The 19 channels

Unconventional PR

Stunts and customer-delight moves that earn attention without a press release.

What it is

The 19-channel taxonomy separates this from ordinary publicity: publicity stunts and unusual acts of customer appreciation that get people talking. S3

When it works

When you can create word of mouth deliberately. Creating FOMO to drive word of mouth was one of the seven consumer first-thousand strategies, used by Instagram, Pinterest, Clubhouse, Mailbox, Robinhood, Superhuman and Spotify. S18

What it needs from the product

Nothing structural, and no budget beyond the stunt itself. It needs a product that is very good, which Chen names as the precondition for any small channel working at all. S25

How it decays

A stunt works once. Repeating it is exactly the novelty fade Chen describes. S21

What the report checks

No structural gate and no spend floor. Open by default, ranked low.

Sources

  1. S3 Growth Method, "19 traction channels for growth marketers" secondary source
  2. S18 Lenny Rachitsky, "How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1,000 users"
  3. S25 Andrew Chen, "Every marketing channel sucks right now"
  4. S21 Andrew Chen, "The Law of Shitty Clickthroughs"