It’s time to revisit some old technology. I am sure everyone remembers reading about the asinine ideas brought around by the first generation of marketing, very gimmicky and very out there. A technology (if you want to call it that) that has been of interest as of late is Smell-O-Vision, the new incarnation of course.

“One of the more curious fad gimmicks of the period was Smell-O-Vision, a process initiated in 1960 by Mike Todd, Jr., son of the famed showman. Mike Todd, Sr. had entertained the world with his massive production of AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956), but sadly, perished in a plane crash in 1958. Todd, Jr. invested his inheritance in the development of Smell-O-Vision, a process in which evocative smells were pumped to the cinema audience through pipes leading to individual seats in the auditorium. Bottles of scent were held on a rotating drum and the process was triggered by a signal on the film itself. Only one film, SCENT OF A MYSTERY, was made in Smell-O-Vision and was far from a milestone in movie history. Mike Todd, Jr. lost his entire investment and left the film business. As an added audience incentive, Eddie Fisher, best friend of Mike Todd, Sr. and, at the time, the husband of Todd’s widow, Elizabeth Taylor, sang the memorable theme song from SCENT OF A MYSTERY. Filmmaker, John Waters, paid homage to Smell-O-Vision with his 1980 film, POLYESTER. Waters created the process of Odorama and, rather than pumping in scents, used individual audience “Scratch and Sniff” cards.”

Ideas like this are often what revolutionize an industry, sadly and ironically this one was not marketed correctly. Which brings us to present day; companies such as Mars, Pepsi and certain dog food manufacturers have been using the newly coined “scent technology” to attract peoples to their supermarket displays. Mars has used the aroma of their M&M’s around the checkout display, Pepsi has inserted cherry vanilla inserts into magazines and dog food manufacturers have put dog food scented stickers in the dog food aisle and out front of pet stores to attract the dogs so their owners would take them in to the store.

“Our olfactory sense is the most primal of all the senses and is extremely powerful, much more invasive than reading or hearing something,” said Jack Sullivan, senior VP and out-of-home media director for Starcom. “Why it’s not used more often is beyond me.” But he did offer some reasons: There’s always the possibility that an olfactory campaign might offend, and “huge concern over people with allergies.”

This has not stopped marketers like Carmine Santandrea, who is the CEO of Multisensory Communications. He is putting special scent delivery systems on the floor displays of the electronics department (specifically televisions) of stores like Kroger and Wal-Mart.

What marketers have learned from the past is that not only do you need to come up with the idea, you need to market a marketing idea (profound, right?). Not only do you need to find a product that will benefit from the technology, things like bread and jam are probably not going to grow much in sales as they have plateaued, you must make sure it is a product where the aroma is pivotal to the positioning of the product itself.

I for one think that this is a very interesting idea to revisit. Marketing has become very sophisticated and mature since its early days and marketers seem ready to take on more intricate and advanced forms of advertising. Perhaps Smell-O-Vision was ahead of its time, perhaps it will never work. One thing is for sure though, some people are enamored with it and want to see it succeed. Imagine when Smell-O-Vision starts getting served through your television or computer. It could really enhance not only your viewing experience but also the overall experience. I for one think I would be more likely to buy something if I could experience it with just more than one sense. For example, imagine watching a political ad, when the candidates opponent is shown they could spray the scent of feces into the room (I know this is an extreme example) and since memory is tied so closely with scent you might not vote for that person on Election Day. I am sure Smell-O-Vision will have many interesting applications. In the mean time you can read more about it Here.

Here is a fun example of how some companies have used “scent technology” to relate smells to memory. Play-Doh.

And finally, this is not related to this article but it was way too cool to pass up. Remember how Tom Cruise was using computers in Minority Report? Check This Out:

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 11th, 2006 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.