Air Up developed a refillable drinking system that flavors ordinary tap water through scent to encourage people to increase their daily water intake. The brand’s overall concept centers on retronasal smell, leveraging this aspect to trick the brain into thinking scent is taste. This resulted in the development of lightly scented and interchangeable pods meant to be applied to the top of a water bottle. The approach has quickly drawn the attention of investors, including PepsiCo Inc. and Ashton Kutcher, who have been backing the company and boosting its distribution and product expansion.

With body sprays becoming cool again and reports predicting that technologies will aid in the growth of the global perfume market to a $101.3B value by 2033, Axe A. I. (LYNX A.I. in the UK) is jumping on the bandwagon. They’ve recently unveiled a special-edition body spray aimed at Gen Z men that was designed with artificial intelligence to analyze 6,000 perfume ingredients with 3.5M potential combinations. To play up the high-tech nature of the body spray, the brand is using augmented reality to market the product. Packs of the product integrate Zappar’s WebAR technology and a scannable QR code so that consumers can virtually interact with British rapper Aitch for their chance to win an invite to an exclusive house party.

Adding to a more immersive video experience, tech startup Aromajoin recently unveiled its “Aroma Shooter” technology and a programmable “AromaPlayer,” a neck-wearable smell dispenser that releases scents that match the mood of the video being viewed. The device can instantly switch between various scents without any delay or residual effect. The AromaPlayer’s new online technology allows creators to make their own scented content and share it with other AromaPlayer users on the video platform.