How long should an intranet launch campaign run?

An intranet launch campaign should run for at least four to six weeks before go-live and continue for three to six months after. The pre-launch phase builds awareness. The post-launch phase is where adoption either takes hold or falls away. Organisations that treat launch as a one-day event typically see engagement drop within weeks.

Intranet Launch Ideas to Increase Engagement

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Last updated: 18th June 2026

A successful intranet launch needs more than a go-live date. It needs a campaign. That means building awareness before launch, driving excitement on the day, and keeping momentum going well after. This article covers proven ideas for every phase, plus a sample launch plan you can use right away.

You've completed your intranet strategy and plan and you've built your intranet. Now it's time to launch.

Successfully launching an intranet requires more than hitting the "go live" button. There are a few more steps involved to make sure your users:

Know what's going on and when to expect access
Feel excited about it
Know what an intranet is used for
Understand the value and what content is available
Know the benefits they'll get from using it
See how it will impact their role and tasks
Feel confident enough to log in and give it a go
Are open to adopting new behaviours and engaging with the platform right away

According to research, only 13% of employees use their company intranet daily, and 31% say they never use it at all. A well-planned launch campaign is one of the most effective ways to shift those numbers from day one.

Your launch campaign is part of the complete intranet design guideline and principles you should be following, and it runs well before the launch date to generate interest.

Here are proven ideas to help you create your launch campaign. All of which have been used by the organisations we have worked with over the years.

What should you do before your intranet goes live?

Pre-launch activity sets the tone for everything that follows. The goal is to get your people curious, invested, and ready to log in on day one.

1. Run a naming competition

Naming your intranet is a great way to infuse extra culture and personality into your brand. You could let your community vote on the winner and offer a generous gift card as a prize.

Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology did exactly this and ended up with the crowdsourced name 'Polly', truly reflective of their country, New Zealand, and a native bird the Kākāpō.

2. Do a top-secret soft launch

You've already got champions from different departments who have been involved from the beginning. So, why not do a soft launch so they can get a sneak preview before everyone else? They can help build hype and boost confidence within each department.

3. Drip feed teasers

Drip feed information and teasers to your staff. That way, they get plenty of reminders without getting overwhelmed. Get creative about the format. Some ideas are a newsletter series, putting up posters around the office, creating a set of brochures, filming a video series, or having a mixture of different formats.

Further reading: How to Create a Compelling Company Newsletter

4. Highlight features and benefits

Break down resistance over time by building excitement about the features that are coming and how they'll benefit your staff. This is another reason why it's important to research what your end users want from an intranet. For example, if accessing employee onboarding policies is a must-have function for HR, you can use these insights as the basis of your messages to promote the intranet and generate real interest.

5. Executive communications

One of the best ways to generate interest and buy-in from across your organisation is for the executive and senior management team to make it clear they expect staff to use the new intranet and to personally show their support. Communications can be in the form of emails promoting the intranet, inclusions in company meetings and so on.

Further reading: Build a Compelling Case to Get Buy-in From Stakeholders

6. Send out something physical

Intranets are digital, but your launch campaign doesn't have to be. Physical welcome packs or items can build excitement because they're a lot less common these days. For bonus points, include a fun piece of company merchandise such as a postcard or swag to commemorate the occasion.

7. Set up a countdown timer

Whether it's a physical countdown timer in your main office, or a digital timer on the intranet "coming soon" page, a timer can help build anticipation.

Why do intranet launches fail?

No clear communication about what the intranet is for or how to use it.
Staff find out at go-live, not before. No anticipation built.
Leadership doesn't visibly use or endorse the platform.
Training happens once and is never repeated for new staff.
No feedback loop. Staff feel unheard and disengage quickly.

What ideas work best on intranet launch day?

Launch day is your best chance to create a moment. The ideas below are designed to drive logins, build familiarity, and make the experience genuinely memorable.

1. Launch video

Create a short video reel highlighting the new intranet with positive comments from your intranet project team, which should ideally include executives and your management team.

2. Interactive tour

Display an interactive tour highlighting key functions of the new intranet. This should include new functionality and interesting features they might not otherwise discover, such as predictive search with several ways to filter content.

3. Training sessions

Consider having 'lunch and learn' sessions. This involves hosting in-person training, ideally during lunch to avoid disrupting the working day. Host a virtual conference to engage remote staff to make sure they get in on the excitement too.

4. Increase familiarity

Display your intranet on TV screens and other high visibility areas to increase familiarity. Consider setting the intranet as the default homepage to encourage staff to log in and use it daily.

5. Scavenger hunt

Organise a scavenger hunt and hide relevant images such as logos around the site in new or updated areas you want staff to explore. To enter a competition, they need to identify where these are. You could also have a questionnaire with answers that can only be found by exploring the new intranet.

6. Photo competitions

This can be organised in different ways. You could have staff in different locations match a photo with names by using the intranet corporate directory, or select the photo that best reflects the company culture and values. Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology ran a photo competition with staff guessing who the person in the baby photo was. It drove significant engagement across the platform.

Northcott, a large NFP operating across 160 locations in NSW and ACT, used their Elcom intranet to give staff a fast, reliable way to search for information, policies and people. "Nula has enabled staff to search for information, policies and people, and find them easily. These basic needs are difficult to meet in an organisation of our size and geographical dispersion." Madeleine Donkin, Digital Business Development Manager, Northcott. Read the case study.

Nula has enabled staff to search for information, policies and people, and find them easily. These basic needs are difficult to meet in an organisation of our size and geographical dispersion. Elcom were attentive, friendly, helpful and responsive along the Nula journey, thank you!

Madeleine Donkin
Digital Business Development Manager
Northcott

Read the case study

See more customer stories

How do you keep intranet engagement going after launch?

The launch campaign gets people in the door. What you do in the weeks and months after is what determines whether they stay. These post-launch ideas focus on recognition, fresh content, and continuous improvement.

1. Reward and recognise

Recognise your most engaged users and reward them with a profile badge, an announcement, or maybe even a day off. Recognition fosters a positive feedback loop and shows staff that their engagement is valued.

2. Recognise staff achievements

Celebrate the success of individuals. Enable colleagues to nominate each other via a form on the intranet, with the winner displayed on the homepage and receiving a prize.

3. Share customer success stories

Your intranet is a great place to highlight the work of your staff, especially if they are based in different locations. Northcott, a large and geographically dispersed NFP, uses their intranet as an easy and accessible way to share positive work from the ground and build culture and morale.

4. Roll out new sections

Add new sections in advance of projects or products being rolled out. These can be full of FAQs, social Q&As, support documents, forms, training schedules and other resources, keeping everyone informed.

Further reading: Intranet Content Strategy and Management

5. Provide ongoing help

Provide contact details in case staff get stuck, especially for new employees. Have a dedicated intranet administrator for hands-on help and individual coaching.

6. Share interesting facts and quotes

Depending on what interests your audience, you can share everything from inspirational quotes to interesting things that have happened across the organisation. At Elcom, we custom build a lot of functionality for clients who often have specific requirements. Sharing this on the intranet is a quick way to showcase new capabilities to sales teams, project managers and other departments whose clients could benefit.

7. Use analytics to guide your next moves

Most modern intranet platforms include built-in analytics. Check which pages staff visit most, where they drop off, and what they search for. Use that data to prioritise updates. Sharing a simple monthly usage report with your project team keeps everyone accountable and helps you make the case for ongoing investment. Elcom's intranet analytics give you a clear picture of adoption and engagement over time.

8. Get feedback

Request employee feedback on their experiences so you can start planning your first round of updates and improvements. You can have polls and forms on the intranet to collect this. Always be open to feedback, ideas and suggestions from your staff. It's a sign of high employee engagement and a successful intranet because it means they're invested in making it work for them.

What should an intranet launch plan include?

A launch plan keeps your campaign on track. It turns good ideas into assigned tasks with clear timelines and owners. The table below is a high-level starting point you can adapt and break into more granular actions.

Task	Duration	Responsible Party	Details
Internal Marketing Strategy Development	4 weeks	Communications Team	Develop a comprehensive marketing strategy tailored to different employee segments to address their specific needs and concerns.
Content Creation for Campaign	4 weeks	Marketing Team	Create engaging content such as articles, infographics, and videos that explain the benefits and features of the new intranet.
Ambassador Training and Mobilisation	2 weeks	HR & Training Team	Select and train intranet ambassadors from various departments to advocate for the intranet and assist their colleagues.
Teasers and Sneak Peeks	4 weeks	Communications Team	Release teaser videos, feature previews, and behind-the-scenes looks at the intranet development process.
Interactive Q&A Sessions	2 weeks	HR Team	Organise live Q&A sessions where employees can ask questions and get answers directly from the intranet team.
Targeted Emails and Newsletters	4 weeks	Marketing Team	Send targeted emails and newsletters to different employee groups, highlighting specific features and benefits that align with their daily tasks.
Feedback Collection on Expectations	4 weeks	HR Team	Gather employee expectations and concerns via surveys to tailor the launch activities and address common themes in training and resources.
Launch Countdown	4 weeks	Communications Team	Start a countdown to build excitement, featuring daily updates or highlights about how the intranet will make day-to-day tasks easier.
Digital Signage and Physical Posters	4 weeks	Facilities Team	Use digital signage and physical posters throughout office spaces to remind and excite staff about the upcoming launch.

What are the next steps after your intranet launch?

A high-adoption intranet launch requires careful planning and a campaign that starts well before go-live. The ideas in this article have been used by Australian organisations of all sizes. Pick the ones that suit your culture, assign clear owners, and keep the momentum going well beyond launch day.

We strongly recommend reading the guide: How to Successfully Plan, Deploy and Launch an Intranet. It will equip you with best practices and insights to properly plan, deploy and launch your intranet.

Thinking about what platform to build on? Explore our intranet best practices guide or compare intranet software options to find the right fit for your organisation. If you'd like to see how Elcom can help, book a free demo.

Frequently Asked Questions

A successful intranet launch runs a structured campaign across three phases: pre-launch, launch day, and post-launch. Pre-launch builds awareness and anticipation. Launch day creates an experience. Post-launch sustains engagement through recognition, fresh content and ongoing feedback. Starting the campaign at least four to six weeks before go-live gives you the best chance of strong day-one adoption.

The most effective ideas combine involvement and visibility. Naming competitions, soft launches for champions, drip-feed teaser campaigns, and executive endorsements all build pre-launch interest. On launch day, scavenger hunts, interactive tours and lunch and learn sessions drive exploration. After launch, recognition programmes and regular feedback loops keep staff engaged long-term.

Getting leadership buy-in starts before the build. Present a business case that links the intranet to outcomes leadership cares about, such as reducing email volume, improving onboarding, or connecting remote staff. Once they're involved, ask executives to contribute to the launch video, send staff communications personally, and use the platform themselves. Visible leadership endorsement is one of the strongest predictors of intranet adoption.

An intranet launch plan should include a communications strategy, content creation schedule, ambassador training programme, teaser campaign timeline, training session dates, feedback collection methods, and a countdown strategy. Each task should have a clear owner, duration, and expected outcome. The sample plan in this article gives you a starting framework to adapt for your organisation.

Measure intranet engagement using platform analytics. Key metrics include weekly active users, pages viewed per session, most visited sections, and search terms. Best-practice targets for a new intranet launch are 60 to 85% of employees logging in at least once per week. Run short pulse surveys at 30, 60 and 90 days post-launch to capture qualitative feedback alongside the numbers.

The most common reason intranet launches fail is poor communication before go-live. If staff don't understand what the intranet is for, why it matters to them personally, and how to use it, they won't log in. Lack of leadership endorsement and no post-launch engagement strategy are also major factors. A structured campaign that starts weeks before launch significantly reduces the risk of low adoption.

Getting staff to use the intranet after launch requires a mix of habit-forming tactics and ongoing relevance. Set the intranet as the default homepage. Make sure key tools and information only live there. Recognise active users publicly. Roll out new sections tied to upcoming projects or events. Collect and act on feedback so staff see the platform improving. An intranet that solves real daily problems gets used. One that doesn't, doesn't.

Keep reading

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12 Intranet Content Best Practices to Improve Adoption Rates

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Launching an Intranet: Steps to Success

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