Dunkin’ Donuts Flavor Radio

From South Korea, a jaw dropping campaign that mixes radio, ambient and a (not so light) touch of Big Brother. In order to increase awareness of Dunkin’ Donuts as a coffee brand and drive traffic to the stores, coffee aroma atomizers got installed on commuters buses in Seoul. The machines were triggered every time the Dunkin’ Donuts radio ad was played, releasing in the air a light coffee aroma to reinforce the sensory connection and experience with the brand.

More than 350,000 people experienced the ad during the campaign, visitors to the Dunkin’ Donuts stores increased by 16% and sales went up 29%.

Pretty amazing numbers for a pretty amazing, yet scary, creative idea. For once, even if I admire the minds who came up with this concept, as a consumer or, simply, a citizen, I wish other advertiser won’t be inspired by it. This kind of sensory experience is already pretty popular at retail, so I hope we can be left alone at least when we walk on the streets or we commute to work…

Kudos to Cheil Worldwide for the idea.