Digital Signage: This Smells Big

I'f you've ever walked down the aisle of a grocery store with a specific task in mind only to find yourself enamored by the smell of the pig in a blanket stand 2 rows over, you've experienced the power of the olfactory sense (smell) within a marketing program. Now it seems, some big names are taking the power of smell to the next level and some of them including digital signage.

Advertising Age published an interesting article this morning about the growing number of companies taking an aggressive approach at an age old tactic. One such company, called Smellavision (sorry, I couldn't find the link to this one) says they are going to 8,000 "scent delivery systems" in Kroger stores over the course of 2007. And if that isn't ambitious enough they've also named 2007 "The year of the scent" :).

Whether you take this approach seriously or not, the likes of Mars, P&G, Kraft and Pepsi Co. are giving it a sniff. Those brands do "stink" of enough cash that they would be able to support the introduction of such systems. It will be interesting to see if the scent of this one lingers or fades away like the smell of the last cold pig in a blanket from the sample stand.

The article in Ad Age can be found here