The StuckForStaff.com Guide to working in Promotions & Field Marketing

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Contents

• What is promotion and field marketing?
• What are the different types of work on offer?
• What do I need to be like?
• Joining agencies
• What to expect
• The Promo Union
• The "Perfect Promo" checklist
• STUCKFORSTAFF.COM

What is promotion and field marketing?

Basically, any brand, company or service that wants to lift their brand image, especially in public, will undertake some form of promotion or field marketing activity. The aim is to increase their exposure and profile as much as possible. As this activity may be seasonal, one-off, or related to a new product etc. companies will employ temporary staff for these duties.

The normal route is for a brand ("the client") to employ a PR (Public Relations) agency to design them a campaign to achieve their promotion objectives. This may be anything from an exhibition stand to a publicity stunt. The PR agency will then usually employ a Promotion Agency or Field Marketing (FM) company to co-ordinate and staff the campaign. This is whom you will be working for, and also the type of company that uses StuckForStaff.com. This activity may also be referred to as a type of "below-the-line" advertising, and is often called Live Brand Experience.

In the modern market, where there are more TV and radio stations, and internet shopping is the norm, traditional ways of advertising are becoming less popular, as the mass of media competes for customers, and so the response is diluted. Not everyone watches the same TV station any more, and this reflects in the success of the advertising. Below-the-line activity is considered by many as a far more effective way of raising brand awareness, as it gets the product face-to-face with the consumer, where they experience the brand in a live interactive environment, hence the term "live brand experience".

Promotional campaigns are generally to increase brand awareness for the client, and are often also called face-to-face marketing. This can include sampling new products to the public, exhibition work, and anything else that involves getting out there, interacting with the public and communicating the brand message.

Field Marketing campaigns in general look to directly increase sales in the "field" (public or consumer market) and may include merchandising, a sales drive or mystery shopping.