Bloom grocery stores, part of Food Lion, recently unveiled one of the nation's first scented billboards. Accompanied by a gigantic depiction of a fork piercing a piece of meat, the sign in Mooresville, NC, pumps the smell of sizzling steak to passing drivers along River Highway.
The scent, described as a mix of black pepper and charcoal, promotes the supermarket's new Sheffield & Sons' Angus beef, according to The Charlotte Observer. Formulated by ScentAir of Charlotte, NC, the scent is strongest during rush hours, 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and then again from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. A high-powered fan at the bottom of the billboard spreads the aroma by blowing air over cartridges loaded with fragrance oil.
"It smells like grilled meat with a nice pepper rub on it," said ScentAir marketing director Murray Dameron.
The Observer article noted that many businesses use scents to create ambiance. ScentAir itself has provided fragrance-delivery systems for hotel lobbies, casino gambling floors and retail stores. Outside, it made Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida smell like oranges for the 2008 World Series. But Bloom represents its first roadside effort.
Indeed, outdoor scent-based marketing is extremely rare. The most famous instance came in San Francisco in 2006, when California's milk promotion board installed strips that gave bus shelters the smell of fresh chocolate chip cookies. While drawing wide press, the installations were quickly taken down after complaints from people with asthma or allergies, as well as moral concerns over whether the odors were only teasing poor or homeless people. The milk board said the smells were safe at the time.
ScentAir likewise said the fragrances used in Mooresville are safe and Bloom hadn't received any complaints by the time the article ran. But that's possibly because it hasn't worked as hoped. Designed to drive the scents 30 to 50 feet away, scents were tough to perceive outside of 15 feet, according to the article.
Jeff Golimowski, spokesman for the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, agreed that weather and wind patterns represent challenges to outdoor scent marketing. But he noted that scent marketing overall has been growing slowly since it's tough to measure its ROI.
On the positive side, Mr. Golimoski noted that more so than other senses, scents evoke strong memories. And while the San Francisco experiment showed they can be negative, they can also be positive.
"It's another way that out-of-home advertising is adapting to new technologies," Mr. Golimowski said. "You see digital billboards, Bluetooth-enabled bus shelters, mobile phone apps. Something like this that engages all of the consumer's senses, and really evokes a sensation and memory, is another very interesting step."
Discussion Questions: What do you think of the potential of outdoor scent marketing? What do you think of scent as a marketing tool overall?