How far will you go to market your product?
While the actual hoverboard isn't even close to being manufactured for resale, the real question is how much money a company is willing to spend to differentiate itself from its competitors in a mature, competitive market.
Besides money, loud colors and frantic customers drawing attention to themselves also works. I went to Chicago a few weeks ago and saw a line of people in bright orange helmets zooming along on Segways. I didn't think they looked particularly fashionable, but they grabbed my attention more than the company with the black helmets. Sure enough, I got talked into going on a Segway tour, orange helmet and all. I had hoped we'd stay away from crowds. Instead, they took us down Michigan Ave. where we (me, mostly) shouted at people to get out of the way because we had only learned to use a Segway ten minutes prior. There were also two small crashes (wildly entertaining, since they didn't happen to me) and one bicycle/Segway near-miss while on my tour. Still--we zoomed along and when people asked, "Is it fun?" the other folks on the tour immediately said, "Yes! Try it!" We became a sixty minute circus/advertising campaign. Our tour guide handed out the company's info for future tours to people that asked where they could ride one, too.