What is a product launch event?
A product launch event is a promotional strategy companies use to introduce a new product or service to the market. Product launch events play a vital role in generating enthusiasm and capturing the interest of potential customers, making them an essential pillar of any strong go-to-market (GTM) strategy and a major influence on revenue.
10 product launch event ideas to make it to the headlines
Product launch events are designed to create a buzz around a new product, so it’s essential that they offer a unique and engaging experience to capture the attention of your audience.
With several touch points along the product launch journey, plenty of opportunities exist to engage your audience. From creating a build-up with pre-launch events to making a splash with during-launch events and riding the high with post-launch events, these 15 product launch event ideas will help you capture — and maintain — the interest of your audience. Whether you’re hosting an in-person, hybrid, or virtual event, give these product launch event ideas a try to expand your reach and increase your prospects.
1) Community engagement campaigns
Build a community of followers while gauging interest with pre-event community engagement campaigns. This strategy allows you to build a list of potential backers and gives you valuable insight into the expectations of your audience. Moreover, you can use your community to help promote your product release by developing contests, running swag giveaways, or leveraging customer success stories. Customer involvement begets brand loyalty.
Why it works: Delivering a community-first communication strategy calls your prospects in, giving them a behind-the-scenes feel that promotes brand loyalty and buy-in. Audiences like to feel they have a seat at the table; bring them along through community engagement to strengthen the interest in your product.
2) Personalized attendee experiences
Turn your event into an experience and extend the customer journey with personalization. This strategy allows you to play to the interests and behaviors of your audience to drive engagement and build relationships while setting your brand apart from the competition. Try creating categories for your attendees to directly target their interests and offer them unique use cases for your product or create swag tailored to their specific user experience for a memorable product launch event experience.
Why it works: Events are about human connection, so bringing that personal touch (something as simple as using a first name) infuses the human element into an event. You want your product launch event to be memorable, and the most memorable events are those tailored to your audience’s interests or habits.
3) Branded hashtags
As a product launch event idea, branded hashtags can help you rope in extra reach and allow your audience to engage with your brand.
Moreover, you’ll want to maximize the coverage of your product launch event and create a system to easily identify, track, and promote any rumblings. Branded hashtags are a low-lift, high-reward strategy that encourages your audience to participate, thus extending your reach.
Create an easy-to-remember hashtag to amplify your product launch event, then use it across all your brandings. Encourage prospects to participate to build user-generated content (UGC) that allows your brand to tap into the reach of your community. A great way to do this is by offering giveaways or social media challenges using your branded hashtag to promote its use.
Why it works: Hashtags are easy to use, cost nothing to create, and have the potential to trend, which further boosts your visibility. Additionally, you can have the same hashtag for other launches while changing out the year or season, creating your own trend, and easily accessing data to compare your growth.
4) Networking
Networking may seem like the least innovative of product launch event ideas, but when done correctly, it can be a significant catalyst for prospect engagement. The key to hacking networking for your product launch event is in personalization. Create a user profile for your attendees, then group them by relevant category to create a match-making type experience that drives value for networkers.
Why it works: Creating a fruitful networking opportunity for your attendees drives home the value-add your product has to offer. If you can bring value to prospects before they even use your product, you create a credible persona that can pave a clear path to revenue.
5) Live streaming
Live streaming is a great strategy for building anticipation, creating personalized, exclusive experiences, and expanding your product launch event reach. Its nature allows prospects to bring the experience directly into their homes, and recordings mean those in conflicting time zones can easily access the content.
Why it works: Statistics show that 73% of people prefer learning about new products from short videos, making live streaming a compelling product launch event idea. It also allows your launch to be shared and replayed for maximum exposure.
6) Product teasers
Teasing your product allows you to offer a glimpse of your product and information to build excitement and expectation prior to your launch. An effective teaser should share enough information to generate interest while leaving information unsaid to pique interest.
Why it works: Teaser campaigns draw on human curiosity. You can invite prospects to guess aspects of your release to generate a conversation and gain further exposure while adding a personal element to your launch by calling in your audience.
7) Social Media contests and giveaways
One of the best product launch event ideas to create hype, and get more organic exposure is to host a contest or giveaways. This incentivizes engagement, and compels your to share, engage, and invite their friends to the event as well.
Sometimes contests even become coffee table conversations and incentivize more users to check your event.
It pairs up really well with other product launch event ideas, such as branded hashtags and community engagement campaigns. For example, you could put out a product teaser and offer a giveaway for the most creative guesses to get more people talking about your company and upcoming launch.
Why it works: When creative, social media contests have the potential to go viral, skyrocketing your engagement. Giveaways create an added draw to your product launch and give your event more mileage.
8) Photo booths
Photo booths are a great product launch event idea because they are easily branded and add a personal element to your launch event.
They also help create a sense of community among attendees and help make more user-generated content. Whether you set up in-person, hybrid, or virtual photo booths, you can infuse more fun into the gathering and increase the likelihood that attendees will share their photos post-event, helping your marketing efforts.
Why it works: Personal photos act as another version of swag, often at a fraction of the cost. Because they are personalized, each attendee will have a unique memento from your product launch event that they are more likely to share, thus offering free exposure for your launch.
9) Exclusive backstage sessions
Backstage sessions are another product launch event idea that combines several key tenants of a successful event: personalized, exclusive, and community-driven. You can approach an exclusive backstage session in many ways, through early-bird and VIP signups, contests, and giveaways, or an offer to your existing top clients and customers. Exclusive sessions can include a first look at your new product, exclusive access to try the product, or even an opportunity to meet with a key speaker or leader within your organization.
Why it works: Exclusivity drives demand and incentives engagement with your brand. It signals your investment in your prospects and creates a memorable moment that can generate loyalty and ambassadorship for your launch.
10) Host a countdown
Countdowns generate a buzz and excitement around your product launch while keeping the event top of mind for prospects. It creates marketing opportunities and new touch points along the pre-launch journey as well as generates hype around your new product.
Why it works: Countdowns create a sense of urgency that builds anticipation for your product launch. They also serve as a visual reminder of your launch, helping boost attendance.
5 Virtual product launch event ideas
11) Host networking and breakout sessions
Virtual events may not have the same natural networking abilities as in-person events, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make them happen. Build networking and breakout sessions into your product launch event to increase engagement and offer a sense of community to virtual attendees.
12) Gamify your event
Attendee participation is the ultimate hack for preventing your virtual event from going stale. Create fun activities like virtual scavenger hunts or trivia to keep attendees engaged and interested during the event. You can utilize a virtual leaderboard to infuse some healthy competition and promote attendee buy-in.
13) Bring in a virtual DJ
Product launches have the opportunity to make a splash, hosting in exciting locations with impressive lighting and futuristic sets. Bring that same magic to virtual events with a virtual DJ to generate that party atmosphere that brings exclusivity to product launch events. Music sets a tone for an event and creates a memorable environment that’s sure to get attendees talking.
14) Host VIP 1:1 sessions
In addition to the excitement and anticipation you’ve created around your new product, VIP sessions with speakers can sweeten the deal for on-the-fence registrants. One of the great advantages of virtual events is the capabilities available that would otherwise be near-impossible for in-person gatherings. Offering VIP 1:1 sessions with speakers through video is a great way to add an additional benefit for attendees and can be a great giveaway contest prize for your pre-event launch.
15) Include a virtual social wall
Social walls not only illustrate and share the buzz and anticipation that has surrounded your launch, it also entices attendees to join in on the social conversation around your brand. By including a virtual social wall at your virtual product launch event, you collect and display all the content around your event, including user-generated content such as attendees’ selfies taken at your virtual photo booth.
5 Product launch event examples for inspiration
Improving, innovating, and expanding existing and new product lines are key to growth. Product and launches are a great way to drum up some excitement, gather thought leaders, prospects, and, customers in the same space, and let the world know that you’ve arrived.
Here are 5 great product launch event examples that will spur your creativity and gear you up for success.
16) Experience Different with Airmeet
Experience Different was Airmeet’s biggest event to launch and position the platform as the Event Experience Cloud that helps organizers create magical and differentiated experiences. Combining all the best tactics to engage audiences, Airmeet was able to stir excitement and create a sense of community through live Q&As, networking, entertainment, and prizes to entice participation.
17) Google Night In Launch
Google is no stranger to capturing the internet’s attention. When the popular tech company hosted Google Night In, a launch event announcing their latest hardware, they successfully captured their audience’s attention with a short and to-the-point presentation and extended the life cycle of the launch by making their content accessible post-event.
Google announced one of the biggest virtual product launches with their latest products during a 30-minute virtual live stream event, then segmented the event into short product launch videos. Following the event, they shared the videos on their Made by Google YouTube channel for their target audience.
18) Apple Worldwide Developers Conference
Apple has made a name for itself by creating anticipation around its product launches among their target audience, and the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) has become a product launch event that generates significant buzz year after year.
Some standout tactics that Apple uses are an interactive and informative landing page, giving clear information about what to expect and how to access the event. The event itself offers Q&A sessions, 1:1s with Apple engineers, and forums to connect with other attendees.
19) Dreamforce by Salesforce
The Salesforce Dreamforce conference is an excellent example of how you can leverage a simple, branded hashtag to expand the reach of your product launch event promotion. The event has grown exponentially through the years, and Salesforce’s simple #DF23 has played a huge role in that expansion. #DF2023 encourages their users to plug the hashtag and their event organizers then leverage the hashtag to create a sprawling collection of UGC that strategically drums up excitement around the event, allowing both in-person as well as virtual attendees to participate.
20) TechCrunch Disrupt
TechCrunch hosts their annual conference for startups and leverages the opportunity to spotlight their latest developments. Their secret weapon to draw big crowds and engage audiences is centered around their StartUp Battlefield, a competition for young startups to compete for advice, coaching, and an opportunity to pitch to investors.
This tactic incentivizes participation to their event and creates a gamified approach and VIP access, creating further interest and participation.
For more virtual product launch examples, inspirations, and checklists, check out inspirational stories of product launches.
5 Essential best practices for your next product launch event
Narrow down your audience for a successful product launch event
Focus on identifying and narrowing down your target audience to tailor your messaging, activities, and overall event experience to resonate with your highest intent prospects.
Educate your audience about the problem you’re solving with creative campaigns
Utilize various marketing channels to highlight your audience’s pain points, then demonstrate how your product provides a solution. Develop this campaign leading up to the event to effectively educate your audience on the specific problem your product solves for.
Setup a product launch event landing page
Your landing page should serve as a central information hub for attendees to easily learn about your event. Include details, registration forms, agenda, speakers, and any additional resources or content related to your launch that would make it easy for interested prospects to learn more and RSVP.
Plan for attendee delight
Make your event fun and demonstrate your appreciation with fun swag boxes, activities, entertainment, and VIP experience that create a delightful and unique experience for attendees.
Invite industry leaders and influencers
Extend invitations to industry leaders, influencers, and experts who align with your product or target market. You can invite them to attend as guests, educators, or speakers at your event. Their presence can lend credibility, generate buzz, and enhance the overall value of your launch by sharing their insights, endorsing your product, or simply sharing their attendance.
FAQ
What are some creative ideas for hosting a product launch event?
Everyone loves a bit of mystery. Build up suspense with product teasers and social media contests to generate buzz and build attendance for your upcoming product launch event.
How can I ensure the success of a product launch?
Give yourself ample time to plan out pre, during, and post-launch marketing efforts to support your upcoming product launch adequately. Work backward from your launch date and take stock of your GTM strategy to determine how long each phase of your strategy will take.
What is the purpose of a product launch event?
To build up anticipation and interest around your product, provide a captivating presentation of what your product offers and generate a conversation to attract coverage and drive revenue.
What are some ideas to promote a product launch event?
Event countdowns build up anticipation and keep your event top-of-mind for prospects, and pre-launch community engagement campaigns draw interest and buy-in from your audience.
What happens at a product launch event?
A lot can be covered during a product launch event. The main star of the show is, of course, a deep dive into the product you’re launching. But product launch events can also encompass keynote speakers like CEOs or developers, audience Q&As, product demos, and entertainment like live DJs and audience photobooths.
What are some of the best product launch events to take inspiration from?
Experience Different was Airmeet’s biggest event to launch and position the platform as the Event Experience Cloud. The event single-handedly produced the highest-sourced and most influenced pipeline that year.
Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference draws unprecedented interest from developers and consumers alike. They deploy several product launch event tactics such as building a strong event landing page, hosting VIP 1:1’s, and teasing content leading up to the event.
Why do product launches fail?
A general lack of adequate advertising and marketing is often the downfall of product launches. If your GTM strategy (or lack thereof) fails to spread the word, generate interest, or appropriately cover the launch, your product launch may fall flat.
Why host your next product launch event with Airmeet?
Airmeet’s interactive platform makes creating one-of-a-kind product launch events that engage prospects and grow customer relationships easy. With Airmeet, you can easily build momentum at the pre-launch stage with fully branded features like event countdowns and highly informative landing pages that make information sharing and managing RSVPs a breeze.
Airmeet is built for engagement; with the best networking and engagement features of any virtual event platform on the market, Airmeet allows you to organize the impromptu conversations and networking opportunities that draw attendees to product launch events. Airmeet makes it easy for these in-person benefits to live out in a virtual setting with features like breakout rooms, Fluid Space, virtual lounges, and chats. Host highly immersive, interactive, and engaging virtual experiences with gamification features such as polls, quizzes, and live Q&A. With our in-built options to call audiences on stage with a raise-hand feature, Airmeet’s AX360 events make attendees the star of the show for increased participation and engagement.
Airmeet has you covered with up to 64 intent signals to score leads with strategically placed, attention-grabbing lead magnets like CTA’s. Arm your sales teams to hyper-personalize outreach for maximum conversions for your post-launch strategy and create a memorable product launch event with Airmeet’s revolutionary platform.
