A recent trip to the North Carolina State Fair was a great reminder of how effective engaging the senses can be as a marketing tactic.

Several hours, two buckets of taco salad, a perfectly normal funnel cake, a something else that was called a funnel cake but clearly was not, a couple of lemon shake-ups, a roasted corn on a stick, a half pound of salt water taffy (vanilla — it’s the only choice for taffy), a few cheap game prizes and six goldfish later, our senses had certainly been stimulated!

Thinking about this caused me to flashback to my days as a guest relations intern at Walt Disney World. I remember being surprised to learn that there was a system to blow the smell of the candy shop out into Main Street. Mmmmmmm. And it worked! It was difficult to walk by without going in to buy some of whatever they were making that smelled so darn good.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be looking at other companies who creatively engage the senses to capture consumer attention. If you have interesting sensory marketing examples, please let us know!