The world’s greatest restaurant (not that I’ve been – hint hint) just got better. Heston’s “Fat Duck” culinary experience now begins long before the physical dining experience itself.
Once lucky diners have made a reservation, they are emailed an exclusive link to an animated journey that is designed to wet their appetites (created by The Neighbourhood).
“Our animated journey takes the diners through a series of evocative landscapes and visual cues that they will discover during their visit, encountering a series of reward mechanisms through imagined worlds, to arrive at the door of a sweetshop.
Once inside, the visual stimulus is removed leaving a curious world of sound guided by John Hurt’s narration as the shopkeeper. The narration and rich binaural audio soundscape allows guests to recall their own childhood sweetshop, imagining the sights, sounds and smells through a combination of stimuli and memory.”
“Taste” is just one of eight steps in Heston’s multi-sensory journey. The journey is designed to touch all the senses. This is in stark contrast to typical advertising which, for the most part, works by appealing to people’s eyes and ears only.
The notion of multi-sensory advertising (especially when it comes to food) has long fascinated me. Food is an incredibly emotional and sensory experience (for me anyway), and the opportunity for brands and advertisers to tap into this is huge (and under exploited). Rarely does advertising touch all the senses – but when used (correctly), has the power to be more meaningful, more memorable, more emotional.
Who better to bring this to life than Heston Blumenthal. His multi-sensory reservation experience is a smart way to deepen the emotional engagement with diners, and extend the relationship beyond the physical dining experience.
Hats off to Heston.
