Soft launching was a term created in 2020 after a popular tweet made by Rachel Sennott, according to the New York Times (Pitcher, 2022). The tweet stated, “Congrats on the Instagram soft launch of your boyfriend.” The Atlantic (Tiffany, 2021).
When the term soft launch was brought to social media, people started realizing we have been doing it for years.
Women and men, without wanting to blast their partner on social media right away, but still wanting people to know that they are in a relationship, have found ways to do so. It can start if you are on a dinner date and post a picture of two plates and maybe even a tiny piece of your partner’s hand.
Or people will sometimes post a picture of their feet if they have matching shoes on.
Or a picture displaying their hands clasped together.
Or a mirror picture, but your partner is standing towards you, so we can only see the back of their head.
My point is that over the years, there have been many ways soft launching has become a practice when wanting to flaunt your relationship when it is still considered “new”, or you just want to keep things “private but not secret.” This has been a good way to show that sometimes social media makes people way too invested in other people’s lives, and is a way to avoid outside opinions.
However, with all of this, “soft launching” has become a practice in many brands, artists and influencers. Whether it comes to launching a new product, an announcement for a new tour or when an influencer is announcing a giveaway.
When companies want to soft-launch a new product, a popular new technique being used is pop-ups. Companies will choose places like a high-traffic college campus (Penn State) and mix the new products they want to launch with older ones. Another example of companies soft-launching a new product is slowly posting very zoomed-in pictures of the product and packaging.
Two good companies that showcase soft launching a new product are Rhode, created by Hailey Bieber, and R.E.M. Beauty, by Ariana Grande.
In the year 2023, R.E.M. Beauty held a pop-up in Soho, New York City. The pop-up was named “Sweetener Shoppe.” This marketing pop-up was for the soft launch of her new foundation line.
It included a free ice cream booth and a photo booth, was used to do personalized foundation shade matching, and customers were allowed to purchase exclusive merch.
Just recently, Rhode teased their 2026 product line-up with a carousel on Instagram. This carousel included close-up pictures of potential pimple patches, what could be a new peptide lip tint, a potential new contour/ bronzer product and a secret mystery item.
The term and idea of soft-launching has made its way to the music industry as well. “How?” you might ask. Well, recently, two artists I love and follow announced their 2026 tours.
Let me tell you how they included soft-launching.
Morgan Wallen (yes, the one who threw a chair off the roof of a bar) announced his “Still The Problem” tour through multiple days of a social media campaign. This campaign had accounts sending out cryptic messages in Morse code spelling “Still The Problem” and a whole website “stilltheproblem.com” that held a countdown and an interactive map hinting at tour cities.
Megan Moroney is also another artist going on a 2026 tour named “The Cloud Nine Tour.” Around December 2025, selected fans started receiving mystery jigsaw puzzles. When assembled, a coordinate appeared for what seemed to be a potential tour stop city. Inside the puzzle box was a link that directed fans to a website that had a countdown.
When the countdown was completed, a map of North America appeared. As fans completed the puzzles and added their coordinates, a cloud appeared over the state/city. Fans speculated that these were potential tour stops.
As I said earlier, influencers have dived deeper into using the soft launch technique for launching brand collaborations. An example of this would be Molly Mae and Toni Bravo.
Molly Mae, a bombshell on season five of “Love Island UK,” has now become a top influencer. In January 2026, through Instagram and a carousel of photos captioned “Three stripes. One vision. Curated by Molly Mae.”
No one saw this collab coming, and we still have very few details on it. It could be shoes, clothing, or both, and we have no idea when it is dropping. This just gives fans time to buzz over what could be coming.
Toni Bravo, also known as the “CEO of Blush,” took his collab with Tower 28 and soft-launching into a different direction. Instead of relying on a social media post, Bravo and Tower 28 used something called “mailers” to launch two new blush shades. One hundred Bravo-picked influencers received “mailers.”
Before the official launch, this helped community trust the real reviews from creators and see what the products actually looked like on people. This also helps create authenticity.
Now you might be asking, “Why has soft launching become a frequent PR strategy?” That is because it gives time for brands to see how consumers will react to new products, tours or brands. If any of the soft launches have negative feedback, this gives brands time to adjust anything people are pointing out as negative.
This can be the product, color, packaging and/or message.
Being a fan myself, I love the anticipation a soft launch gives me, and brands know this about all fans. Brands also know that fans like being included in some of the things they do, which is why pop-ups, fan mail, interactive maps and more are so popular.
Who knew that a tweet that was supposed to be comedic turned into something couples use to launch their relationships into something that brands, influencers and musicians use to launch their own work.
Who knew that a tweet would start one of the best strategies for PR firms to use with their clients?
Soft launching is not just a marketing strategy anymore. It has become a way to build anticipation, minimize risk of negativity around a launch and a way to let fans have fun and be participants in a brand. It helps build trust, which leads to a community – the foundation for a brand.
A brand that has a community is a brand that lasts.
