Success factor is dependent on project vision. What makes one project succeed might not work for another. Different projects different success story especially when there's competition in the market.
Then if you use your logic,,, it is not project vision rather, execution of marketing and promotion. What works implies there must be a strategy to make the ICO successful, and let us not be kidding ourselves success is not measured by how many people know about it but how much investors put into the ICO.