Smelly Ads

Media Life: The Wall Street Journal is smelling out a new way to advertise. The newspaper, which recently debuted a new design, is gearing up to offer advertisers the ability to run scented ads. These ads would be on the regular newspaper pages and not on inserts, according to details that emerged in yesterday’s earnings conference call. Rather than lifting a flap, the way most current scent advertising is distributed, the reader would rub the ad in order to release the scent, much like the scratch-and-sniff stickers kids play with. The paper has not yet completely refined the technology, but so far it has developed the ability to create chocolate and perfume scents. A WSJ spokesperson this morning said that no advertisers have been approached yet about using the technology, which is part of the paper’s push to find new ways to add value for advertisers.
A smelly proposition: WSJ sniffing out scented ads [Media Life]