Sensory Upswing

Imagine you’re sitting in a silent room when a sudden wave of petrichor slips into the air, instantly taking you back to your childhood lanes after the first rain. Or imagine hearing a single familiar sound and being transported to a place you haven’t visited in years. Smell, sound, texture and light do something visuals often can’t: they trigger instant, three-dimensional recall. This is the muscle Indian brands are now trying to use, not just for creativity, but to move into more premium, memorable territory.

But why are brands suddenly investing in such sensory experiences? Agencies say the answer lies in how overwhelmed Indian consumers feel today. Kalpesh Patankar, Group CCO, VML India, frames it through behaviour and data. “The push towards sensory branding is a direct response to a deeply felt consumer need - a digital overload. VML’s proprietary research, ‘The Future 100: 2025’, shows that 84% of people feel less present because of technology, creating a strong desire for real-world, tangible interactions. Simultaneously, consumers are experiencing brand fatigue: 72% believe very few brands stand out as different. Sensory branding is the strategic answer,” he says.

Manish Solanki, COO and Co-founder, TheSmallBigIdea, reads the same shift through attention and premiumisation - less about luxury pricing and more about rising expectations from every brand interaction. “The conversation around sensory branding isn’t new, but the urgency is. With 84% of smartphone users skipping ads, we’re in an attention recession era. Premiumisation isn’t just about consumers moving upmarket, it’s about them demanding more from every interaction. Sensory branding fits into this shift because it offers tangibility,” he says. Together, their views show how sensory cues help brands respond to consumer fatigue and justify higher expectations.
In simple terms, sensory branding is about designing a brand across all five senses—scent, sound, sight, touch and taste, rather than relying only on visuals, logos and taglines. For instance, Nestlé this November released a scented Maggi print ad, which used a fragrance-embedded page meant to resemble the familiar Maggi masala aroma, attempting to trigger recognition through smell rather than visuals alone.

Last year, Swiggy Instamart set the stage for this with a mango-scented print ad that readers were invited to ‘read with their nose’. Abhishek Shetty, Marketing Head, Swiggy Instamart, says this came from observing shifting behaviour, “We saw a clear behaviour shift. Visual attention in India is getting shorter, but emotional memory is still built through the senses. The only way to stand out was to step into a sensory space that was empty.” He adds, “Food and essentials are ‘scent-first’ categories, and the question became: what if Instamart could be recognised even with eyes closed?” The brand then tracked impact through attention quality, recall strength, and cultural response.

These early print activations demonstrate the potential of scent to prompt instant recognition, but they operate within tight, controlled formats. For players like NR Group, scent is moving into large-format experiences. At the International Purple Fest in Goa, the brand unveiled a 125-foot agarbathi that was ceremonially lit, and at the Nehru Trophy Boat Race in Kerala, it opened the event with a six-foot ‘Akhand Jyothi’. These activations shift fragrance from a personal ritual to a shared, public experience. Amarnath Dutta, CMO, NR Group, says, “Agarbathi is not just seen, it is felt. These milestones show how Cycle Pure and IRIS creates experiences that people can smell, see, and remember. Sensory branding enables us to move beyond visuals and invite people to truly live the brand,” he says. He notes that while these experiences require investment, they deliver long-term equity: “Immersive launches deliver far greater earned media value than traditional campaigns, and sensory retail pilots consistently show stronger conversions.”

Much like fragrance, which moves from a whiff in a print ad to an immersive presence at public events, sonic cues too are expanding beyond traditional jingles. The shift reflects a broader move toward sensory consistency, where a brand’s identity is reinforced by what it makes people feel, in moments when visuals are fleeting or absent.

It’s this search for sensory anchors that’s bringing older sonic cues back into circulation. For example, McDonald’s ‘I’m lovin’ it’, Britannia’s ‘Ting Ting Ti-Ding’ and even the ‘I ’m a Complan boy’ jingle have resurfaced across generations, the latter two even revived with Zepto recently. These sonic hooks act as micro-signatures for the brands and this is the exact arena Rajeev Raja, Founder & Soundsmith, BrandMusiq, operates in. “Sound touches people faster, more deeply and adds a whole new dimension to your visual identity. When we decode a brand’s emotional DNA and translate it into music, clients begin to see how a sonic identity can unify their experience across every ‘earpoint’, becoming a part of how people feel and experience the brand,” he explains. His recent work on BLR Airport’s sonic identity– ‘Rhythm of BLR’, shows how sound now sits at the core of spatial branding as well.

BLR Airport is one of the few spaces where this idea of multi-sensory identity comes together fully. Its sonic identity doesn’t operate in isolation; it forms part of a broader effort to craft an environment that engages passengers across senses. Terminal 2 fulfils this by pairing the sonic layer with its signature fragrance, ‘Dancing Bamboo’, creating a more layered sensory experience.

Shalini Rao, Chief Marketing Officer, BIAL, sees this as part of a long-term strategy, “At BLR Airport, every journey is a chance to create moments that truly connect with our passengers. Our signature fragrance, crafted in collaboration with Aéromé, brings this philosophy to life. It reflects our belief that exceptional travel is shaped by thoughtful sensory cues across every touchpoint.” The airport has positioned itself as an experience hub with its own premium, recognisable atmosphere.

Hotels have taken a similar route. At Taj, sensory signatures ensure continuity across a portfolio stretching from palaces to city hotels and safari lodges. Taljinder Singh, Senior Vice President, IHCL, says, “With a legacy spanning over 120 years, Taj has consistently introduced signature touches that go beyond the visual including the fragrance that greets guests in its lobbies and the textures and tones that define its spaces. The new sound signature builds on this foundation, offering a multi-sensory experience that is instantly recognisable.”

However, with these examples, the question arises: does sensory branding influence premium perception? Industry watchers note that premium today is less about rarity and more about resonance. With products becoming harder to differentiate on specs alone, brands are using sensory cues to create depth and the automobile sector is emerging as a key space where these cues are being pushed beyond the showroom. Parikshit Bhattaccharya, Chief Creative Officer, BBH India, says, “In today’s dynamic environment, brands are expected to be omnipresent and engage audiences effectively across multiple channels. Today’s consumers want more than content and screens; they want experiences they can feel. They connect more deeply with brands when there’s a sensory or immersive layer they can hold on to.” Even though the Škoda Octavia RS sold out 100 units in 20 minutes, BBH created an interactive microsite and a ‘Driver’s Seat’ perfume so that fans could experience the car differently. Success was measured in engagement and long-term affinity, not sales.

Josy Paul, CCO & Chairperson, BBDO India, shares another example, “Mercedes-Benz’s ‘Dream Days’ campaign is a clear example: by transforming a newspaper’s front page into a tactile Mercedes steering wheel, the brand tapped into a core insight - that Indians don’t just admire luxury, they want to feel it.” He adds that the tactile experience, supported by film, digital and showroom touchpoints, created both immediate attention and long-term brand value.

Beyond long-term systems, one-off experiences too are emerging as strong premium signals. They show that premium can be created not just through consistency, but through sharp, memorable moments that let consumers briefly inhabit a brand’s universe. For example, Myntra’s M-Now marked its first anniversary with a six-foot edible billboard in a Mumbai mall. Created by Sociowash, this billboard was fully consumed in 40 minutes and it transformed passive onlookers into active participants, giving consumers a direct taste of the brand’s playful identity, while adding them into the celebration.

Similarly, Skyscanner’s Snack Transit pop-up, invited visitors to sample snacks from other countries, turning global snacking into a travel metaphor. It was free to enter, but the playful, exploratory experiences made them feel more premium. Neel Ghose, Travel Trends and Destination Expert, Skyscanner, says, “By bringing over 3,000+ snacks from 16 countries to the heart of Delhi and Mumbai, we created a pop-up experience that blends the joy of discovery with a sense of convenience, much like what travellers encounter when they’re abroad. It was a celebration of global flavours, an immersive journey through taste, and a unique way to introduce. We were thrilled to see over 2000+ curious visitors engage with the experience.”

But does embracing sensory branding bring its own challenges? Execution isn’t always simple. Bringing a fragrance, texture or sound to life outside controlled environments often means navigating unpredictable variables, from venue conditions to technical precision. Fritz Gonsalves and Jayesh Raut, Executive Creative Directors, Ogilvy Mumbai, say, “Not just sensory, instead multi-sensory branding is the way forward because it stays with you for long. Calling it operationally complex is putting it mildly. Honestly, it’s a nightmare. But the process and the final product are pretty awesome. As for measuring impact, there are only two parameters: brand love and sales. At least one—or ideally both, should go up.”

And it’s this tension - high effort but potentially high impact, that fuels the belief that sensory work can unlock deeper value for brands. Marketers suggests that these experiences are no longer peripheral but central. Kalpesh backs this with data: 75% of people travel for the experiences they’ll have rather than the destination itself, and 85% of shoppers say the best thing about physical stores is their ability to engage all the senses. He argues that multisensory environments allow brands to justify premium pricing and “transform a simple product into an identity-defining experience.”

So, where this shift ultimately leads will depend on how consistently brands turn sensory cues into long-term strategic assets rather than isolated experiments. But the early signals are already visible: India’s premium future is being shaped in scent trails, sound notes and textures that stay long after the ads around them fade.