Understanding Hype
You’re likely underestimating the importance of hype in product marketing. Look at how inundated our feeds are with announcements. There’s a new product launch almost every day, a new tool or a new big thing. So much of the attention of the masses has shifted to algorithmic feeds that it’s become impossible to stand out without doing something out of the box. Traditional PR, newsrooms and media articles are becoming less and less relevant in garnering attention of the important audience.
So it’s important to understand what drives adoption of new products. We discover and adopt new things largely through social validation. Individuals make decisions based on perception. And funnily, a shockingly large amount of perception is borrowed from peers, not self-validated.
This is why you build hype around your work. It’s not even that hard to spot honestly. Almost all major companies have started to understand and employ hype tactics for a while now – notice how Apple went from a company that never talked about features they didn’t have ready, to becoming a company that constantly announces features that are not ready for use and are months out from launching. Microsoft teased Copilot for many months before having it officially out for everyone to use. Building hype has become a very important step in the process as you gear up to launch anything significant.
So how do you think about hype?
Hype is storytelling with honesty and bravado. Emphasis on bravado. It’s quite simple (not easy, simple) to be honest, you talk about the promise of your product, what you’ll deliver and so on. Table stakes. But bravado is hard. Bravado is about communicating why you’re different. Why you’re original. Why they should pay attention to you. If you get bravado right, the hype gets real.
See what Friend.com did – spending $1M on a domain name. That’s bravado. Apple announcing Apple Intelligence by integrating OpenAI as the AI partner – the first ever third party partnership to give users better access to AI – bravado. Daylight Computer showcasing a paper-like reader with a buttery smooth screen refresh rate in a video – bravado. Nikita Bier launching the Explode app by taking an overtly hostile stance against Snapchat – bravado. Ghostty launching a literal new terminal with nothing more than an animation that looks fun and intriguing – bravado.
You need bravado to create hype.
As I observe more companies and product launches, I am noticing a few ways people are creating hype:
- Show a great prototype (even a Loom video)
- Tease the most compelling part of the product with a GIF
- Tell a personal story in a video
- Make a bold claim never thought possible before
- Share a demo link users can play with now (the hardest to pull off)
In a way, you can say that attempting to create hype is taking a real risk with your announcement. You have to think out of the box and be really really creative with your message. When the risk pays off, it works better than anything the traditional PR gets you.
We’re in an era where substance without visibility doesn’t cut it. Hype’s role in shaping audience’s perception, driving product adoption, and creating opportunities is undeniable. If you’re building something new and when the time comes to launch, a well-crafted story with bravado goes a long way in making your launch memorable and driving the initial surge of growth.
Go build something great!