Scented Casinos, Smell o Vision and Scented Subliminal Suggestion©

Scents have been proven to help create an emmersive and engaging environment and have many applications. The idea behind scent marketing is to make the customer feel comfortable and encourage association, emotions and human impulses based on the scents. Tests have actually shown that scents can be used to boost the numbers of sales and the value of each sale- up selling. This has its obvious benefits in the retail market place and has been used at hotels to help relax customers.

But what about casino's? people spend money here right? you can up sell and profit from your customers comfort levels right? Well casinos have actually been using scents for decades. One study conducted by DR. Alan Hirsch in 1993 found that scents do indeed have a positive effect - for the casino! Revenues from slot machines increased by 45%, this was an important discovery proving the scents ability to influence and in this instance loose friends!


The scents also affected the customers perception of time, Time is money in casinos, many customers were staying for longer and spending more on the various luxuries available. Today every Las Vegas Casino uses at least one signature scent in their campaign to 'make you feel good' and to empty your pockets, because it takes longer its not considered robbery!

No seriously, we could talk about the moral and subliminal manipulation aspects of this activity but if you are going out to gamble chances are you will loose anyway, you may as well have a good time loosing! Scented Subliminal Suggestion© as i like to call it, is in itself not a good or bad thing it's in the application.

The lessons learned from these studies show this technology can be used anywhere. Bars and clubs instantly come to mind. McCarthy, C. (1992) Aromatic Merchandising: Leading Customers by the Nose showed that scents can be used to amplify themes and moods and hence have the ability to enhance the customers perception of well being and comfort and further increase their spending. Vroon, P. (1997) Smell: The Secret Seducer shows that scents can be manipulated for very specific demographics very much like music.

Smell o vision emerges. I push for the personal olfaction device, I honestly believe the company to achieve this will achieve benefits greater than those companies targeting the retail and larger markets. We have all been witness to the Colossal growth of the online casino and gambling markets. Already huge figures of money have been spent on identifying the susceptible age groups for each casino and casinos have even been created to Target niches in demographic. Just like music!

Online casinos are among the many that will have immediate and profitable benefits from such a personal smell o vision device. Already these Casinos are benefiting from the reduced costs of conducting business online. It may be a good idea for the companies to brand a range of scents and smell o vision devices and give them away for free to their customers.

1- They are adding value to their customer & promoting offline advertising/curiosity
2- They may be able to offer back end offers for these clients - to create profit
3- The euphoria of a win can be amplified and encourage betting
4- They will improve brand awareness and customer retention (difficult online)
5- Customers will spend more time and have a fun emmersive experience
6- They will initially have a major USP, people will be curious and come and investigate and eventually get hooked. Gambling is a drug guys.

Lucky Number 7 - They will introduce the damn expensive machines to the public and eventually bring these curious customers to the smell-o-vision.tv doorstep and begin the ball rolling. I am willing to bet many gamblers are susceptible to online video sites and entertainment, and with their credit cards to hand are likely to make online purchases.

Smells good.