A campaign can look successful at headquarters while failing in the aisle. The promotional materials may be printed and the store list approved, but displays might not arrive, prices might not be updated or the setup might occur after the high-value launch period.
An empirical study of promotional displays across thousands of stores found material execution gaps and linked actual display placement to sales outcomes. The lesson is not to assume that allocation equals execution: verify the display in the store during the relevant window.
Before launch: define what success looks like
Audience: which outlets are eligible, what exclusions apply and who owns the store list?
Commercial objective: trial, distribution, availability, uplift, awareness or another outcome? A campaign must have one principal purpose.
Required conditions: display type, products, minimum stock, price, signage, start and end dates, and approval requirements.
Responsibility: who delivers stock and materials, who installs, who verifies and who handles non-compliance?
Proof: what is sufficient evidence, and when must it be captured?
Phase 1: readiness
Check product availability, master data, price files, asset delivery and store access before assigning a large number of activation visits. A campaign checklist cannot fix stock that has never shipped. Create a readiness gate with explicit go/no-go conditions.
Phase 2: activation
Distribute store-specific task lists. Give field teams enough context to know what they should change and who authorizes it. Separate "visited" from "display installed", "price correct" and "stock available". Use a simple exception code for material not received, retailer refusal, stock shortage or conflicting instructions.
Phase 3: in-flight recovery
Review priority stores shortly after the launch date while intervention can still affect the campaign. Escalate failed material deliveries, missing products and retailer approvals to owners who can act. Plan rechecks for high-value unresolved gaps rather than sending the same audit to every location.
Phase 4: close-out and learning
Report eligible stores, executed stores, completion timing, evidence quality, exception types and the proportion corrected within the promotional window. Combine these with sales or margin data only when you have a suitable comparison. Do not confuse a compliant display with proof that the campaign caused a sales increase.
A clean campaign metric
On-time campaign compliance = eligible stores meeting all mandatory conditions by agreed deadline / eligible stores assessed for that deadline.
Track stores not yet assessed separately; excluding them silently inflates the result. If compliance depends on an installed display and an agreed price, both must be true.
Where FieldKo fits
Field campaigns add the same tasks to visits across many stores at once, using saved account sets. Reps complete the tasks, surveys and photos in store, and you can report on what was done and which stores need another visit.
See how FieldKo supports this →Further reading
Next: Use the campaign launch checklist | Prove commercial impact carefully
Reviewed October 26, 2026. Examples, scores and thresholds are illustrative, not benchmarks. See the research and sources library for independent references.