Category design has never been static, but, with the march of AI, 2026 feels like a genuine inflection point.
The traditional playbook still works – but only if you know which parts deserve your investment and which have quietly lost their edge. AI-generated content has flooded every channel, buyers increasingly trust peers over institutions, and attention has become the scarcest resource in B2B marketing.
So, if you’re planning a category Strike – that concentrated moment when you introduce a new market narrative rather than simply launch a product – here’s what belongs in the playbook today.
Events: still expensive. Still worth it.
Events remain one of the most powerful tools for launching a category, even if they’re among the hardest investments for an early-stage company to justify.
Unlike digital campaigns, events give you something difficult to replicate elsewhere: immediate feedback. You can watch prospects react to your narrative, identify which ideas resonate, and refine your positioning in real time. Few marketing activities provide such a fast learning loop.
That doesn’t mean every startup should write a six-figure cheque.
Instead, be selective. Pick only the events where your audience is genuinely paying attention. If the budget doesn’t stretch that far, consider hosting your own event – but only if you have experienced operators who can execute flawlessly. A poorly run event damages credibility far faster than skipping one altogether.
The takeaway: events remain battle-tested for category creation. Just be deliberate about where – and how – you invest.
Analysts: broaden your definition
The technology analyst landscape is changing.
Traditional firms still have influence, but they’re no longer the sole gatekeepers of market credibility. Buyers increasingly rely on a mix of review platforms, practitioner communities, newsletters, and independent experts when evaluating emerging categories.
That doesn’t mean analysts no longer matter. It means your definition of analyst should expand.
Tier-two firms, independent researchers, respected newsletter writers, and specialist podcasters often command remarkable authority within niche markets. In many cases, these voices have deeper engagement than the biggest brand names.
For an initial Strike, securing a briefing with every major analyst house isn’t essential. Building relationships with influential niche experts often delivers better returns.
The takeaway: don’t optimise for prestige. Optimise for influence within your audience.
Earned media: build a narrative, not a press release
The strongest category companies don’t chase coverage – they create stories journalists want to tell.That starts with identifying the problem your category solves, then connecting it to conversations the market is already having. The best earned media doesn’t interrupt the news cycle; it becomes part of it.
Look for opportunities to trendjack macro shifts that naturally reinforce your category. Whether it’s regulation, economic change, AI adoption, security concerns, or changing buyer behaviour, your narrative should explain why existing trends make your category inevitable.
This is also one area where specialist agencies often earn their fees. They already have relationships with journalists and understand what constitutes a genuinely newsworthy story.
What doesn’t work is the traditional product launch announcement.
Those releases typically end up buried on technology blogs with little lasting impact. They, at best, create awareness of a feature- not a category.
One principle is worth remembering: Around 85% of citations begin with earned media.
The takeaway: treat earned media as the engine that powers your broader narrative across every channel.
Paid media: think bigger, not busier
Using paid media to achieve cut through has become dramatically harder.
LinkedIn feeds are saturated. AI has made producing content almost frictionless. Every buyer is exposed to thousands of forgettable ads every week.
Simply increasing frequency rarely solves the problem.
Instead, focus on creating a singular, visual moment that people remember. That’s admittedly difficult when you’re marketing enterprise software, but it’s also what separates campaigns
people ignore from campaigns people discuss.
Avoid relying on tired techniques such as celebrity endorsements or conventional influencers simply because they attract attention. Recognition isn’t the same as relevance.
Instead, think more like a Super Bowl advertiser than a performance marketer.
Recent campaigns have demonstrated that technology companies can become the story through the sheer ambition of their advertising. Sometimes the scale of the campaign itself creates earned media, multiplying the value of every paid impression.
Don’t spread your budget across months of average campaigns. Make one move people can’t ignore.
The takeaway: in an age of infinite content, memorable beats consistent.
The modern strike requires focus
Category design has never been about doing everything.
It’s about assembling a handful of coordinated moves that reinforce one another:
- Use events to test and sharpen your narrative.
- Expand your analyst strategy beyond the traditional firms.
- Build earned media around trends, not product announcements.
- Treat paid media as an opportunity to create a market moment, not simply buy impressions.
The companies that define categories aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest marketing budgets.
They’re the ones disciplined enough to create a coherent story – and bold enough to make the market pay attention.
Questions every tech leadership team should ask
Before committing to your next Strike, challenge your assumptions with a few practical questions:
- Do we have the internal capability to run our own event successfully, or should we preserve capital and skip events this time?
- Which specialist podcasters, independent analysts, or Tier 2 firms genuinely influence our buyers?
- Which macro trends are already shaping our market, and how can we authentically connect our category to those conversations?
- If we could only make one big marketing bet this year, what would create the biggest market conversation?