Scofflawery in Field Marketing

During dinner a few weeks back we started to both bring up examples of times we have broken the rules.  Looking back at our early days in promotional marketing, there were many times we joined crews of brand ambassadors handing out fliers and giveaways.  Rarely did we have a permit to be there.  To be frank it was a highly unauthorized promotion that led us down the path where we found MRA and started the adventures in marketing tours.

We drive the wrong way down roads, illegally park, take up handicap spaces, put up signs without permission.  How often do you send out event staff as a field team to drive in traffic?  On a recent call with city planners office some strange questions started coming up.  About half-way thought the process I realized that she had at one time worked with a different firm who widely misrepresented their event and left the city with damage and cleanup.  She wasn’t trying to get more permit funds from me but instead to make her local police and park employees aware.  Maybe too often we view people in those positions as an obstacle versus a partner.

We recently had the opportunity to help out with some planning on tour run by our employer but outside of our client portfolio.  They needed help to secure a year’s worth of tour stops in three weeks.  This was a great opportunity to put forth a concentrated effort treat the contacts at locations like they were a preferred vendor, a partner.  By expressed our excitement to be in the community and to use their facility. It was a striking difference, out of the entire list only one location said no.  We were able to give the client exactly what they asked for.  It has been a great opportunity to grow professionally from this and noticed immediately how differently it felt to work some of other vendors.

We wear a number of different hats within the company and it will be a long time before again seeing anyone as a road block versus a partner again.