Hi Tom,
The answer is probably yes and no. To do a successful marketing effort, you need to have a very specific and preferably affluent target customer base. You also need to "leak" very interesting teaser ads to spark people's interest and preferably demonstrate clearly why they should buy the product. Until people see the need, they will fail to heed your marketing plea.
Make no mistake, there is no "proven successful" marketing approach. But if you canvas a wide range of perspective users/buyers of your product, then you can get a better idea about its acceptance. You will also see if it generates that instant "Aha" reaction or is something that people appreciate only after using the device for a while.
Plus, if it is for techies, Latch is correct, they usually won't pay any attention to an ad until they have a need to look for your product. If you survive that long, you can eventually get their attention.
Also, Latch identified the key issue. It has to have the capability to do what the user needs, not force the user into a new way of doing things. I can vouch for this one perfectly as I went down that path. I did have success, but only to people who saw that I could reduce their project risk for a nominal cost.
If you have a reasonably priced device to sell, then offering it up to Road Test at E14 is a good way to get people exposed to the product and you get a fair technical assessment as well. Though you have to be aware, if the Road Test results are bad, you will probably never sell one to anyone who reads the test results. So you should be very confident that your device can deliver on the marketing promises. But that is the risk every new product takes.
I hope my rambling has provided some useful information to you.
DAB
