Sechel, the chofetz Chaim was responsible for getting klal yisroel ready for moshiach. He opened a Kolel to learn kodshim in preparation for moshiach, he talked about geulah all the time, he wrote seforim about it… He told people that we’re in ikvesa demishicha, as did his talmid rav elchanan wasserman, who wrote a sefer by that name.
Many chasidishe rebbes did the same.
What was different about Lubavitch, was that moshiach went from being the redemption from physical and spiritual galus, to being the motivating factor behind doing mitzvos. That’s something that the gedolim objected to, because we do mitzvos because Hashem says so, not to bring moshiach.