Wave launches: preparing a market for a date

A launch tied to a date — a token listing, a game release, a sales kickoff — differs from regular buying in one way: you have a day X, and the full volume of attention must land on it, not get spread across a quarter.

Why a flat schedule doesn't work

If you spread the budget evenly across eight weeks, by the event date half the audience will have forgotten what the placement was about, and the other half won't have seen it yet. Recall is short-lived: without a repeat contact, the name washes out in two to three weeks.

A wave schedule solves this by having each subsequent wave catch up to those reached by the previous one and add new people. By the event date, part of the audience has accumulated three to four touchpoints, and that's the part that converts.

Three waves

First wave — education. Four to six weeks before the date. Analytical formats, long-form video, deep dives. The goal is not to sell but to get into search results and recommendations before demand appears. These materials keep working after the launch.

Second wave — objection handling. Two to three weeks out. Here you answer what the audience asked in the comments to the first wave: security, fees, timelines, how it differs from the competitor. This is the most undervalued wave and usually the cheapest.

Third wave — call to action. The final seven to ten days. Streams, AMAs, referral codes, deadlines. Everything explained earlier gets compressed into one action with a date.

How the budget is split

A guideline: 30 percent for the first wave, 20 for the second, 50 for the third. The temptation to spend it all on the third is strong and almost always ends in an expensive CPA: you're addressing people hearing about the product for the first time on the day they need to make a decision.

The opposite mistake is investing in the first wave and leaving nothing for the third. Then you've honestly explained to the market why this kind of product matters, and the market went and bought it from the competitor who was louder on the right day.

What to do when the date shifts

It will shift. Listings get postponed, releases get delayed. That's why we don't lock in the third wave earlier than two weeks out and keep part of the budget uncommitted. Rescheduling by a week with signed contracts for twenty creators costs more than paying a premium for last-minute bookings.

After the date

The most common mistake is shutting everything down the next day. In the first two weeks after the event, the audience is searching for reviews and validation, and the content that meets them determines whether they stay or leave. We allocate 10–15 percent of the budget for the post-event week.