You can till the field remotely
FieldAgent’s iPhone app claims to combine the best of field marketing with the best in digital crowdsourcing. Instead of deploying a dedicated field team, signed-up users already in the area perform the role of mystery shopper and report their findings. These “agents” are paid £1 for filling in the questionnaire, while brands are able to get fast, low-cost feedback from across the UK. House Party uses a social media platform to turn the traditional notion of the Tupperware gathering on its head. No official company representative is present at the party: the host distributes a brand’s items – from a new FMCG product to a previously unseen TV series or new music track – to friends and family but takes no cut of the profits. It’s brand ambassadorship with the hands-off influence of social media – an industrial revolution for field marketing?
Be dramatic
Showbusiness has inspired the latest field marketing activities, with companies hiring professional performers to provide brand promotion-cum-theatre. Heathrow’s terminal five was transformed into an impromptu stage for a West End‑style musical when 300 professional vocalists hired as T-Mobile ambassadors welcomed arriving passengers with an acapella medley of songs. The stunt was streamed across 80 satellite and terrestrial channels simultaneously and has since gone viral. Professional acting staff were also hired by the BBC’s Big Read campaign to hand out free copies of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Donning C18th costume, actors dressed as Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy wooed shoppers in historic market towns such as Bath and Chester, distributing more than 10,000 leaflets and 4,000 copies of the novel.
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