25 creative ideas for project launches

Launches are an essential part of Change (if you don't believe me, see last week's blog post on Why Change Management needs launches ). But a single launch email isn't enough to shake people up and wake people up to the excitement and possibility of a new future. That's where creativity comes in, and lucky for you I've got a background in Marketing AND an online business which launches a couple of times a year. So as well as some tried-and-tested launch change activities, I've pulled together a list of 25 launch ideas for in-office, work-from-home, and hybrid teams to help get your creative juices as you plan your next change launch. I've even split them up into categories to help you peruse and every one of them is something I've used or I've seen to support a change launch.

PHYSICAL 

1. Posters

Always a fan favourite, posters interrupt and sidle up unexpectedly while you're in the lift, making a coffee or wiping your tooshie (yes - the back of a toilet door is PRIME real estate). Stick straight to walls, doors or glass or find out who owns the poster frames in the office (hint: it's usually Internal Comms).

2. Floor stickers

Another amazing interrupter that I've used for a technology change launch - floor stickers designed to your change theme and messaging and cut out into a funky shape. Remember to get permission from Building Services, especially if you want to use public floor space like a lobby.

3. Desk drop

Ah, this takes me back to my Marketing days and one product launch where I tagged like 200 beer bottles with a promotional wobbler and ran around at night placing a sample on each staff member's desk. Awesome interrupter plus a good way to get advocacy for a new product! It's like Direct Mail for the Desk.

4. Posted packs

Working remote or hybrid can make launching change super hard but with a bit of pre-planning and budget you can totally pull together a pack with info, guides, items, non-perishable food and goodies and post it out to staff homes. Working global? Get local Change Champions to lead the assembly and distribution of the packs.

EVENTS

5. Town Hall

Why not launch at an all-hands organisation-wide or department-wide Town Hall? Either jump on the agenda of one scheduled or schedule it yourself. Extra points if you can get the CEO or Founder to speak about the change!

6. Free week

If you've got a new service, give your team a week to trial it for free. It's a great way to get advocacy (if they love it they'll tell their friends and family and recommendations rate high), plus you can iron out any bugs prior to customer or all-staff launch.

7. Conference/offsite

If your leaders or impacted team have an existing conference, offsite or team day, piggyback on it and launch your change there (so much of the work will be done!). It also saves on project budget, but you could contribute to the conference, such as pay for the dinner from project funds. I worked on a project that scheduled these events in each state to announce a major, complex and emotive change and set leaders up for success. So if you've got the budget, time and team to pull it off, bringing a group together can be well worth it.

8. Photo booth + hashtag

And of course - if it's an exciting and celebratory change, remember to help create buzz with shareable content buy hiring a photo booth or frame for the event and creating a hashtag for internal socials.

DIGITAL

9. Launch email

An oldie but a goodie - a company-wide email blast announcing the change is sort-of a given!

10. Pop up group

Create a launch thread, group or hashtag on your internal staff social platform and invite people to follow and comment.

11. Teaser videos

Short sharp sneak peeks in the lead up to launch foster buzz and curiosity. 30 seconds max.

12. Digital real estate

There's a ton of awesome digital real estate you can use for launch if you ask. This could be digital screens in the lobby, lifts or shared office spaces (ask Building Management), pop ups or screen savers on work computers (ask IT), or an announcement or scrolling banner on the intranet home page (ask Internal Comms).

GAMES AND COMPETITIONS

13. Quiz

For the launch of a Work, Health and Safety system, I crafted a spoofy quiz with Harry Potter-themed questions on the difference between hazards and incidents. About 20% of the staff completed it, it was super fun, they were learning and warming up to the change.

14. Challenge

Host a challenge on internal socials - could be a photo challenge, caption challenge, pun challenge or TikTok challenge. I don't know what the cool kids are doing these days as I'm neither cool nor a kid hahaha.

READINESS

15. Quick reference cards (QRCs)

While you might have bigger Quick Reference Guides and User Manuals for your training, for launch day a single- or double-sided, A4 or A5 printed card with key info or support resources can be gold - recommend to staff that they stick it to their desk or locker!

16. Countdown wall

To let people know how many days left to launch, create a physical or digital wall with a countdown clock to drive buzz and urgency.

17. Briefings

Pre- or during launch you might want to grab all the leaders or teams together physically or virtually or both to share what is changing and what to now expect.

18. Press releases

Some changes warrant external communications and can showcase improved experiences for customers or employees - get your Media or PR team on the case and brief them well in advance so they can send out press releases for news articles, TV news, and blogs (or even a post to your company's public social media channels)!

19. Support HQ

You can pull the support team or project team into a central location so walk-ins can get help on launch day, or create a virtual room open all day or a manned internal social platform thread where people can ask questions at any time and get speedy responses.

20. Warranty sessions

This is a normal readiness activity for any change launch - so remember to do them!

21. Change champions

That old chestnut - you can totally wise up a group of super users or advocates to be available for support and promotion on launch day. Peers trust peers!

22. Experience planner

If you were on my Change Tools Masterclass launch in August, you would have seen the Masterclass Experience Planner which mapped your masterclass journey from start to finish and satisfied all those Type-As who love to check off tasks and lists. Missed it? Download the free sample planner here.

STORIES

23. Testimonials

Testimonials are like reviews - someone sharing their first-hand experience and why they recommend others jump on board, use the new solution or product, or do things in the new way.

24. Case studies

Case studies are a more in-depth form of review where you can actually deep dive into the process a leader or team took, the results they got, and the learnings they have, plus a nifty testimonial to encourage adoption!

25. Ask me anything

Similar to a live, but you can grab questions from the audience ahead of time and answer them on the spot or get questions from the chat. Best to have a moderator to help track questions and as always - record for the replay.

It's likely you'll need to butter up other stakeholders or teams to help make some of these launch activities and activations happen. Request instant access to my free 6 Ways to Build Trust Video to learn how to build rapport fast:

CLICK HERE to get access to my Building Trust Video

Lata xx