Imagine flicking through a recipe book and smelling the food through the pages, reading a book infused with scents, or picking up your junk mail to throw it in the bin, only to discover that you can actually smell the product its advertising.
Creative Directors at the advertising agency, DC Thomson & Co may not have branched out into the realm of scented food ads, but they have created a newspaper advert for the Scottish based IT company, BusinessPort, that smells of real coffee beans. Ingenious – now you can literally wake up, read the paper and smell the coffee.
You’d think the advert would be more appropriate for a company selling coffee machines or other coffee based products, but BusinessPort wanted to be innovative and attract more attention. They certainly accomplished that. An advert for an IT company smelling of coffee beans, isn’t exactly what you’d expect is it?
The advert first appeared in the Scottish newspaper, the Press and Journal and is said to be the first of its kind for the paper. As a result, BusinessPort hope to get people talking about it and buying their products. Other adverts on the radio and social media platforms have also helped to promote the idea.
So how does it work? When I first heard about this, perfume ads sprung to mind – the kind where you peel back the bit of foil and rub the scent over your neck and wrists only to discover that you’re not a huge fan of it.
However, BusinessPort’s coffee infused ad has been made differently. The coffee bean scent was actually injected directly into the ink to create the effect.
So, what next for the future of advertising? Will we start to see and smell more scented messages? Will the idea take off or is it just a bit intrusive? I’m sure we’ll find out in due course.