News metro tabloids enjoyed the sweet smell of success this morning after investing almost 30 hours to fragrance papers with popcorn.

More than 800,000 newspapers from six production centres were fragranced as part of an Australian promotion to support a family movie collection.

The promotion for The Great Night In Family Movie Collection reached

around 3.5 million readers, with specialised scenting technology used to infuse specific pages of the Daily Telegraph, Courier-Mail, The Advertiser, Herald Sun, (Hobart) Mercury and NT News with the smell of "buttered popcorn".

News Corp Australia chief marketing officer Tony Phillips says the synchronised scenting across the four metro dailies and two regional titles was an Australian first, and demonstrates how newspapers can offer innovative and effective advertising solutions for marketers: "It's example of how newspapers stand out as a great sensory advertising medium, helping consumers cut through the clutter and deliver smart, relevant messages in a highly entertaining way."

The task took nearly 30 hours and involved eight presses at six print sites using 200 kg of popcorn scent.

News Corp partnered with DreamWorks to offer the classic movies, which are being sold on DVD for $2.60 each with the purchase of the paper.