How do you show support for someone who can’t see?One of the greatest struggles the blind and vision-impaired face as a result of their condition is incredible isolation. Guide Dogs Australia, the country’s leading organisation for services to the blind, devote themselves tirelessly to ending this isolation. So when tasked with creating a new way to generate support for the cause, it became vital that it didn’t inadvertently exclude the blind. Anything that appealed to people’s sight, such as a ribbon or wristband, would in truth only add to the problem. Thus, we decided to create something new that would appeal to another sense entirely – smell. A unisex fragrance called Support Scent, that for the first time would allow the blind to actually recognise support around them.

By walking away from their traditional methods of fundraising and utilising something that’s not only appropriately inclusive, but actually very desirable; the charity is now discovering an entirely new support base. As an actual beauty product, Support Scent’s broken through traditional barriers of charity distribution and drawn attention to the cause in a new arena – fashion, including appearances in magazines such as Vogue. It is inspiring people to get involved because this innovative idea lets them engage in a new way with the charity. A way they know the blind are capable of actively recognising. Post-launch tracking has already shown that fundraising lifted 33% when Support Scent launched. 47% of people find the project makes the charity now more relevant to them. 79% of people exposed to it now want to more actively support the cause (for women alone, its an astonishing 85%).

To ensure quality and credibility, we approached KIT Cosmetics, one of Australia’s leading cosmetics brands. We asked them to donate their expertise and formulate a new scent, solely for our purposes, which we’d design, package and market. The brief: make it desirable but also distinct enough to be recognisable to the blind. Finally, after 18 months in scent production and then the endorsement of blind people, scented letters sprayed with Support Scent went out to the blind community to ensure they would recognise it when worn. It then launched publicly via events and advertising, across many mediums. It’s now being sold nationwide for $5 at cosmetics stores, at Australia’s largest department store chain MYER and online - with all proceeds going to Guide Dogs Australia.