Most agencies meet a product two weeks before it ships, after the decisions that shape coverage have been made. We'd rather be in the room when they're made.
Come in at the roadmap, not the ship date
At roadmap and spec stage, we read the spec the way a reviewer will. Which feature is the headline? Which will a writer test first? Which won't survive a week of daily use?
That read changes things that matter later: which colorway goes to reviewers, whether the app is ready on day one, whether the demo shows what makes the game different. Early, it costs a meeting. Late, it costs the launch.
Turn the feature into the story
Engineers describe what they built. Writers describe what changed for the user. We translate.
When we worked on the launch of JBL's Synchros S700 headphones, the die-cast aluminum, woven Cordura, steel and leather were the specs. The story was a live set you could only hear through the headphones (more in Put It in Their Hands).
The question for every headline feature is what someone does differently because of it. If there's no answer, it belongs in the fact sheet, not the headline.
Names and claims get checked early
A product name needs searching before it's on a render, in trademark registers in each market (USPTO, UK IPO). Clearance is for trademark counsel. Our job is making sure someone asks.
Claims get the same treatment. The FTC says US advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims, and the UK advertising code says marketers must hold documentary evidence for objective claims before publishing. Your lawyers sign off. Reviewers will test the claims anyway.
The gates that set the date
A launch date is the day the last gate opens, and the gates should be agreed with product and sales before any date goes public. Pre-production hardware gets reviewed as if it were final. Coverage without a buy link mostly goes to waste. "Sold out, ships in eight weeks" turns a good review into a complaint.
Some gates aren't yours to open. FCC rules restrict marketing radio devices before authorization, and Great Britain has its own UKCA and CE marking rules; your compliance team owns those, and the plan works around their answer. For games, a new title's Steam Coming Soon page must be live at least two weeks before release, and Valve asks for at least seven business days to review it.
Review units are logistics, not favors. Writers who get them late, or on old firmware, review what they were given.
Slips happen. Burning press is optional.
What burns press is hearing about a slip secondhand. Embargoed writers should hear first, privately and honestly. And naming a new date before the failed gate is fixed is a mistake, because a second slip costs more trust than the first.
Soft launch, beta, early access or hard launch
A soft launch, beta or early access trades launch-day impact for real feedback. Steam says Early Access titles won't get full launch visibility until they're fully released, and tells developers not to make specific promises about the future. A hard launch gets one big moment, and every flaw gets reviewed. Choose by how finished the product is.
Announce vs. ship
The gap between announcement and availability is a decision. Announce months early and you build wishlists and preorders, but every slip is public. Announce on ship day and the story arrives with the buy button, but with no build-up. Hardware and games usually want different answers. If you can't name a ship window yet, ask whether you're ready to announce. (Picking the hour is a separate call: When to Send a Press Release.)
Press is a feedback loop
Previews are the best usability test you'll get, and complaints made in passing are the ones worth hearing. A firmware fix before launch beats any rebuttal after. The loop keeps running once the news is out (see Beyond the Embargo).
One owner
Product, marketing and PR each own part of a launch. One person has to own the gates, the date and the call to move it. Otherwise product hears about the press plan from a reviewer, and press hears about the slip from a retailer. Knowing which gate is about to fail, before anyone says so, is the part that comes with experience.
Building something with a ship date? Request a briefing and bring us in at the roadmap.