Technological Empowerment and Meaning Co-Construction: The Reinforced Persuasion Mechanism of Multimodal Synergy in Smart Product Launch Events

Product launch events serve as a crucial means of marketing and communication for technology brands. With the empowerment of multimodal technologies, the construction of meaning and the pathways of persuasion in these events have been reshaped. Drawing on grounded theory, this study systematically reviews and analyzes 258 smart product launch events organized by 20 leading technology brands. The findings reveal that product launch events consist of two major categories of content—namely, core information and peripheral information—which together form a reinforced persuasion mechanism, resonating with the additivity effects proposed in the Heuristic Systematic Model (HSM). Furthermore, the abundant multimodal cues embedded in these events contribute to the reinforcement mechanism through overlapping complementarity and dynamic supplementation. Finally, this study discusses the theoretical significance of the multimodality-assisted reinforced persuasion mechanism in relation to dual-process models and its appropriateness in contemporary communication contexts. By providing an in-depth investigation of smart product launch events as a novel form of content dissemination, the study conceptualizes a persuasion mechanism suitable for complex communication environments and offers practical guidance for industry marketing practice.