Launch Stunts: How Startups Buy Attention on a Small Budget
By Utkarsh Jaiswal · · 2 min read
A good launch stunt is small, surprising and easy to screenshot. How to design one, why stunts fall flat, and cheap ways to borrow attention instead.
Launch day is the one day people are inclined to pay attention to a new product, and most launches spend it on the same post everyone else makes. A stunt is how you get noticed on that day without a big budget.
What a good stunt looks like
- It fits in a screenshot. If you need a thread to explain it, it won't spread.
- It shows the product rather than decorating it. The best stunts are the product doing something unusual in public.
- It has a live element. Counters, leaderboards and "only N left" give people a reason to check back.
- It's cheap to reproduce and expensive to ignore. Small effort for you, strong reaction from the people who see it.
Stunt formats that keep working
The public counter
Put a live number on the homepage: signups, pixels sold, money raised, lines of code. People share numbers that move.
The absurd guarantee
A promise so specific it becomes the story, like "if we're down, you get a pizza". Only do it if you can keep it.
The physical artifact
Something online-only brands rarely do: a printed thing, a mailed thing, a thing on a street. It photographs well precisely because it's unexpected from a software company.
The collaborative build
Let your audience decide something: the name, the colour, the next feature. They'll share the result because they had a hand in it.
Common mistakes
- The stunt is bigger than the product. People remember the joke and not the name.
- No follow-through. The stunt works, the landing page is broken, and the moment is gone.
- Nothing to measure. Give it a unique URL or code so you can tell whether it worked. Here's how.
Or borrow a stunt that's already running
Designing a stunt takes time you may not have in launch week. The alternative is to attach your brand to someone else's. That's what the Harrier.ev placements are: a public experiment with a live leaderboard, a physical car and a six-month run, where your logo is one of seven. If someone takes your slot for 25% more, that's a story too.