Next time you go for a movie, you may smell more than your popcorns and nachos.

In select European cinemas, a company is experimenting with appealing to more than your visual and hearing sense – it's going for your nose.

This is achieved by complementing the advertisements of products with their smell.

Germany-based Cinescent is giving marketers the chance to pump out the scent of their brands in German theatres.

The company first tested the technology for Beiersdorf's Nivea. A specially made 60-second spot showed a typical sunny beach scene, with people lying around on deck chairs or sunbathing on towels while waves crashed and seagulls cried in the background.

As people wondered what the ad was for, the scent of Nivea sun cream permeated the cinema, and a Nivea logo appeared on screen along with the words "Nivea. The scent of summer."

The results were significant: Cinema exit polls showed a 515 per cent rise in recall for the Nivea ad compared with moviegoers who saw the spot without the scent. The same ad, when combined with only a subliminal whiff of scent, scored a 25 per cent recall.

Here, in Dubai, the prospects of this innovative medium has raised a positive response. Danish Farhan of Zische said: "Innovative media works best when combined with conventional media, and this technology is the best example of the same."

Xische media company specialises in innovative technologies and has done many such projects in the region.

Cinema operators elsewhere in Europe are so impressed that they are keen to adopt the technology and are hopeful of increasing their advertising revenue.

Mike Hope-Milne of Pearl & Dean, which sells cinema ads in some of the leading UK theatres is intending to take the technology to the UK.

"We are talking to a handful of clients, including sun cream, bread, coffee, perfume, air fresheners and chocolate manufacturers. It is most cost-effective when working with scent-based products that have the scent oils already to hand," he said in a report in AdAge.

Hope-Milne is also hoping to drum up new business with the technology, noting that three of the companies he's talking to have never advertised in cinemas before.

"It's encouraging people to reappraise the medium," he said, adding that the Cinescent idea works best when advertising a product that appeals to a broad audience.

Cinescent works by pumping smells through the cinema's air-conditioning system to distribute a scent that covers other odors without being overpowering. Using this method, much finer fragrance molecules reach the audience, minimizing the allergy and irritation problems encountered by previous attempts, when smells were dispensed via boxes located among the audience.