In today’s digital age, hype is a powerful marketing tool on social media platforms. The social media sphere is often caught up in different waves of hype. Hype takes shape in the form of seemingly unending buzz around a particular new product, event, venue opening and so on.
As with many other marketing tactics, hype
leverages on consumer behaviour. It feeds on consumers’ need to remain updated
with the latest trends for fear of missing out. Hyped products are essentially
portrayed as extremely desirable. This lays a self-imposed, societal pressure
on users to be part of the action, resulting into a perpetuating cycle that
feeds such hype.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO CREATE SUSTAINABLE HYPE?
Yes. Some definitions of hype attach the time element to it – hype will ultimately die off over time. This is true to a certain extent, but hype can be sustainable if executed strategically.
HOW TO CREATE SUSTAINABLE HYPE?
1. MAKE YOUR MARKETING ACTIVITY PERIODICAL
Marketing campaigns that have proven to be successful can be brought back periodically. For instance, Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day takes place annually in April. This has been a tradition since 1979. Due to repeated editions of this event, Ben & Jerry’s has successfully crafted a mental note in the minds of its consumers. As a result, the Free Cone Day has since become an annual sustainable hype that Ben & Jerry’s fans participate in. What marketers can learn from Ben & Jerry’s is to leverage on successful marketing campaigns, making it a periodic event that consumers can look forward to.
2. HOLISTIC PORTRAYAL
Hype does not necessarily have to be of a particular campaign. Instead, hype can be tied to a brand name. If consumers conclude that the hype created by a certain brand is not substantial, they will tend to switch off when it comes to future hype generated from that brand. This stems from the lack of trust in a brand’s marketing tactics and reduces the desired impact of marketing activities.
Hence, it is essential for brands to paint a holistic portrayal of the product or event that they are advertising. This might seem like an arduous task as marketers tend to showcase the best aspects of the subject in hand. That might seem strategic. However, if the audience are often left feeling disappointed due to the inflated expectations, they might grow to be skeptical of future marketing hype. Hence, brands have to find the balance between unrealistic portrayals and enticing marketing.
3. THE USE OF TRIGGERS
Triggers are cues that lead to certain
behavior, which in turn reward the behavior. This is called the habit loop (Triggers -> Behavior
-> Reward). Triggers can be internal
or external. Internal triggers lie inside the consumers’ minds and emotions.
For instance, people often find themselves opening the Instagram application
when they are bored. Boredom is the internal trigger that cues them to scroll through
Instagram. On the other hand, external triggers are cues in the environment. It
can come in different forms, such as paid advertisements and mobile
notifications.
Marketers often take advantage of this habit
loop by positioning its product or service in the loop. Some restaurants have
special promotions on a specific day of the week. If Restaurant A has special
promotions on every Wednesday that will be announced on their Facebook page,
fans of the restaurant will tend to check out the Facebook page on Wednesdays. The
day (Wednesday) is the trigger which leads to the behavior of checking out the
restaurant’s Facebook page. In turn, consumers will be rewarded with the
knowledge of the promotion and ultimately the actual promotion itself if they decide
to dine at the restaurant.
Hence, triggers help to generate hype around
long-running promotions to sustain it (though the volume of hype might not be
phenomenal).
TO USE HYPE AS A MARKETING TOOL, BRANDS MUST BE ABLE TO LIVE UP TO THE HEIGHTENED EXPECTATIONS
Hype is clearly a useful tool in brand marketing – but caution must be taken when generating hype as it can play out as a double-edged sword. With all the buzz and attention, can the product live up to heightened expectations? The consumer’s experience must specifically be taken into account as that would set the tone for other prospective consumers, image of the brand, and the relationship the brand has with its customers.
All in all, the consumer’s experiences must
have a positive output in order to reap benefits from social media hype. Should
reality fall short from expectations, brand image may suffer and overwhelming
hype may backfire upon the product and the brand itself.
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As communications professionals look toward 2026 planning sessions, one question dominates the conversation - How can we use AI in a safe, scalable, and sustainable way?
Behind this question often lies the hope for an "AI easy button"—a one-click solution for complex measurement challenges. However, as discussed in our recent APAC webinar, the real opportunity lies not in automating old metrics, but in architecting a smarter era of measurement.
Hosted by Russ Horell, Isentia’s Chief Revenue Officer for APAC, the session featured deep dives from two industry leaders who've contributed immensely to research and planning: Ngaire Crawford (Director of Insights, ANZ) and Prashant Saxena (VP of Research and Insights, SEA). Together, they unpacked the transition from using insights and converting them into strategic, measurable storytelling.
Here are the key takeaways from the discussion.
1. From experimentation to transparency
If 2024 and 2025 were the years of "playing in the sandbox," 2026 is set to be the year of transparency.
Ngaire Crawford emphasized that while AI is incredible at summarising data and recognising patterns, it does not automatically generate insight. As we integrate these tools, the focus must shift to methodological integrity—understanding the source data, the structure, and the limitations of the models we use.
"Models are really good pattern finders. But they don't necessarily set what good looks like, or understand the consequences of being wrong. And the antidote to that is always going to be good design." – Ngaire Crawford
2. "More data, better insight" is the misconception
A major misconception remains that feeding AI endless amounts of data will naturally result in better answers. In reality, without the right framework, more data often just creates more noise.
Prashant Saxena warns against the "sameness" that AI can generate. If everyone uses the same models on the same big data sets without specific objectives, they will get similar, generic answers. The role of the insights professional is evolving from descriptive reporting to strategic storytelling—using judgment to break through the "echo chamber" of AI validation.
3. Kill, keep, create: redefining our metrics
The panelists played a game of "keep, kill, create" to determine the future of measurement metrics.
Kill: The panel was unanimous in moving away from vanity metrics. Ngaire called for the end of Cumulative Reach, noting it is a biased metric that offers no context. Prashant agreed, suggesting that AVEs (Advertising Value Equivalents) need to be finally left behind.
Keep:Share of Voice remains useful as a foundational benchmark (a "census" of market presence), provided it is redefined to measure the share of a specific idea or perception rather than just volume
Create: The future lies in Authenticity Metrics. Prashant argued that while reputation is a downstream outcome, authenticity is the upstream outcome that drives it.
"Authenticity is more upstream, as reputation and trust are more downstream... That's an authentic ritual on a day-to-day basis, which leads to reputation." – Prashant Saxena
4. The "home field advantage" for communicators
Despite the technical buzz surrounding AI, the panel argued that communications professionals hold a distinct advantage. "Prompt engineering" is, at its core, a language and communication skill.
The future doesn't necessarily belong to the most technical users, but to the most articulate—those who can clearly define an outcome, ask the right questions, and deconstruct language to get the best result from a model.
Trust your judgment
As we move into 2026, the advice from our experts is to not let AI replace your strategic point of view.
Have an opinion: Don't wait for metrics to be imposed on you. Go into conversations knowing what you want to measure and why.
Pause before you prompt: As Prashant advised, "Paper before a chatbot.". Define your strategy and objectives on paper, using your human experience and judgment, before turning to AI to execute the work.
By combining the speed of AI with the nuance of human strategy, communicators can finally build the sophisticated measurement systems they have always wanted.
Interested in viewing the whole recording? Watch our webinar here.
Alternatively, contact our team to learn more insights into meaningful measurement, KPIs and communicating using the right dataset.
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Blog
Key takeaways from the Future of Measurement webinar
Our recent webinar explores what the future of measurement in 2026 looks like and what brands must do to scale in this AI era.
The media landscape is accelerating. In an era where influence is ephemeral and every angle demands instant comprehension, PR and communications professionals require more than generic technology—they need intelligence engineered for their specific challenges.
Isentia is proud to introduce Lumina, a groundbreaking suite of intelligent AI tools. Lumina has been trained from the ground up on the complex workflows and realities of modern communications and public affairs. It is explicitly designed to shift professionals from passive media monitoring back into the role of strategic leaders and pacesetters.
“The PR, Comms and Public Affairs sectors have been experimenting with AI, but most tools have not been built with their real challenges in mind.” said Joanna Arnold, CEO of Pulsar Group.
“Lumina is different; it is the first intelligence suite designed around how narratives actually form today, combining human credibility signals with machine-level analysis. It helps teams understand how stories evolve, filter out noise and respond with context and confidence to crises and opportunities.”
Setting a new standard for PR intelligence
Lumina is centered on empowering, not replacing, the human element of communications strategy. This suite is purpose-built to help PR, Comms, and Public Affairs professionals significantly improve productivity, enhance message clarity, and facilitate early risk detection.
Lumina enables communicators to:
Understand & Interpret: Move beyond basic alerts to strategically map the trajectory and spread of narrative evolution.
Focus & Personalise: Achieve the clarity necessary to execute strategic action before critical moments pass.
We are launching the Lumina suite by making our first module immediately available: Stories & Perspectives.
In the current fragmented, multi-channel media environment, communications professionals need to be able to instantly perceive not just how a story is growing, but also how it is being perceived across different stakeholder groups.
Stories & Perspectives organizes raw media mentions into clustered, cohesive Stories, and the Perspectives that exist within each, reflecting distinct media, audience, and public affairs angles. This unique functionality allows users to:
Rise above the noise: Instantly identify which high-level topics are gaining momentum or fading from attention.
Get to the detail, fast: Uncover the influential voices, niche communities, and specific channels actively shaping the narrative.
Catch the pivot point: Precisely identify the moment a story shifts—from a strategic opportunity to a reputation risk—or when a new key opinion former begins guiding the conversation.
"Media isn’t a stream of mentions," said Kyle Lindsay, Head of Product at Pulsar Group. "But rather a living system of stories shaped by competing perspectives. When you can see those structures clearly, you gain the ability to understand issues as they form, anticipate how they’ll evolve, and act with precision. That’s what we mean when we talk about AI built for communicators, and that's what an off-the-shelf LLM can't give you."
The Lumina Roadmap: AI tools for the future of comms
The launch of Stories & Perspectives is the first release of many. Over the upcoming months, we will systematically roll out the full Lumina roadmap, introducing a comprehensive set of AI tools engineered to handle every phase of the communications lifecycle.
The full Lumina suite will soon incorporate:
Curated media summaries: AI-driven daily summaries customized specifically to the priorities of senior leadership, highlighting only the most relevant stories.
Reputation analysis: Advanced measurement tracking how critical themes like ethics, innovation, and leadership are statistically shaping corporate perception.
Press release & media relations assistant: Tools designed to accelerate content creation and craft hyper-focused, personalized pitches that reach the precise contacts faster.
Predictive intelligence layer: Technology engineered to track and anticipate story momentum and strategic change before the window of opportunity closes.
Intelligent agents: Background agents continuously scanning all media channels for emerging key spokespeople and previously undetected reputation risks.
Enhanced audio, broadcast & crisis detection: Complete, real-time oversight of all channels—including audio and broadcast—enabling rapid context building and optimal crisis response delivery.
Want to harness the power of Lumina AI for your PR, Comms, or Public Affairs team? .
Complete the form below to register your interest.
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Blog
Announcing Lumina: The purpose-built AI suite for PR, Comms, and Public Affairs
An intelligent suite of AI tools trained on the language, workflows, and realities of modern public relations and communications.
