Sensory Marketing: How Food Themes Make Brands Irresistible

Sensory Marketing That Engages All Five Senses

Marketers know that visuals alone are no longer enough to capture attention. Sensory marketing, which engages sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste, is increasingly popular in 2025. Using food as a theme, non-food brands are creating campaigns that are not only memorable but emotionally resonant, evoking comfort, desire, and nostalgia.

From beauty and fashion to lifestyle products, these campaigns show how engaging multiple senses can forge deeper connections, especially when paired with out-of-home activations in high-footfall areas such as London streets or Dubai malls.

Rhode Skin’s Glazed Donut Glow

Hailey Bieber’s Rhode Skin has turned food-inspired sensory marketing into a signature style. In 2024, the brand launched a Strawberry Glaze lip product in collaboration with Krispy Kreme, pairing the serum with dripping honey, strawberries, and melting ice cream in its visuals.

The campaign did more than showcase the product’s indulgent texture—it created a multisensory experience that linked beauty routines to pleasurable food memories. Fans eagerly shared the content on social media, boosting recall and engagement. This approach demonstrates how taste associations can make non-food items feel irresistible across global markets.

Marc Jacobs Bakes Up Buzz

Luxury fashion also found a playful angle. Marc Jacobs teamed with trendy model and TikToker Nara Aziza Smith to craft a video where a tote bag was shaped from dough, baked, and then revealed as the real leather version. This ASMR-style content engaged sight and touch, with imagined baking sounds and scents adding to the sensory story.

The clip went viral, reinforcing the bag’s iconic status while showing that food processes can inject whimsy into luxury products. Out-of-home applications, such as digital screens in the UK or UAE, can replicate this approach with motion content to engage passers-by in a similarly tactile, memorable way.

Jacquemus Turns Baguettes into Style Statements

French fashion label Jacquemus embraced food’s tactile appeal in 2024 by displaying mini handbags on fresh baguettes and croissants and even printing show invitations on actual bread. The fusion of food and fashion created visually striking, shareable moments while reinforcing the brand’s effortless, chic identity with reference to the iconic imagery of traditional French baked goods.

This strategy highlights opportunities for interactive out-of-home placements. Airport displays, mall pop-ups, or transport hubs in Dubai or London can give audiences a hands-on experience, allowing them to engage physically and emotionally with a brand.

Why Food-Driven Sensory Marketing Works

These campaigns demonstrate that sensory marketing using food cues can dramatically enhance engagement. It grabs attention, evokes emotion through nostalgia or indulgence, and encourages sharing on social platforms. Research shows multisensory elements can improve recall by 67% and increase purchase intent, making products feel more personal and desirable through the tangibility of taste memory.

In crowded markets, food-driven sensory experiences build loyalty without aggressive sales tactics, creating immersive encounters that consumers remember long after the initial interaction.

Amplifying Impact Through Out-of-Home

Out-of-home advertising magnifies the power of sensory marketing. Interactive installations, scented billboards, and pop-up experiences turn public spaces into brand stages. Supermarkets, sports venues, and busy transport hubs are perfect for campaigns that combine visual, tactile, and olfactory cues.

Digital out-of-home screens in the UAE or the UK can bring these ideas to life, blending food-inspired content with brand messaging to leave lasting impressions on busy audiences. For examples of creative executions that combine sensory marketing with high-impact placements, explore our gallery.