NZ will test smell-o-vision next year

Marketers who were planning to flood viewers with the smell of fresh donuts when they played the video of the Simpsons animated movie – to be released next month – have lowered their sights on trying out the technology.

"Initially, we were trying to get Scent-A-Vision off the ground in New Zealand for The Simpsons Movie release in December but had some production issues with the product," said Brad Smith of Apollo Marketing in Auckland.

"We still plan to use NZ as a test market in 2008 around some of the other bigger movie properties coming out".

Carmine Santandrea, chief executive of ScentAndrea, a Californian scent-marketing company, told the Los Angeles Times earlier this year the DVD would be trialled in NZ so that viewers could smell donuts during certain scenes – if they bought special scent machines.

"Scent has the longest memory and is the most powerful emotional motivator, and that's what advertising is all about," said Mr Santandrea.

Mr Smith said yesterday that a smaller-scale scent promotion would still be run in the Civic Video chain to gauge customer reaction.

A "dry air" scent system will be installed in the chain's Glenfield store in Auckland, to release a donut fragrance.

Use of scents has become a popular marketing tool in the USA, where companies are capitalising on the fact that smell is the sense most directly linked to the emotions.

A new mobile phone from Korean electronics company LG was launched in US retail stores with the aroma of chocolate, and Westin Hotel lobbies are injected with "white tea" a blend of tea, geranium, ivy, cedar and freesia scents.

- NZPA