Take your hero product away

Starbucks launched the Pumpkin Spice Latte in 2003. Then it did something odd: it took the drink away.

The PSL disappears every winter and returns every late summer. It turns each comeback into news, with countdowns, headlines and social buzz.

Each return refreshes the memory before it fully fades. Two decades later, Starbucks calls it its most popular seasonal beverage of all time.

Our take: Got a hero product? If you can, don’t sell it all year. Retire it, then bring it back on a predictable schedule. Scarcity plus spacing beats constant availability.

Burst, pause, repeat

Coca-Cola’s “Holidays Are Coming” truck ad premiered in 1995. It still comes back every November, nearly three decades later.

That's the Spacing Effect at brand scale. One burst a year. A familiar ad, with the same jingle and trucks. For millions of viewers, it now marks the start of the season.

Research backs the rhythm. A Stanford field experiment found online ads were more effective when exposures were spread out instead of bunched together.

What we think: Don’t burn your budget in one week. Use frequency caps and flighting so impressions land days apart, not minutes apart.

Ration the experience

Wordle gave players exactly one puzzle per day. No sign of binging or extra levels. And most importantly, no second chances. Unless you cheat, and that’s a no-no.

That limit spaced every interaction 24 hours apart. Scarcity made each visit feel like an event. Players came back daily, shared their grids, and the habit stuck.

It grew from 90 players to millions in about three months. The New York Times bought it in early 2022 for a low seven-figure sum.

Release content in a rhythm. Don’t dump all at once, but drop stuff weekly or use daily challenges and serialized emails. It always edges over a one-time content avalanche.

This is a weekly newsletter after all, so we know what we’re talking about.