread like wildfire on Twitter, which has over 10 million Filipino users.
And through that, many people saw the state of Tropical Hut, sparking feelings of sadness and nostalgia. Because of this, many people wanted to relive their memories by visiting or buying food from Tropical Hut.


2. Social media introduced the old restaurant to new customers
Filipino Twitter users belong to different generations and the generation with the most memories of Tropical Hut are the Boomers and the Millennials. When the tweet went viral and started a trend, it inadvertently introduced the fast-food chain to the younger generations, and also others who were not familiar with it.
This resulted in Tropical Hut receiving new customers. Ensuring that more people will support their business. This goes to show that having social media presence expands your business's potential.




SOURCES:
https://pop.inquirer.net/329286/fast-food-chain-tropical-hut-experiences-renewed-interest-from-filipinos
https://www.philstar.com/lifestyle/food-and-leisure/2022/06/22/2190177/tropical-hut-goes-zero-sold-out-after-trending-twitter
https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/nostalgia#:~:text=Nostalgia%20by%20motivating%20us%20to,the%20road%20in%20the%20future.
https://hellogiggles.com/lifestyle/food-drink/reasons-obsessed-nostalgia/
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2022-philippines
https://embolden.world/the-psychology-of-nostalgia/#:~:text=Psychologists%20at%20the%20University%20of,a%20sense%20of%20social%20connectedness.
https://socialnetworking.procon.org/arguments/social-media-spreads-information-faster-than-any-other-media/
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls026040906/