Multisensory branding has arrived in the Middle East, with the pairing of scent alongside sound to strengthen emotional recall.
UK-based sonic branding agency DLMDD is among the first to test the idea locally, unveiling a scent-and-sound offering with Quintessence Fragrances at Beauty World Middle East 2025.
“Scent is the most powerful human sense for memory and has long held a meaningful place in culture throughout the Middle East,” said Max De Lucia, Co-Founder, DLMDD. “Yet, it remains one of the most underused tools in branding.”
“As branding increasingly considers all five senses, the natural next step from identity in sound is identity in scent.”
“DLMDD is now the first agency to bring sound and scent creation together in one place, offering brands in the Middle East and beyond the chance to explore multisensory identity in a unified creative approach.” he said.
A new solution to fragmentation
De Lucia said the scent and sound branding tackles the Middle East’s challenges of fragmented attention, cluttered media, and “the simple reality that a large proportion of branding and advertising isn’t even linked back to the right brand.”
Recent research from marketing effectiveness and research leaders System1 shows sonic assets can boost brand awareness by 191 per cent when used in the first seconds of an experience – outperforming slogans, characters and even logos.
Writer Martin Lindstrom wrote in his iconic book Brand Sense that “the sense of smell emotionally affects humans up to 75 per cent more than any other sense.”
A widely referenced Nike study comparing scented and unscented retail environments found that introducing a signature scent increased sales by 15 per cent, lifted perceived product value by around 20 per cent, and made 84 per cent of customers say they were more likely to purchase in the scented space.
“[When you] think about the potential scent-points for a brand, you start to realise the opportunities are far more multifaceted than they first appear,” De Lucia said, listing the obvious physical spaces such as retail environments, plane cabins, hospitality lounges and so on.
“But scent isn’t limited to place and it remains surprisingly under-explored beyond it,” he said, referencing how even a product’s packaging can provide a powerful first impression.
“Ever unboxed a new MacBook? It smells like precision and possibility,” he said, adding that brands can already extend this strategy across existing channels – from scented pull-outs in print and billboards in OOH to growing experimentation with interactive formats like connected cars and smart homes.
“In other words, brands don’t need entirely new channels,” he said. “Just a more sensory lens on the touchpoints they already own.”
The process and payoff of scent and sonic branding
To create a brand’s signature scent and sound, DLMDD will work through a phased approach of discovery, creative development and activation.
The agency’s composers will collaborate with perfumers to develop bespoke sound and scent identities before testing and deploying them across brand touchpoints.
In terms of payoff, De Lucia said: “As recent System1/Effie analysis shows, effectiveness comes from emotion, consistency and clear brand attribution.”
“In a region defined by rich sensory culture and rapidly expanding across hospitality, retail and digital touchpoints, the opportunity is to strengthen distinctive cues,” he added.
According to him, sound and scent offer powerful, underused identifiers that build emotional memory and make brand recognition easier across environments.
“In short, the challenge is attribution in a distracted world,” he said. “Multisensory branding helps fix that.”
