Print: The Multisensory Marketing Connection

We’ve heard it a million times by now: “Print is dead.” It’s a mistaken impression (see what I did there?) because the evidence around us every day proves the opposite. While some roles for print may be in decline, as a communications channel, it has enormous power to reach audiences that digital alone just can’t match.

A few months ago, I saw a headline for an article in The Drum — a London-based marketing and media website — that asked: “As agencies sniff out scent specialisms, is poly-sensory branding here to stay?”

Having recently written about the use of scent in direct mail campaigns, I’m pretty familiar with how marketers in the print world regard sensory marketing: an opportunity to reach their audience.

Sure, digital marketing continues to draw a large share of interest and investment by brands. But there are ways for printing companies to lean into the unique properties of their products and transform them into multisensory experiences for customers.

Let’s consider how brands can set themselves apart from their digital-only competition with a multisensory marketing strategy.

Activating Key Senses

Sensory marketing has long been a part of print. Advances in printing and marketing technology have made it a strategy with more impact.

Tactile Print

Unlike a digital channel, ink on paper first engages the consumer’s sense of touch. Textures, foiling, embossing, debossing, specialty coatings, embellishments, and diecuts can make a print piece stand out in the hands of a customer.

Scent-Enhanced Print

The article says that scent is “much more untapped” in branding despite research showing that “smell emotionally affects humans up to 75% more than any other sense.” For many years, scent has been used to sell brand experiences in mail, brochures, and packaging with sample strips, scratch-and-sniff, and other applications. FYI, some scent uses in mail may qualify for USPS’s 2025 Tactile, Sensory & Interactive (TSI) promotion and its 4% postage discount.

Sound-Activated Print

Printed materials can build on the sonic branding success of some companies by embedding sound chips in a mail piece (another sensory technology that may qualify for the TSI discount). Scanning a QR code or activating an augmented reality (AR) app can be used to trigger brand-specific music or sounds.

Why Multisensory Marketing Works

That’s a very quick look at the tech, but your partners and prospects will want to know “why.” Here are some key selling points.

Richer Omnichannel Experiences

According to the article, multisensory approaches address “all the senses in a coherent fashion, creating narratives over time.” In a well-integrated campaign, printed elements work with other channels and “bleed into one another” to create a richer customer experience.

Higher Brand Recall

Digital ads can vanish with a tap or click but sensory experiences can keep attention over long periods. Because they activate parts of the brain associated with message recall, they can engage customers longer to build and reinforce emotional connections.

Better ROI & Conversion Rates

To overcome the concern that digital marketing provides more measurable ROI, printing companies can track engagement (and provide attribution) with sensory printed materials by integrating QR codes and AR elements.

By positioning print as the technology that can most effectively engage multiple senses simultaneously, printing companies can differentiate themselves from digital solutions. As The Drum article notes, the key to creating memorable brand experiences is “tapping into the innate human factors of our senses.”

Let’s keep reminding our friends and potential partners in brand marketing of print’s resilience and relevance. Together, we can use our strengths in creativity and innovation to create unique, winning experiences across channels and media for our audiences.