Marks & Spencer has launched a ”multi-sensorial” takeover of London’s Oxford Circus tube station using scent – the first time such an initiative has been undertaken in that environment.

M&S Oxford Circus takeover

Marks & Spencer is promoting its summer fashions at Oxford Circus station in an immersive brand campaign

Marks & Spencer’s campaign is designed to “broaden appeal and elevate style perceptions” and includes film, pink vinyl-wrapped floors, blue sky-coloured ceilings and posters spotlighting its summer clothing collection.

Posters also carry the smell of sun lotion to heighten the sense of summer’s arrival and to key into scent as a “particularly powerful tool to drive brand recall”.

Marks & Spencer Oxford Circus takeover

M&S’ marketing takeover of the tube station blends poolside glamour with ’a bit of fun’

The push, in the heart of London’s West End shopping district, will be complemented by in-store installations and window displays. It is part of M&S’s wider summer campaign developed with design studio Mother Design and ad agency Mother London.

M&S clothing and home marketing director Anna Braithwaite said: “Summer is a time when our customers are prioritising socialising and making the most of the warmer weather and the lighter evenings. It’s also a time when we want to have a bit of fun with our wardrobe…

“So this year we’ve bottled up everything we know our customers love about summer and added a dash of poolside glamour to create a vibrant and infectious campaign serving up style inspiration that will be impossible to miss.”

Mother Design executive creative director Kirsty Minns said: “Our latest campaign for M&S engages multiple senses to create a more immersive and memorable experience, and as we know from science-backed studies, scent has emerged as a particularly powerful tool in forging emotional connections and brand recall.

“Using the evocative scent of sun lotion, we’re transporting people to the antithesis of the underground – an M&S-inspired summer paradise.”