Grocery store erects steak-scented highway billboard

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There’s something in the air along a busy local road, and for once, it’s not just exhaust fumes: It’s the smell of grilled steak, courtesy of what appears to be the nation’s first-ever scented highway billboard.

The Bloom grocery chain, part of Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion, is aiming to catch shoppers by the nose by wafting black pepper and charcoal smells from the base of a sign along River Highway in Mooresville, N.C. And though businesses have been employing specialized aromas to boost sales and create ambiance for years, this, it appears, is a different frontier — one designed to cut through the clutter that commuters encounter every day.

After all, you can tune out noise. You can disregard other signs. But a new smell? “It will definitely catch your attention, because we have to breathe,” notes Harald Vogt, founder of the Scent Marketing Institute, a New York-based independent consultancy.

Bloom fired up the grill-board in late May to promote its new line of beef, and it will emit scents each morning and afternoon until June 18, spokeswoman Christy Phillips-Brown said. It shows a towering fork piercing a giant piece of meat.

The company developed the idea with Charlotte-based ScentAir, which provides custom scents and fragrance delivery systems for businesses, including hotel lobbies, casino gambling floors and retail stores.

A high-powered fan attached to the bottom of the billboard pole disperses the aroma by blowing air over cartridges loaded with fragrance oil, Dameron said. ScentAir has also used the system at outdoor events or large indoor spaces, including during the 2008 World Series at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. Yes, he said, fans noticed that the domed stadium smelled like oranges.

For the billboard, he said, “it’s basically a blend of black pepper and kind of a charcoal grilling smell,” he said. “It smells like grilled meat with a nice pepper rub on it.”