Today it’s official – Tigaroma is nothing more than a blast of scented hot air – April Fool’s!
Over the past few weeks, you may have heard rumours or seen posts in the streams about a new ‘sensory’ experience we were planning for our users. Tigaroma – allowing you to publish in the fourth dimension. After the initial buzz, we are sure most of you would have come to your senses (hopefully after leaning in to smell your screen as part of our ‘guess the smell’ competition). However, for those of you who missed the trick, here is a quick rundown.
Backed by our partners-in-crime Setster and iomart, it was time to have a little fun. Here’s what we said:
In essence, Tigaroma leverages ‘new’ and ‘existing’ technologies to offer the sharpest olfactory experience available. Users can go beyond type, talk, and touch for a new notation of sensation. The marketing implications for this new form of interaction would be incredible, as smell is considered the most evocative of the human senses.
This new system allows customers of PageTiger to upload any PDF document into its publishing system and then choose a scent to create the mood they want people to experience while reading it. There are five scents to choose from: lemon to give a feeling of efficiency; lavender to induce relaxation; green tea to promote good ethics, cut grass to energize, and fresh coffee for professionalism, with a sixth ‘secret’ scent planned to be unveiled after the competition.
Henry Weston, CEO of PageTiger, said: “The way things smell plays a huge part in your decision-making process so we have harnessed that for marketers so they can tap into a whole new way of engaging with visitors to their websites. What Google Glasses do for your eyes, TigAroma will do for your nose.”
iomart’s dedicated server brand RapidSwitch is hosting PageTiger’s 4D publishing concept in its data centre in Maidenhead, using their specially developed hosting platform: Scented Solutions.
Neil Christie, Commercial Director of RapidSwitch, adds, “We’ve configured the fastest blade servers to support TigAroma and have colour coded the cables to ensure they provide the perfect perfume for each customer’s online publication. So purple delivers a lavender scented web page, while yellow carries the lemon fragrance.”
Seems fishy doesn’t it? – Time to wake up and smell the coffee
After a global roll-out, we invited users to press their noses against their computers screens or mobile devices and catch a whiff of a variety of smells – all designed to enhance the overall impact of the publications. We even gave corporate clients the option to upload their distinct ‘corporate’ smells, as part of their branding. Once people had visited Tigaroma, and entered the competition by guessing whatever smell they thought they were was emanating from their screen, our inbox was flooded with guesses ranging from chocolate to Steve Jobs (figure that one out).
The office phones were ringing off the hook with people who had fallen for our odious, odorous ruse – some clients, including a high-profile university, had spent the best part of the morning scouring their system settings and account details, trying desperately to find where they could activate the TigAroma settings, but to no avail! We even had several requests to make some bespoke smells – not only does that read badly, it sounded even worse down the phone!
On the plus side
Although you won’t be able to publish in the fourth dimension, PageTiger’s range of real interactive features provides you with dynamic tools to keep your readers engaged and excited. Videos and image galleries, coupled with on-page content, create a media rich experience, where the pages come to life. Polls and surveys can be inserted to capture important data, whilst providing users with the feeling that their opinion counts. This experience can be built on further by adding interactive links and pop-up information boxes. Instead of just reading, users can touch, explore and interact with the pages – the next best thing to smelling them! Although we cannot offer your readers the chance to ‘smell’ your content, we can give them the ability to ‘touch’ it – an essential piece of functionality to bridge the digital gap between you and your audience.
Tiger Widgets
Looking to the horizon, we are planning to introduce a series of ‘TigerWidgets’ to both enrich your reader’s experience, and offer you a more diverse set of tools to craft your publication with. There are already three that are ready and raring to go, with several more in the pipeline.
The countdown to launch has begun, so make sure you don’t miss next week’s TigerBlog!
Now you nose the truth
Truly nauseating puns aside, it all sounds and smells so great. But your nose will have to wait, because this incredible technology only exists in a fictional universe – sorry!
But in our defence, we aren’t alone this April fools – why not check out our top five pranks from these big brands:
Chromecast – A new era of entertainment…for squirrels
ITV – Square eggs
Metro – British Government plans to ban selfies
Instagram – Instawindow
Reddit – Headdit
