Can You Trademark a Smell? And Why That Matters to Marketers in 2025
Let’s talk about the smell of Play-Doh. Or freshly photocopied paper. Or the heady mix of spilt coffee and carpet cleaner in a Wellington coworking space. These aren’t just smells. They’re memory grenades. Sensory shorthands. And they might just be the next frontier for brand loyalty, if the marketing lawyers ever catch up with their noses.
In 2025, brand identity isn’t flattening into sameness. It’s getting physical, visceral—uncannily specific. We’ve all seen how sound has snuck into the marketing playbook. Think Netflix’s ‘da-dum’ or the ASB cash jingle. But smell? That’s still largely uncharted territory. Which is odd, considering it’s processed by the limbic brain, the same part that stores emotion and memory. If a scent can transport you faster than a jingle or a logo, why hasn’t anyone built an entire campaign around the smell of petrichor and page-turning?
Turns out, a handful of companies tried. Hasbro managed to trademark the scent of Play-Doh in the US, describing it as a “sweet, slightly musky, vanilla-like fragrance.” That opens the door to a whole new experiential strategy for consumer engagement—one untethered from screens or platforms. Imagine a pop-up Adidas activation that smells exactly like new shoes and imagined speed. Or a Massey design showcase where each exhibit has its own scent narrative. It’s not sci-fi. Aroma diffusers are a line item in plenty of marketing budgets now. But the underlying idea—that we could define, protect, and deploy smell as IP—is wilder.
Here’s the caution. Smell is intimate, instinctual. Get cute with it, and you end up with a tragic burst of lavender spray in a sports bar. But done well? It could push campaigns out of inboxes and into the body. Marketers already hijacked our eyeballs and ears. In 2025, going nose-first might be the only way to cut through the reek of sameness.
In 2025, brand identity isn’t flattening into sameness. It’s getting physical, visceral—uncannily specific. We’ve all seen how sound has snuck into the marketing playbook. Think Netflix’s ‘da-dum’ or the ASB cash jingle. But smell? That’s still largely uncharted territory. Which is odd, considering it’s processed by the limbic brain, the same part that stores emotion and memory. If a scent can transport you faster than a jingle or a logo, why hasn’t anyone built an entire campaign around the smell of petrichor and page-turning?
Turns out, a handful of companies tried. Hasbro managed to trademark the scent of Play-Doh in the US, describing it as a “sweet, slightly musky, vanilla-like fragrance.” That opens the door to a whole new experiential strategy for consumer engagement—one untethered from screens or platforms. Imagine a pop-up Adidas activation that smells exactly like new shoes and imagined speed. Or a Massey design showcase where each exhibit has its own scent narrative. It’s not sci-fi. Aroma diffusers are a line item in plenty of marketing budgets now. But the underlying idea—that we could define, protect, and deploy smell as IP—is wilder.
Here’s the caution. Smell is intimate, instinctual. Get cute with it, and you end up with a tragic burst of lavender spray in a sports bar. But done well? It could push campaigns out of inboxes and into the body. Marketers already hijacked our eyeballs and ears. In 2025, going nose-first might be the only way to cut through the reek of sameness.