---
name: tidb-field-brief
description: >-
  Guides Field Marketing in producing a campaign brief for a specific event,
  region, or partner co-marketing activation. Covers event narrative framing,
  CTA design, lead capture mechanics, speaking topic recommendations, and
  co-marketing asset checklists. Handles both global events (KubeCon, AI Engineer
  Summit) and China-specific events (DTCC, KubeCon China, PingCAP DevCon).
  Use when activating any in-person or virtual event, or when briefing a partner
  on joint marketing.
---

# TiDB field brief

**Role:** Field Campaign Architect. Events are expensive and high-stakes. A field campaign without a clear narrative, a concrete CTA, and a lead capture plan is a sponsorship that generates booth photos and not much else. This skill turns an event slot into a measurable GTM activation.

---

## 1. Event context assessment

Before briefing, answer:

| Question | Why it matters |
|---------|---------------|
| What is the primary audience at this event? | KubeCon = CNCF/platform engineers; DTCC = Chinese DB practitioners; AI Engineer Summit = AI developers. Different audience, different narrative. |
| What is TiDB's current GTM priority segment (from GTM Brief)? | Don't activate a field campaign for an audience that doesn't match the current ICP priority. |
| What is the event's format? | Conference keynote vs breakout session vs workshop vs expo booth vs meetup require different content depth. |
| What is the competitor presence? | If CockroachDB, MongoDB, or Aurora are sponsoring, the field narrative should directly address the comparison. |
| Is this launch-aligned? | If a launch is happening near the event, the field brief should amplify the launch narrative. |

---

## 2. Field campaign narrative

Each field activation needs a specific narrative — not the generic company story.

**Narrative formula:**
```
[Specific audience pain at this event type]
→ [Why this is acutely relevant to this audience right now]
→ [What TiDB enables for them specifically]
→ [The one thing you want them to leave knowing or doing]
```

**Examples by event type:**

| Event | Target audience | Narrative focus |
|-------|----------------|----------------|
| KubeCon (Global/China) | Platform engineers, SREs | "Running TiDB on Kubernetes: Operator-managed distributed SQL at cloud-native scale" |
| AI Engineer Summit | AI developers, AI app builders | "One database for your AI agent: vectors, transactions, and analytics without the sync pipeline" |
| DTCC (Database Technology Conference China) | DBAs, architects, fintech engineers | "HTAP for financial-grade workloads: real-time analytics on live transaction data" |
| PGConf | PostgreSQL community | "When PostgreSQL runs out of scale: a PostgreSQL user's honest evaluation of TiDB" |
| Fintech conferences | Engineering + business buyers | "Production-grade distributed SQL for fintech: how Plaid migrated 96 Aurora services" |
| Partner co-marketing | Partner's customer base | Align with partner's ICP; TiDB as complementary infrastructure layer |

---

## 3. CTA design

Every field activation needs exactly **one primary CTA**. Multiple CTAs dilute conversion.

| Activation stage | Appropriate CTA |
|----------------|----------------|
| Brand awareness (early event day) | "Try TiDB Cloud Starter — free, no credit card" |
| Technical evaluation (booth demo) | "Schedule a technical deep-dive with a TiDB engineer" |
| Enterprise pipeline (qualified conversation) | "Join a TiDB architecture workshop for your team" |
| Community/open-source | "Contribute to TiDB on GitHub" or "Join the TiDB community Discord" |

**CTA rules:**
- One primary CTA per activation
- CTA must match where the attendee is in their evaluation journey
- CTA must have a lead capture mechanism (URL with UTM, QR code, or sign-up form)
- Never make the CTA "visit our website" — too generic to measure

---

## 4. Lead capture and follow-up design

| Lead tier | Signal | Immediate action | Follow-up |
|-----------|-------|-----------------|---------|
| **Hot** | Asked specific technical questions; mentioned a current database pain; requested a demo | Sales notified same day | Technical follow-up within 24h |
| **Warm** | Scanned badge; attended session; asked general questions | Added to nurture sequence | Field-specific email sequence within 48h |
| **Cold** | Stopped by booth; took swag without conversation | Added to newsletter/community list | Community content cadence |

**Data collection requirements:**
- GDPR/CCPA compliant consent at point of collection — do not rely on badge scanning consent alone for China events (different regulations)
- China events: follow PingCAP's China data handling policy; don't combine CN and global lead databases without compliance review

---

## 5. Speaking session brief

When TiDB has a speaking slot:

| Component | Content |
|-----------|---------|
| **Session title** | Specific and descriptive (not "TiDB: The Future of Databases") |
| **Audience** | Role, technical level, primary pain |
| **Core thesis** | One sentence — what the audience should believe or know after the session |
| **Structure** | Problem → Evidence → Solution → Demo/Proof → Takeaway |
| **Demo requirements** | Specify: live demo or pre-recorded; TiDB Cloud or Self-Managed; feature in scope |
| **Proof points** | From approved messaging platform — do not introduce new claims in a talk |
| **Q&A prep** | 5 likely technical questions + prepared answers |

---

## 6. Co-marketing brief (partner events)

When activating with a partner (cloud provider, SI, ISV):

| Component | What to align |
|-----------|--------------|
| **Joint narrative** | How do TiDB and the partner's product solve a customer problem together? Specific, not generic. |
| **Audience ownership** | Who brings the audience? What does each party contribute? |
| **Brand placement** | Equal billing or TiDB as supporting; confirm before assets go to design |
| **Content review** | Any joint content with TiDB claims goes through `tidb-content-review` — don't let partners use unapproved TiDB claims |
| **Lead sharing** | Who owns leads captured? What's the routing plan? |
| **China-specific** | Chinese cloud providers (Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Cloud, Tencent Cloud) have specific joint marketing formats — use the CN marketing team's co-marketing playbook |

---

## Field brief output format

```markdown
## TiDB Field Brief — [Event Name] — [Date] — [Location/Virtual]

### Event context
- Primary audience: [role + technical level]
- ICP match: [High / Medium / Low] — [reason]
- Competitor presence: [Yes/No — who]
- Launch-aligned: [Yes/No — which launch]

### Campaign narrative
[One paragraph: audience pain → why now → what TiDB enables → what we want them to do]

### Primary CTA
[One CTA + capture mechanism + UTM]

### Assets required
| Asset | Owner | Due | Status |
|-------|-------|-----|--------|

### Lead capture plan
- Lead tiers: [Hot / Warm / Cold criteria for this event]
- Capture mechanism: [badge scan / form / QR]
- Compliance: [GDPR/CCPA/CN compliant: Yes / Needs review]
- Follow-up: [sequence name or owner]

### Speaking session (if applicable)
[Title / thesis / structure / demo]

### Co-marketing brief (if applicable)
[Partner / joint narrative / brand placement / lead routing]

### Success metrics
| Metric | Target |
|--------|--------|
| Qualified leads (Hot) | [N] |
| Trial signups via field UTM | [N] |
| Session attendance (if applicable) | [N] |
```

---

## Pairs with

- `tidb-launch-brief` — field brief extends the launch brief for event-specific activation
- `tidb-channel-copy` — event social copy (pre-event hype, live posts, recap) produced from this brief
- `tidb-content-review` — any speaking content or co-marketing assets go through content review
- `tidb-brand-voice` — WeChat and CN content follows localization principles
- `@tidb-gtm-brain/knowledge/icp.md` — ICP profiles for matching event audience to TiDB segment