Mood Media Install Sight, Sound & Smell System Into Spanish Retailer

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Mood Media Install Sight, Sound & Smell System Into Spanish Retailer.

Audio specialists, Mood Media have deployed the first video, audio and aroma 'multi-sensory' digital signage installation in Europe - for Leroy Merlin, a Spanish home furnishings retailer.

As customers arrive at the store they are met with a lotus flower fragrance; in the gardening section a floral perfume, and in the bathroom a 'fresh marine'. At the same time different music - including themes such as 'lounge', 'nature' and 'sophisticated' - are distributed to match both aroma and merchandise.

The video element is supplied by 11 plasma screens - showing loops of tailored content; covering relevant 'mood images', promotions and corporate information.

AKA COMMENT

Sounds and smells send strong signals to the brain - and can be very efficiently used to relax and engage customers. The risks remains that people are more likely to respond negatively to sounds and smells, than to video. For certain sounds or smells can be far more acutely evocative of a negative experience than images. That said, if done right, it can also have the equivalent positive outcome.

In the middle ground - it is unlikely that anyone is going to complain of the noise of gentle birdsong and the smell of the great outdoors - and the move towards combinations of media that provide this 'enhanced' multi-sensory reaction are likely to grow ever more prevalent as the results become better documented.