Be remarkable

Marketing guru Seth Godin gives an informative and fun talk at google. New stuff (product) has to be remarkable in the true sense of the word. People need to want to pass remarks about it. This starts the process of word-of-mouth marketing which is the key to awareness and interest.
The bottom line is that conversation is the key, you need to cause conversations about your product or service to take place. To start conversations you need to target the message at people who want to know such that they will want to participate.