Today, consumers discover products in fragments and waves…not based on some date in your marketing calendar. Modern launches succeed by building momentum over chapters that unfold before, during and after the moment you think is the reveal.

I’ve been involved in thousands of launches across my career for brands people know instantly…like Coca-Cola, Samsung and Marriott. After that many high stakes battles, our agency has long stopped romanticizing launch day. We came to see the pattern for what it is. While many in the industry keep treating launch day like a hinge in time, smart brands have learned that, in reality, it’s just one beat in a longer sequence. Consumers don’t gather for a single moment anymore. Media doesn’t orbit your calendar. Discovery now happens in fragments and waves. Which means the launch isn’t a single event. It’s a storyline.

How Launch Day Lost Its Monopoly on Attention

Launch day once worked because consumers behaved in unison. That world no longer exists. The Reuters Institute reports that 65% of global news we consume now arrives in algorithmic feeds. Google finds that 45% of product discovery journeys start with no brand in mind. TikTok says more than half of discovery on the platform is accidental, not intentional.

A reveal is no longer a reveal. It’s an invitation to find you later.

Why PR Still Needs a Moment — Just Not the First One

A coordinated press push still matters. But only after the market has already started caring. Journalists want momentum, not requests for attention. Cision’s global survey shows that 66% of reporters are more likely to cover a story that has visible social heat; and 74% say they need evidence not adjectives.

This is why the drink brand Prime Hydration exploded the way it did. It wasn’t because of a press launch. Prime is a flavored sports drink created by two high-profile YouTubers, Logan Paul and KSI, whose online audiences dwarf many media outlets. The drink took off because teenagers treated it like a collectible. Stores couldn’t keep it stocked. Resellers listed bottles at absurd markups. Only after this cultural frenzy did mainstream media cover it. PR amplified a story that was already happening.

The same sequence played out with TikTok Shop, the e-commerce marketplace inside the TikTok app. TikTok didn’t lead with a press conference. It let creators in each region test it first. Only after buyers and sellers were already using it did the company issue formal country-level launches.

Activations Work Better as Mid-Arc Payoffs

Brand activations succeed when they resolve existing curiosity. EventTrack reports that 63% of consumers find activations more memorable when they already know part of the story.

IKEA’s “Everyday Experiments” is a good example. IKEA built small, augmented reality tools that let shoppers visualize furniture in their homes. Only after people began using the tools did IKEA stage public experiments that showed how digital guidance could change daily behaviors. The activation didn’t introduce the idea. It validated it.

Why Big-Bang Launches Often Fail 

Many marketers still cling to the idea that a single dramatic reveal can force attention. But that’s become less and less likely. Meta’s research shows that more than 70% of brand impressions land outside a company’s planned timing. Deloitte reports that fewer than 10% of consumers discover products through official announcements.

The streaming gaming platform Google Stadia is a clear example of what doesn’t work. Google unveiled it with theatrical ambition, promising console-quality games streamed over the internet with no hardware required. What followed was silence. Few players understood the benefit. Most reviewers found the experience inconsistent and incomplete, which killed the momentum before Stadia ever found an audience. 

The Modern Launch Arc — The Beats That Matter Now

Modern launches should move through beats the way a story reveals itself chapter by chapter. Each beat does a different job.

Beat 1: Rumor

The unsanctioned whisper. Before Apple announced its Vision Pro headset in 2023, supply chain leaks and developer discoveries created months of discussion. Those rumors generated more early interest than the reveal.

Beat 2: Signal

A clearer sign that something is coming though still unofficial. Before Nintendo confirmed the Switch OLED version of its console, retailers and accessory makers leaked enough information to make the product’s existence feel inevitable.

Beat 3: Proof

Someone actually uses the product. YouGov reports that 82% of consumers trust real-use demonstrations more than announcements. The Dyson Zone, a headphone-and-air-filtration device, only found its footing after technology reviewers tested it in public. People needed to see the oddity of it in the real world before taking Dyson’s claims seriously.

Beat 4: PR Moment

A synchronized spike placed in the middle of the arc rather than at the start. Consider Barbie, the Warner Bros. film that became a global phenomenon. The takeover didn’t begin with the press tour. It began when creators on TikTok and Instagram started playing with the movie’s aesthetic. Fashion brands released collaborations. Memes flooded the feed. PR detonated only after the culture had already cracked open the door.

Beat 5: Social Proof

The public decides what the product means. McKinsey reports that peer recommendations influence more than 60% of purchase decisions. Beauty brand Glossier learned this during its relaunch period. The company could no longer rely on nostalgia. Its new products only took off when micro creators and everyday users confirmed performance on camera.

Beat 6: Normalization

The product enters everyday life. The Nothing Phone, a smartphone created by London-based tech company Nothing, didn’t peak on launch day. Interest kept rising because teardown videos, user experiments and ongoing software updates fed the story long after the reveal.

Each beat has a job. Rumor brings intrigue. Signal brings plausibility. Proof brings trust. PR brings scale. Social proof brings credibility. Normalization brings longevity. Anything that fails to add substance doesn’t belong.

The Real KPI: Narrative Momentum

A launch is no longer judged by a spike. It’s judged by acceleration. Does each beat pull more people into the story? Does curiosity deepen as it spreads? Does the market move closer with each chapter? These are the questions we should be asking ourselves.

Launch day isn’t dead. The fantasy of launch day is dead. Products that break through now don’t arrive all at once. They accumulate. They build pressure the way a well-paced narrative unfolds. After thousands of launches we’ve learned that we can no longer manufacture a moment. You can only set a sequence into motion that makes that moment inevitable.

Sources: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024, Google Shopping Trends / Think With Google 2023, TikTok Marketing Science 2023, YouGov Global Survey 2023, McKinsey Consumer Behavior Report 2023, Meta Performance Marketing Insights 2024, Deloitte Global Consumer Tracker 2023, Cision State of the Media 2024, EventTrack Experiential Marketing Report 2024.