As many of you know, multi-sensory products and services are one of my favorite subjects. Here are the past trend articles I’ve written on this inspiring topic: Sensational Technology Continues, High-Tech Sensory Concepts, Sensory Sensations, Multi-Sensory Experiences, Multi-Sensorial Products – You Fill Up My Senses, and Multi-Sensory Technology – Sensory Overload. This year innovation does not cease and new introductions with a focus on alternative scent applications are launching.
Alternative Scent Applications: Consumers continually look for new fragrance applications and brands are responding. Jo Malone London Box Hedge Square Scent is designed to scent your belongings with the fragrance of an English garden. It’s portable and can be placed in luggage, drawers, or wardrobes. In May, By Killian rolled out a new perfumed jewelry collection called Attache-Moi. The designs feature earrings, cuffs, bracelets, and necklaces, which all incorporate a tiny pair of handcuffs and are colored to correspond to a different fragrance. For example, Love Don’t Be Shy is colored orange and scented citrus while Rose Oud is pink and floral. Al Hilal Bank released a credit card with a built-in “applet” that absorbs the smell of perfume, aimed at attracting female customers. The card also comes with a nicely boxed signature scent and a number of perks, from discounts for female-centric brands to airport lounge access.
Fashion Forward: Fashion brands have been experimenting with incorporating fragrance into their products and accessories. Hiro Clark and Le Labo collaborated to launch the limited edition “Smells Like You Scented T-shirt collection” featuring two cotton t-shirts encapsulated with Le Labo’s Santal 33 fragrance. The scent was said to last for about a dozen washings. Juniper Ridge’s Desert Denim Wash is an all natural / petrochemical-free, dry-wash spray for premium denim jeans. Fashion brand BCBG Max Azria teamed up with Magnum ice cream to launch the limited edition Belgian Chocolate Wrap, a new “fashion accessory” scented with chocolate. An oldie, but goodie, is Galeria Melissa, the Brazilian shoe store in NYC, which features a large selection of tutti-frutti scented plastic shoes. Givenchy partnered with Fauchon, the French gourmet food and pastry company, to develop a limited-edition Very Irrésistible de Givenchy Éclair. Pastry chef Patrick Pailler used Tahitian vanilla scented with rose for the filling, and a white chocolate shell decorated with a bouquet of roses for the top.
Scent Installations: Experiencing scent through installations is becoming a popular medium. To celebrate the launch of a new scent created for boutique desert property El Cosmico, in Marfa, TX, D.S. & Durga created a fragrance scent installation described as having hints of sumac, pinyon pine, oak, mesquite, sand, and woods. In NYC, Chanel recently featured a pop-up exhibit titled “Chanel No. 5 In A New Light,” which was self-described as a journey through “the creation, cultivation, composition, abstraction, and revelation of the world’s first modern fragrance.” UK fragrance brand Illuminum created “Colour as a Narrative” installation, which features 37 different scents and encourages consumers to experience “invisible colours revealed only by the nose.”
Edible & Interactive: In Indianapolis, Coke Zero and Ogilvy & Mather installed a “drinkable billboard” as part of its NCAA Men’s Final Four competition sponsorship in April. The interactive billboard dispensed soda through a 4,500 foot straw that spelled out “Taste It” and led to a sampling station with six fountain spouts. Peru features an Air Orchard roadside billboard ad that generates fresh lettuce and fresh water for the local community. In May, across the pond, The Waldorf Project, “an immersive experience on a grand stage in which art is consumed through all of the senses,” showcased the Experimental Research Laboratory Chapter Three in London’s King’s Cross station. The exhibit “united the senses through food, scent, drink, movement, sound, and environment,” and the full Chapter Three/FUTURO installment will be introduced in 2016. Taste is such a hot topic that London’s Tate Museum is rolling out a Taste Sensorium exhibit, “featuring paintings that you can taste” in the fall of 2015.
Summer is here. While your senses are hot, let Trendincite LLC custom-design a sizzling, multi-sensory trend excursion to engage your five senses and stimulate new product ideas.