Amazon teamed up with local businesses in Santa Monica, California to offer 1959 prices from $40 hotel rooms to gas for 30¢ a gallon. The August 15 activation created awareness for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel ahead of the 71st Emmy Awards, for which the show received 20 nominations.

Nostalgia marketing is in full swing across a myriad of brands, but instead of reminding millennials of the 90s, Amazon went back much further to 1959—the setting of its award-winning show, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Maisel Day” invited consumers to “experience 1959 for one marvelous day” at 28 participating businesses, each offering steeply discounted products or services based on the prices of the era. Participating fans enjoyed 51¢ movie tickets, $2 makeovers, Reuben sandwiches for 59¢ and more, while Chevron’s gas for 30¢ a gallon literally brought traffic to a halt. 

The activation inspired social media posts of users’ discounted finds, women donning their 1950s best to participate and overall praise for the show. Others lamented that Maisel Day prices weren’t being offered nationwide.

It’s no coincidence that Aug 15 also happened to kick off the final round of Emmy voting. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel won the Emmy in 2018 for Outstanding Comedy Series, an honor for which it has been nominated again.

Amazon used a similar marketing strategy, although on a smaller scale, to promote the show’s season two premiere in December. The company recreated New York’s historic Carnegie Deli in a pop-up activation to offer discounted sandwiches. The famous deli closed in 2016 but for one day, guests in Lower Manhattan could imagine what it was like to dine there in 1958, as resurrected by the Carnegie Deli owners and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel production team. 

All proceeds from the Carnegie Deli activation were matched by Amazon and donated to The Lower Eastside Girls Club (LESGC). The inclusion of a deli in both promotions corresponds with moments in the show in which characters dine and write jokes in the iconic Stage Deli, which closed in 2012.

Amazon frequently uses experiential marketing to promote its original content. For the release of Good Omens, Amazon erected Instagram-worthy sets around SXSW and filled the streets with actors dressed as various characters in the apocalyptic tale including nuns, angels and demons.