GameScent: Taking a First-of-Its-Kind Product to National Retail
Elevated Perceptions had invented something that didn’t exist yet: a device that listens to your game and releases a scent to match it. Gunfire, rain, a forest. The hardware worked. What they didn’t have was a way to put it in front of gamers, or proof of which gamers would care.
We started in January 2023 and stayed through launch day, February 27, 2024, when GameScent went on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop.
The Hard Part About Being First
A product with no competitors sounds like a gift. It is closer to a blank page.
There is no search demand to capture, because nobody types “gaming scent device” into Google before they know it exists. There are no competitor campaigns to study, no category norms to borrow, and no evidence that anyone wants it. Every assumption has to get tested on real people before you spend real money.
Fourteen Months Before Anyone Could Buy One
We started on the product itself, beginning with the interface, so it made sense to a gamer picking it up for the first time. We pushed for an admin side that showed which scents were firing, which systems were sitting paused, and which cartridges to restock first, because that data decides what you build and stock next.
Then we went and asked people. Focus groups with gamers and with home entertainment users, to learn which scents landed and which games and movies people wanted this for. Live demos at PAX East, GDC, and in New York, where strangers tried it and told us the truth. A beta program to find the friction points, which led to a rewritten instruction manual, new onboarding, and tutorial videos, so a first-time setup didn't end in a return.
94
PIECES OF COVERAGE
62 outlets in 10 weeks
Launch Week
GameScent went on sale February 27, 2024. Forty-two pieces of coverage landed on day one, and 94 in total across 62 outlets by the first week of May: IGN across several channels, Kotaku, GamesRadar, PC Magazine, Giant Bomb, Dexerto, Shacknews, Yahoo News, and outlets in Italy, Turkey, and Spain.
Plenty of it was skeptical. A product this new gets argued about, and some reviewers had fun at its expense. The arguing was still attention, and the product sat on shelves at three national retailers while it happened.
Two Audiences, Two Platforms
The research turned up a split that was worth money. Gamers were on TikTok. The home entertainment buyers, the ones who wanted scents during movies, were on Meta. They had been treated as one audience.
We separated them and built different creative for each. Cost per click, which is what you pay every time someone clicks an ad, dropped roughly 90 percent. Same budget, far more clicks, and the clicks came from people who actually fit the product.
On Shelves at $149.99
GameScent shipped through GameScent.com, Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop at $149.99 against a $179.99 list price. Six scents came in the box, with refill cartridges and scent kits designed to bring customers back after the first purchase.
"Studies have shown that the sense of smell imprints in long-term memory more strongly than anything else," said Casey Bunce, President of Elevated Perceptions, at launch. "With GameScent, we're hoping to elevate gamers' experiences to be more exciting and memorable than they ever have been before."
What This Took
Product and interface input, customer research, live demos, a beta program, onboarding and documentation, tutorial video, influencer campaigns on TikTok and YouTube, a press push, interviews, partnership strategy, brand voice, and the paid campaigns underneath all of it.
When you launch something people have not searched for yet, the work that moves it is audience research and social content, paid campaigns that find the right people cheaply, and video that shows the thing working. Search demand arrives later, once people know what to call it.
Ready to Stop Guessing
and Start Growing
Launching something new works differently than marketing a business people already search for. Tell us what you are building and we will tell you honestly whether the market is ready for it.