15 Fragrance-Focused Moments at Events That Made for Memorable Touchpoints

In 2017, Tiffany & Co. released its first perfume in 15 years and marked the occasion with a luxury affair at New York City’s Highline Stages where musician Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) performed five songs while dripping in $200,000 worth of Tiffany’s jewelry.

Nods to the fragrance included a photo op with an oversized silhouette of the perfume bottle made out of LED neon lights. The event space was also anchored by a larger-than-life recreation of the fragrance bottle, which was filled with hundreds of the brand’s iconic light-blue boxes.

And what would a fragrance-focused event be without a perfume bar? Tiffany & Co. tapped creative agency MKG to produce the launch event, which fittingly featured a bar populated by the scent’s three main notes: iris, mandarin orange, and patchouli and musk. The mandarin scent was picked up by Canard Inc. in the catering. Take the dessert, for example, which featured an earl grey white chocolate mousse tart with candied mandarin and a crab cake with spicy orange remoulade. See more: Inside Tiffany’s Interactive Fragrance Launch

At the tail end of September 2021’s New York Fashion Week, Dior Beauty took advantage of the buzz throughout the Big Apple and celebrated its then-new Miss Dior Eau de Parfum with an activation in the Meatpacking District’s Gansevoort Plaza. Produced in partnership with experiential marketing agency AGENC, the five-day pop-up featured shoppable beauty stations, a Miss Dior cafe serving up branded lattes, and an immersive flower installation courtesy of Lewis Miller.

The custom-designed structure was fabricated by Bednark Studio and was reminiscent of the perfume bottle’s angular shape, which was complemented by a bow. A highly stylized interior featured a floor-to-ceiling video wall, flower field, infinity mirror room, and—of course—a perfume experience. The pop-up was open to the public, and AGENC’s CEO Cara Kleinhaut told BizBash in a 2021 interview that it “totally surpassed all EMV [earned media value] expectations.” See more: See Inside the Dior Beauty Pop-Up That Went Viral During NYFW

High-tech met high glamor at the launch of Charlotte Tilbury’s Scent of a Dream Fragrance in September 2016. The affair took place at New York City’s interactive Samsung 837, where the 700 guests in attendance were introduced to the perfume through a short, 360-degree, VR-powered film starring supermodel Kate Moss. Throughout the rest of the event space, interactive installations featured Scent of a Dream bottles and Samsung smart phones alongside a beauty station where guests could indulge in “Dreamy Look” makeovers to complement their scent, courtesy of Team Tilbury beauty experts. See more: See How High Tech Met Glamour at This Beauty Launch

In 2019, the House of Creed launched a universal scent, Aventus Cologne, and enlisted Tinsel Experiential Design to produce a four-city activation—simultaneously—in celebration of the occasion. The pop-ups took place in stores in New York, Miami, Beverly Hills, and Las Vegas, and invited local artists to decorate the walls in graffiti art. Attendees were given stickers inspired by the fragrance—they read “for him, for her, for all,” and featured Aventus Cologne’s logo and iconography—that they could then add to the wall art. On-site artists replicated the graffiti onto Aventus Cologne bottles using markers. See more: How This Brand Hosted Four Pop-Ups in Four Cities at the Same Time

In 2016, Lancôme Paris hosted an intimate affair in New York City’s historic Academy Mansion. The building was erected with six rooms in 1920 on the Upper East Side, and the luxury beauty brand filled each space with its then-newest makeup, skincare, and, of course, fragrance products. Because the perfume had woodsy notes and amber tones in its scent, the bottles were on display in the Mansion’s wood-paneled room. The dark wood in the minimalistic space also served as the perfect backdrop for the ornately decorated bottles. See more: How This Beauty Brand Created Six Events in One

For its fifth edition in October of 2020, invite-only influencer marketing conference Social Media on the Sand invited 100 mom influencers to the family friendly Beaches Turks & Caicos resort for a five-day event that awakened all five senses. In a unique interactive moment, event sponsor and scent marketing company Air Esscentials created a scratch-and-sniff wall at Social Media on the Sand’s closing party. The mothers and their children could scratch wall decals to smell scents like blueberry, strawberry, lime, and more. See more: How This Influencer Conference Brought the Five Senses to Life

The 23rd Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, took place in February of 2018 and featured a slew of creative collaborations with sponsors like Coca-Cola, Samsung, and Air Canada. Visa participated with its Everywhere Lounge at the Seamarq Hotel. Aside from debuting three wearable payment devices with on-theme decor (there was a wall with ski goggles for wallpaper), fortune teller readings, and live cooking stations, guests could escape to a perfume-blending workshop for a memorable favor from the lounge. See more: Pyeongchang 2018: 17 Sponsor Highlights From Global Brands at the Winter Olympics

We would be remiss not to mention BizBash’s own scent lab that was on-site at our activation this past June at the 2022 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. BizBash incorporated lots of scents into its BMF-produced experience—a nod to the theme of the activation, dubbed “The Hubilo Retreat,” in partnership with event technology platform Hubilo—starting with the lavender-scented hand towels guests received upon entering to combat the 80-degree days.

On the final day of the festival, Galimard hosted the on-yacht scent lab, and guests were invited to build their own fragrances to take home. Hubilo’s director of events, Jessica Connolly, explained of the scent lab in an interview with BizBash: “We wanted people to be able to take something away from the experience—and again use a local vendor, and France is known for its perfumes and scents. So people will go home and put on their spritz and remember the time they had here with Hubilo and BizBash.” See more: An Event Prof’s Oasis: See Inside BizBash and Hubilo’s Yacht Activation at Cannes Lions

In June 2014, the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, in collaboration with Current Lifestyle Marketing, took to NYC’s Times Square to promote the Florida city’s then-new Miami Summer Deals initiative. The result was a vending machine filled with elevated gifts with tie-ins to the 305. Passersby who approached the machine, which read “It’s So Miami,” could snap a themed photo for a prize, which included Pitbull Woman and Pitbull Man perfume. (The rapper is a Miami native.) See more: 10 Clever Ways Brand Activations Used Vending Machines

At the most recent Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (which took place April 15-17, 2022), Billie Eilish debuted her namesake fragrance, Eilish, at SoHo Desert House. The pop star, in collaboration with Parlux fragrances, tapped creative agency BMF to erect a massive recreation of the fragrance bottle, which was fabricated by EFX.

The fragrance was pumped throughout the space, which was intended to take attendees on a fragrance discovery journey. Curated photo moments included Eilish bottles in different sizes and a curated activation swing. Billie Eilish also headlined the festival alongside Harry Styles and Swedish Mafia. See more: Coachella 2022: Peek Inside the Festival’s Buzziest Parties & Brand Activations

In 2016, Dallas-based Scentsation debuted a two-hour, create-a-scent offering for corporate groups looking to get to know each other better through the medium of perfumes. The lesson features 15 scent blends, where an instructor guides groups through the emotions, characteristics, and ingredients of each. Once equipped with this knowledge, participants are invited to create their own signature scent. The classes are available in half- and full-day formats with pricing dependent on location, size of group, date, and time. Scentsation is only available for bookings in Texas for 10-500 guests. See more: 4 Fragrance-Focused Options for Corporate Team Building

In 2016, Hamptons magazine fittingly took to the Hamptons—Sagaponack, N.Y. more specifically—to kick off its 38th season. The affair was organized by the periodical’s event director, Joanna Tucker, and celebrated the Memorial Day issue’s cover star, Drew Barrymore, who had also released a fragrance around the same time, called Sunshine.

Barrymore described the perfume as a bright citrus floral fragrance with the catchphrase, “captures liquid sunshine in a bottle,” which ultimately inspired the spring event’s table decor. Designed by Lawrence Scott Events, centerpieces drew on Sunshine’s floral notes with blooms in bright shades of yellow and pink. See more: 10 Best Ideas of the Week: A Hanging Dessert Buffet, Celebrity Fragrance-Inspired Centerpieces, an Interactive Pop Art Trade Show

For 2013’s iteration of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Sprint (now a part of T-Mobile) nabbed guests’ attention—and wrists—with a scent activation in partnership with Fresh Wata. The interactive scent bar let visitors take home branded bottles of unisex fragrances that played on Fresh Wata’s flavors like Tea Thyme, Blackberry-Sage, and Washed Suede. See more: Can You Smell Me Now? Sprint Hosts Fragrance Bar at Sundance

YSL Beauté introduced rocker Lenny Kravitz as the face of the brand’s Y fragrance in September 2020 with a virtual launch event in the midst of New York Fashion Week. Despite being digital, the to-do didn’t skimp on luxury, and drew 315 attendees to participate in a livestreamed conversation with Kravitz, to jam out to a set from DJ Va$hite, and to mix their own cocktail alongside a mixologist streaming in from an NYC bar. To combat the Zoom fatigue that plagued 2020, Industria Creative, the New York-based event management company behind the event, delivered branded kits to all attendees. Packages included a bottle of Y fragrance, a “backstage pass” leading to a website with information about the product, as well as ingredients to create a custom cocktail. See more: How to Host a Virtual Product Launch

Despite being in the thick of a pandemic, TNT pulled out all the stops to celebrate its then-new season of The Alienist: Angel of Darkness for a virtual, mystery-filmed premiere party in July 2020. Produced by creative studio and theater company Little Cinema, there were three acts during the celebration, and guests were challenged to assume the role of a late-1890s detective to solve the mystery of who killed the fictional character Alejandro Valdez in a nod to the show’s plot.

However, the experience didn’t conclude when the event did. The network partnered with perfume house D.S. & Durga to release an exclusive unisex fragrance—called First Light Five Boroughs—inspired by the series, which is set in New York City. To evoke feelings of the city during the turn of the century, the scent features notes of mimosa, violet, and chypre. See more: Steal-Worthy Ideas From TNT’s Virtual Murder Mystery Party