Sticky-notes and real scent samples are just the start of marketing newspapers’ front page ‘pole position’, Bernhard Leicht says.

“We’ll do creams and lotions, and even cross media products,” says the managing director of Ferag subsidiary Valecom.

Even London’s once-staid ‘old lady’, The Times has jumped on the scent bandwagon at the end of last month, with an ultra-flat sample of a new Gucci fragrance placed on the front page of 400,000 copies of its Saturday edition.

The promotion based on the MemoScent technology follows an introductory project for Davidoff fragrance in the London Daily Telegraph – also printed on the same News UK presses – and a range of MemoStick projects.

Leicht says reported revenue results have been dramatic. Some 11,500 people spent 100 francs on a coupon after a 277,000-copy campaign across northern Swiss suburban newspapers, yielding the customer revenue of almost CHF1.15 million. In the UK, a competition to launch a new car in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph saw a similar number of people enter – from a 200,000-copy run – and 20 vehicles sold.

And the Davidoff fragrance campaign brought benefits for the publisher as well as the advertiser, with a page and a half of display advertising space supporting the stick-ons. The 249,000 copy run was produced at 70,000 cph, Leicht says.

Valecom – actually part of Ferag sister company WRH Marketing – now offers its services to publishers helping them with the pitch to advertisers and even

arranging fulfilment and technical realization. The payoff includes a closer relationship with publisher clients and the prospect of additional equipment sales.

“We are creating a whole portfolio around MemoStick,” says Leicht. “Manufacturers are getting very excited over the possibility of putting samples of real perfume into the hands of potential buyers worldwide in such a highly visible and efficient way.