How to Execute a World-Class Brand Launch

After months, weeks, or maybe even years spent fine-tuning every feature of your new brand or product, it’s finally time to share it with the world—and there’s no better way to get people talking (and buying!) than by hosting an unforgettable brand launch.

But no matter how far away your brand launch is, starting to plan it can feel overwhelming. Along with the big day, there are endless things to keep track of during the build-up. 

From press releases to social media content, invitations and influencer management, the to-do list can sometimes feel endless. 

Launching a new brand is no easy feat, even for ambitious business owners and experienced marketing professionals. 

Although it can feel like an intimidating challenge you can plan, organise, and execute your way to success, while making your brand the one on everyone’s lips (and in their shopping carts).

Ready to launch your brand into the stratosphere? Let’s go! This article outlines everything you need to know about organising a successful brand launch that gets tongues wagging and fingers rushing to click the “Buy” button.

To fully understand why a brand launch is so important, let’s imagine what happens if you don’t develop a brand launch strategy. 

After putting blood, sweat, and tears into perfecting your product, you’re finally ready to share it with the world. Congratulations!

When you release your new brand, product, or service, you naturally expect the world to stop and take notice. But the emails, orders, and boost in social media followers don’t arrive. Why? 

Because your audience has no idea you’ve launched a new product.

Simply put, a brand launch is an (online or in-person) event where you showcase your latest product, build buzz around it, and boost first sales.

Depending on your budget, your brand launch might look like Nike’s Air Jordan XI re-launch, which included a lounge, a basketball hoop, and shoe displays. 

But if your brand doesn’t have a massive marketing budget, it doesn’t mean you can’t create a successful brand launch.

A brand launch can take many forms, including:

The most successful brand launch campaigns will contain more than one of the above elements. 

For example, a big launch with a high budget might be made up of five or more elements, while a smaller launch may consist of two or three elements.

A brand launch is vital to your brand’s overall marketing strategy. 

It’s an excellent opportunity to connect with potential customers and strengthen your relationship with existing ones.

Every touchpoint of your brand launch is an exciting new opportunity to:

But how do you know whether a brand launch is right for your business? Businesses that may want to consider hosting a brand launch include:

If you are a new business, it’s likely that you and your team have spent months (or even years) honing your business strategy, goals, and vision. To ensure that your brand makes an impact in the market, you may want to consider doing a brand launch.

For new businesses, the primary purpose of a brand launch will be to raise awareness with your target market—so you’ll want your brand launch strategy to be centred around getting as many eyes as possible on your brand.

Existing businesses will already have a degree of brand recognition in their target market, but they will also need to focus on raising awareness of their new product or service.

For example, if your business is launching an app to accompany your offering, you will want your communications to highlight the benefits of the app and possibly even offer customers discounts if they shop via the app during a limited time period.

Launching a new brand identity is a great way to ensure your brand remains relevant and impactful in an ever-changing market, while retaining the brand equity your business has earned over the years.

A brand launch for a new brand identity will often involve longer-term planning because your business is committing to an entirely new strategy, vision, identity, and compelling value proposition.

For your new brand identity launch, it’s vital to host launches for both internal and external audiences (i.e., your employees and your target market). 

You will want to ensure that your entire company is aligned with your new brand guidelines, values, and goals before you launch your new brand to the public.

If you are launching a new campaign to highlight a new or existing product you will want to ensure that your brand launch is closely tied to your marketing objectives, for example:

No matter what reason you’re considering executing a brand launch, there will always be three key phases during the brand rollout period: the pre-launch, launch, and post-launch. 

Let’s have a closer look at these three phases and which considerations you need to keep in mind each step of the way:

After you’ve planned your workflow, set a launch date and decided on your big brand launch idea, you and your team will begin planning for your pre-launch. 

At this point, you should have a solid idea of which tasks will be delegated to each team member and have an overview of whether you’ll need to source freelancers to assist you with the launch.

During your pre-launch phase, you will want to build hype around your new brand by teasing your target audience with irresistible tidbits of information. 

Be careful though—you don’t want to spoil the big launch day by giving away too much information too quickly!

Here are some of the elements you might want to incorporate into your pre-launch content:

After all of that work, the big day has finally arrived! On launch day, all hands need to be on deck to ensure everything runs seamlessly. 

Your launch day will look different depending on whether you’re running a digital brand launch or a live event (or both), but some of the key things for all businesses to keep track of on this day include:

On launch day, it’s essential that your marketing team keep track of customer feedback and social media analytics to report on the success of your launch. 

Some of the data they may want to keep track of includes:

After your launch day, you and your team can finally breathe again! But it’s not quite time to relax yet.

A successful post-launch period is critical to the overall success of your launch. 

Not only does it give you valuable insight into how your launch performed, it’s also a learning opportunity to understand how you can enhance future launches for continued success.

After your launch there will still be a few loose ends that you need to tie up, including:

Now that you know a little bit more about what a successful brand launch is and why your business might want to host one, it’s time to dive into how to actually execute one.

Here are some tips to help you get started: 

This should go without saying, but there are countless businesses that have underestimated the time, planning, and effort it takes to execute a brand launch. 

A poorly planned and executed launch will be ineffective for reaching your business objectives, and it can also damage your brand’s reputation.

Who can forget the embarrassing Tesla launch where Elon Musk accidentally smashed a supposedly indestructible car window?

You likely already have a good idea of who your audience is, but this may have changed and shifted over time without you even noticing. 

For example, Crocs were once the footwear of choice for gardening and pottering around the house—most people wouldn’t have dreamed of wearing their Crocs in public.

In 2021, that began to change. Crocs came back into style in a big way, and were suddenly seen on the feet of influencers and celebrities, and on fashion runways. 

The brand did a great job of capitalising on this sudden success, releasing new colours and accessories that aligned with their new target market.

But the brand wouldn’t have been able to achieve this success without keeping a close eye on who was buying their product. 

If you haven’t reassessed your target market recently, the best time to do so is before a big brand launch.

Here are some tips to help you re-identify your brand’s target audience:

Establishing a new brand identity could be an entire article in itself, so we’ll just go over the basics of the rebranding process or building a new brand from scratch. 

Whether you’re launching an entirely new brand or re-branding your current business, establishing a brand identity is one of the most challenging (and important!) tasks a business can undertake in its marketing efforts.

But firstly, what exactly is a brand identity? 

When people think of the word, they usually think of a brand logo—and that’s not incorrect. But your brand identity is so much more than your logo. 

Your brand identity is about creating a brand personality that amplifies your brand’s mission, values and goals. It encompasses how your brand looks, how it communicates, and how it makes your audience feel.

For example, when you think of Coca-Cola, you likely think of sun-lit imagery of happy people drinking the product, or of their “Share a Coke” campaign. 

These are intentional decisions made by the brand to create an identity centred around positivity, friendship, and sharing.

Before developing your brand launch messaging, you should be clear on which actionable objectives your business is hoping to achieve through your launch. 

Two of the most common objectives of a brand launch include heightening brand awareness and increasing sales, but each business will have unique goals.

Once you know what goals you are setting out to achieve, you can begin working on your brand messaging to create a launch campaign that resonates with your target market. 

Here are some steps you can take to begin defining your brand rollout messaging:

No matter what type of launch you’re hosting, you will need to have some brand launch assets to share with your audience. 

Your brand assets are pieces of content that you can share with your audience to engage them, educate them, and convert them to your product.

Some examples of brand launch assets include:

Before your launch goes live, you should already have a clearly defined strategy in place to share the news of your brand launch with your audience. 

After all, even the most engaging content won’t be effective if your audience doesn’t know where to find it.

Your strategy to get the news of your launch out there might look something like this:

If yours doesn’t look like the above, it doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong! Each business has unique needs and will therefore have a different strategy to start launching its product.

Depending on your business and budget, you may want to host an internal launch for members of your team before you roll out an external brand launch to the public.

Your internal launch will introduce your employees to your new product, giving them the opportunity to understand the brand before it’s introduced to a wider audience. 

If your budget is tight, your internal launch doesn’t have to be a glitzy affair—a simple brunch on a workday is just as exciting.

Hosting an internal launch is a great way to give recognition to the team members who spent countless hours working on the launch, and gives everyone a chance to celebrate the growth of your business.

While an internal launch isn’t a crucial part of your marketing efforts, it is a crucial component of your workplace morale. 

After all, if your employees only see the new brand once it has been launched to the public, it may send the message that their hard work and input aren’t valued.

Your launch day will probably be one of your business’s biggest marketing initiatives of the year, and it’s the day when all of your hard work and effort will pay off.

By now, all of your brand assets should be created, social media posts should be scheduled, and you’re ready to watch your new brand take the world by storm! 

If you’re running an event for your launch, your day might be spent networking, overseeing that everything is running smoothly, and giving a keynote address at your event. 

Or if your launch is taking place primarily online, it may be a day spent monitoring the audience response, answering any questions, or even doing a live video Q&A.

Whatever your brand launch day looks like, remember to take a moment to celebrate your success! A successful launch is no easy feat, but with the right mix of preparation, planning, and innovation you can pull it off.

Brand launch days are exhilarating, and it’s likely that you and your team are running high off the energy of the big day. 

But before you start planning your next marketing activity, it’s important to take a moment to reflect on the day to measure your return on investment and iron out any kinks in your strategy. 

This is a crucial component of a brand launch because it empowers you with valuable insights you can use to inform your strategy going forward (or even plan another launch). 

Some of the things you should do after your launch include:

Now that you know everything about how to launch a new brand, you may be itching to get to work—or you may be feeling slightly overwhelmed with the amount of planning and preparation that needs to go into it.

From workflow processes and press releases to social media content and live events, there are endless things to keep track of. 

It can feel daunting. Luckily, that’s exactly what we’re here for! 

With a full-service range of digital marketing and live events experience, the super-powered Hello Social team has pulled off impactful brand launches for some of the biggest brands on the market, including Amazon Prime, Uber Eats, and the NSW Government. 

From number-crunchers and designers to eagle-eyed strategists and paid media specialists, we work to deliver social media strategies, activation strategies, product demonstrations, and more to help brands reach the next level of success.

If you’re ready to share your brand’s bold new move with the market,drop us an email and let’s get your brand ready for lift off!