Have you ever heard someone say something like, “That smell reminds me of my grandma’s house!” or “Ooh, this song takes me back.”?  We might treat these expressions like conversational throwaways, but they hint at something deeper: how interconnected our senses and memory really are.

We process the world through sensory layers; a memory of Thanksgiving Day, for example, includes the taste of the food, the clink of glasses, the smell of turkey in the air. When you market to multiple senses, you create an opportunity to be memorable. For creative professionals and marketers, this offers an incredible opportunity.  Print isn’t just something you see. It’s something you feel and, in some cases, something you can smell.

Research into sensory crosstalk and synesthesia—the phenomenon where people can taste sounds or see colors—shows that our brains are wired to combine sensory input into unified, memorable experiences. The combined impact of scent and marketing is measurable and the data tells us that pairing the two creates a richer, stickier experience. The New York Times reports that 81% of consumers reported they would select a product they could smell and see over a product they could see only.

Even without the scent being present at the moment of recall, people often remember more about a brand’s attributes than if they had previously experienced the product without a scent applied. That’s why in Cougar Paper Trails Volume 3: Make the Journey Colorful, we leaned into the science and featured a pine-scented varnish, applied on Cougar® Natural 80 lb. Text, Smooth Finish.

Scented varnishes are created using one of two approaches: encapsulated varnishes, commonly found in scratch-and-sniff applications, and non-encapsulated varnishes, which were used in this sample. In the former, fragrance oils are sealed within tiny capsules, which are then incorporated into printing inks or coatings. In the method we used, the fragrance is applied using a varnish containing a scent in oil form so that it emits a fragrance continuously without needing physical activation (like scratching). This oil is also what’s used to give candles their scent, resulting in a lasting scent without impacting recyclability.

Choosing to feature a scented varnish was a strategic creative decision to invite readers to engage their senses of smell and touch by interacting with the page and, ideally, create a memory of print’s true capabilities.

Want to see (and smell) it for yourself? 

Request your copy of Make the Journey Colorful today.