The Monkey Shack

Airports might not be the first places you look for examples of unique brand experiences. For the most part they are all the same, large floor to ceiling windows in the main ticketing areas, not enough ticket agents at the counters, stressed-out passengers at security checkpoints, and rows of chairs in front of each gate with passengers sitting silently, waiting for the announcement that they can begin to board the plane in cattle-like fashion.

Could holistic sensory branding tactics change the experience of passengers at one airport? Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International, one of the world's busiest airports servicing over 6.6 million passengers per month, thinks so.

Visitors to Atlanta's airport will hear familiar R&B classics with new lyrics meant to gently prompt passengers in a campaign to promote airport cleanliness. The songs, "Shake Your Groove Thing" by Peaches and Herb, "Bustin' Loose" by Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers and "Fantastic Voyage" by Lakeside, were rerecorded by the original artists themselves.

Says Doug Strachan, Creative Innovations Manager for the City of Atlanta Department of Aviation, who rewrote the lyrics and invited the original artists to record the revamped songs, "Whereas words reach the mind, music reaches the heart. These are hit songs that people love ... real powerful, catchy and make you want to dance. If you can make someone dance, you can probably motivate them to do other things."

But the airport isn't just using music to reach passengers, it is also using scent. The airport also uses a scent called "Breeze," which uses a variety of different notes including vanilla and a little lavender, to help enhance visitors' mood. A custom scent that will be exclusive to Hartsfield-Jackson is in development.

Travel commentator Stefanie Michaels, also known as Adventure Girl, says anything airports can do to make air travel more relaxing is more than welcome, especially in the times we live in. "Movie theaters and restaurants have been using scents and those kinds of subliminal tactics for years," Michaels says. "Music makes people feel good and with the economy the way it is, people are just stressed to no end, so from a subconscious level it's a really wise thing for the airport to do."