Field marketing manual - Which way forward?

Some agencies argue that the latter is a subset of the former, while others, mostly the members of the Live Brand Experience Association (LBEA), argue that it is a separate discipline.

Barnett Fletcher, chief executive of Vibe and an LBEA board member, maintains that experiential activity requires a different skillset. 'Field marketing is a practical purchase, driven by a need for distribution and sales building,' he says. 'Experiential marketing, created properly, builds an emotional bond between the brand and consumer.' He believes the biggest challenge for clients is determining which agencies have this experiential skillset, and which have added it as a bolt-on to their main offering.

There is also disagreement among agencies over whether the back-end tasks associated with traditional field marketing, such as merchandising and compliance, are included in an experiential campaign. Kate Carr, managing director of traditional agency FSS, believes they are specific to field marketing disciplines, but Fletcher disagrees. 'I am not aware of any rules about what you can or cannot have in an experiential campaign,' he says. 'If the big idea extends to merchandising, so be it.'

The lines between field marketing agencies and their experiential brethren are blurring as some of the former join what is seen as a growing and potentially lucrative sector. To add to the confusion, even agencies recognised as experiential specialists still frequently carry out traditional field marketing activities.

It may be that reaching as many people as possible in as short a time as possible, and encouraging them to try a product, is all you need, in which case traditional field marketing could work best for you. FSS carries out this type of work for Transport for London's Oyster card. 'There are 2500 Oyster tickets shops in Greater London and we call on those ticket shops once a month to check that consumers can easily identify outlets where they can buy Oyster', says Carr. 'We talk to the retailers about deals and educate them on prices and procedures.'

Experiential is less about the number of people that a campaign reaches and more about the depth of experience. Campaigns also tend to be more aligned with brand strategy. 'Experiential activity requires brand briefing and awareness of other marketing plans - it needs great creative, based on consumer insights,' says Hugh Robertson, managing partner at experiential agency RPM, whose work includes the Strongbow Rooms bar and dance club experienced by more than 120,000 festival-goers last summer. As James Layfield, managing director of experiential agency The Lounge, says: 'Experiential is about creating an engaging experience that immerses the consumer in the brand's world.'

Fully engaged
In an experiential campaign it carried out for Levi's, Jack Morton Worldwide sent 'jeans police' to scour shopping centres for recruits to try out technology that uses radio waves to measure body shape and then recommends the best jean shape. 'The aim was to get people to try on a pair of jeans, which is not something you can achieve through sampling,' says Liz Bigham, marketing director at Jack Morton. 'This is an experience rather than a field marketing transaction. The individual will talk about it with others because they've been engaged.' Of more than 5000 recruits, 90% tried on a pair of jeans.

The best way to approach a campaign is to ignore the names and labels agencies give to their services and instead identify what you need and analyse agencies' work to see if they have relevant experience.

'Clients need to understand the differences between com-panies in a pitch situation,' says the Field Marketing Council's Alison Williams. 'Check you have the facts, ask about previous clients, take up references, look at the people on the business and be prepared to go back to a company for clarification.'

FIELD VS EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING DEFINITIONS

Field marketing
Field marketing is the use of promotional staff in a marketing campaign to boost sales of a brand. Typically, the field force will distribute product samples and carry out non-brand-related tasks that must be in place to maximise sales, such as compliance, auditing and merchandising.

Experiential marketing
Experiential marketing is the creation of a campaign, delivered face to face, that engages the target audience in the brand through stimulation of some or all of the senses. This technique strives to forge a deeper connection with individuals and convey a sense of the brand's values.