A European market research firm called Cinescent is claiming victory for its first smell-o-vision test run on behalf of Nivea. Exit polls showed a whopping 515% rise in recall for the scent-accompanied ad compared with the no-scent version.

The 60-second Nivea spot featured sun-bathers lolling on a beach. Before the product ID flashed on screen, the product’s distinctive fragrance was pumped into cinemas – followed by a product logo and the headline ‘Nivea. The scent of summer.’

Now a UK company is working on bringing the technology to British moviegoers. ‘We are talking to a handful of clients, including sun cream, bread, coffee, perfume, air fresheners and chocolate manufacturers,’ says Mike Hope-Milne, enterprise director at London-based Pearl & Dean.

And what does the author of a new book called ‘Whiff!’ think of the technique as a potentially successful marketing tool? Dubbing it ‘endorphin branding,’ C. Russell Brumfield says he believes the psychological and emotional feelings the sense of smell has long been known to evoke could be a boon to marketers.