THE FRONT PAGE : Newspapers make sense

Print has been referred to as a passive, one-dimensional medium. But the power of print to be a highly engaging, multifaceted advertising vehicle can be evidenced in its ability to tap into the five human senses: Sight, sound, taste, touch and smell.

These allow us to perceive and interpret

Essential in fiction writing is the description of what everything feels like - from sensual pleasure to pain and torture: "The success of your story or novel will depend on many things, but the most crucial is your ability to bring your reader into it. So your job is to either make them recall exactly what it feels like when something occurs in your story or, if they haven't experienced it, what it would feel like if they did." - American author Ron Rozelle.

The printed word strikes into the hearts of readers by allowing them to imagine a world the way they want it to be. This creates a far deeper experience than television or film, for example, which impose a visual on the viewer.

As Australian social researcher Hugh Mackay says in Cutting Edge Advertising, "The words are asking me to make up the pictures, so they're my pictures. There's a creative act within the reader. On television the work's all done. I only receive; I don't construct and create the way I do with print."

Just like fiction, successful print advertising connects with the reader's senses. Based on experience, these senses heighten perception or awareness of the product.

Sight or vision is the ability of the brain and eye to interpret an image. Everything is as it seems ... or is it? In the award-winning ad by Toyota (pictured), the eye plays tricks on the brain. The illusion of black dots is used to illustrate the dangers of 'black spots' during the notorious Easter weekend. And in the Dulux ad, colour swatches prompt the brain to visualise the result.

Touch refers to the sense of pressure, generally on the skin. Being the largest sensory organ in the body, the skin is sensitive to many different types of stimuli (for example, a wallet stuffed full of cash as demonstrated by Lotterywest). And how about a soft, fluffy bunny? Add some prickly spikes and you now understand, thanks to Sorbent, "Nothing else feels soft any more". You can almost feel the conflicting sensations on your fingers and nose.

Hearing is the sense of audio perception. How can you print sound? Check out Bose's award-winning ad for its Noise Cancelling Earphones - you could definitely hear the shrill sound of the baby's cry if you remove the headphones. Equally the print ad for Nova radio station uses incompatible sight and sound sensory to engage the reader in "sounds different". Or the hilarious Virgin Atlantic ads for their inflight entertainment brought to you by the elderly lady in seat 4C - you've heard the stories before ... you can feel the torture starting.

Taste is one of the two main 'chemical' senses (other being smell). There are four well-known types of tastes that buds (receptors) on the tongue detect: sweet, salt, sour, and bitter - as portrayed in our firey sauce ad: hot hot hot!

Smell is the fifth sense. We can recognise a wide variety of smells, with some stirring up memories (freshly cut grass reminds us of summer and coffee reminds us of mornings). This was used recently in an ad for Air NZ's new Koru Hour, with a rub'n'smell coffee

ad-hesive posted on A1 of the NZ Herald.

The Otago Daily Times invoked a feeling of 'fun and family times' when it made the paper smell like chocolate for a Cadbury anniversary. Further afield, a scratch and sniff ad smelling of frosted cake appeared in the LA Times last year for the new movie Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium. This novelty increased the time people spent with the ad and its pass-around factor.

Newspaper advertising taps into your customer's senses, heightening their perception of your product and driving them into action. Now that makes sense.

Lexie Ribot is the Creative Manager of the Newspaper Advertising Bureau. For examples of the featured ads visit www.nabs.co.nz.