A strategist document written to communicate key information about a specific project so that creatives have a blueprint for implementation.
- creative briefs serve as the primary conduit to program development and brand strategy
- bridge customer data and strategy to consumer facing creative execution
- Creative briefs are typically determined after corporate strategy, marketing plan and brand essence statements are established
- can be used for specific campaigns or multiyear strategic communication
Client + Agency structure
- Firms can have internal creative departments
- in house creative allows for easier usage of target consumer/product information
- Outside firms can also outsource work
- Simple agency structure:
Creative Brief Process
1. Specify business objectives
- Identifying the impact that an ad/campaign should have
- awareness, loyalty, brand image, etc.
- Flows from Strategic Marketing Plan
2. Establish communications objective
- primary message the cretive should convey to a target audience
- requires depth of insight from consumer
- conduct primary research (market research) through quantitative (survey) and qualitative (ethnographies)
- use secondary research when applicable
- use behavioral data where available (purchase data, web browsing behavior and social media data)
- insights are combined with five Cs, Strategic Marketing Plan and Brand Essence Statement to identify strategy for delivering brand objectives
3. Creative Brief
- converting information (brand essence, strategic marketing plan, product knowledge, consumer insight) into a plan
- Not all are the same, but here is an overview:
Project Assignment
- Summarizes overall task and project deliverables
- Example:
“Create a 30-second ad campaign (comprising commercials) to launch Lender’s new ‘New York Style’ line of bagels, designed to reinvigorate the brand. "" - ‘Create a 30-second ad..’ - format - ‘..to launch Lender’s new “New York Style” ’ - brand essence goal - ‘..designed to reinvigorate the brand’ - strategic mission
Project Background/Situation
- details opportunity or problem that creative is designed to address
- Why is this project being done? What relevant background do the creatives need to create a successful campaign?
- Example:
“Although Lender’s was the first to introduce bagels to America and to some consumers the company is synonymous with the category (Lender’s = bagels), the brand is in steep decline and is not as compelling to consumers as it used to be. The primary reasons for this are threefold…”
Project Objective and Success Criteria
- Laying out parameters that this project has a possibility of impacting and what success looks like.
- What are the goals of the project? What are you hoping to accomplish? How will it be measured?
- Example:
“This new line of bagels should generate XXX incremental cases of bagels. Further, we expect this campaign will deliver a statistically significant improvement YoY in Lender’s bagels image on the following attributes: ‘is a New York bagel’, ‘is the best-tasting bagel’ , ‘is a real, authentic bagel’, and ‘is an innovative brand’. We will test the creative executions in copy testing and it must beat our current advertising on overall purchase intent and the four attributes.
Identifying Target/Deep Consumer Insights
- Gathering market knowledge to convey landscape to creative
- This will be the only information/insight creative will likely receive
- Example:
“Female heads of household, age 25-49 (emphasis on 34-44) with kids age 6-17 (emphasis 13-17). Among this target, Lender’s is perceived to be a trustworthy brand and excellent value.”
Communications Strategy
- Stating the brand benefit to the consumer and support to bolster branding vision
- What the consumer should think and feel
- can emphasize on Brand Essence Statement)(tone, benefit, reason to believe)
- can focus on desired actions
Executional Guidelines/Mandatory Elements
- Mandatory elements needing inclusion with an example
- Examples: brand elements, URL, pricing, promotional deals, legal and regulatory requirements (disclaimers)
Details and Approvals
- Required parties and details about delivery, distribution and approval required on Creative Brief signoff.
Key Principles in Developing a Strong Creative Brief
Transparency
- Be incredibly forthright with stakeholders on Creative Brief Process
- What is the role of consumer insight? How is this converted into a brief? Who is involved in translating consumer insight and business needs into a brief? Who approves the final document prior to creative being assigned?
Have a clear owner
- Have a single person who can own the document
- Account manager must be well versed in writing, collaborating and good judgement on strategy.
Involve key stakeholders
- get key stakeholders (including creatives) in on brief prior to it being approved
- align stakeholders on expectations, deliverables and measurement.
- early alignment will help down the line with success
Remember you are not the target
- Focus on the needs of the target and not yourself
- Empathy is imperative to ability to create effective solutions (see chapters in The Design Thinking Playbook)
Base the brief on consumer insight
- A deeper consumer understanding is richer with insights
- More knowledge increases the ability for one to connect to a target consumer in a meaningful way (see Marketing Funnel)
Strategist best practices
- set up focused and clear guidlines for creatives, but not so much you stunt their motivation
- understand the creative side in order to effectively route creatives to breakthrough results
- Focus on developing a trust based partnership
- Creative team may be working on multiple projects at once
- Build a relationship and alignment that are based on objectives and shared working style
- Objective over tactics
- Feedback should be based on brand related objectives highlighted in brief
- Feedback should NOT be tactical terms for how they can change their work (“I want more red in frame” vs. “the brands objective is warmth”)
- Understanding through questions not demands
- Ask questions on how solutions achieve objectives
- Asking questions allows deeper, more thoughtful conversation with more engaging solutions/work
- Provide guidance, not solutions
- Creative teams may prioritize different objectives within brief or have a different read
- Questions allow for non defensive talk and more solution orientation based on objectives
- Creating waypoints to move towards rather than corals to stunt creativity is much better
- Human first, strategist second
- feel first before attacking the solution as a strategist
- Creative works are more easily critiqued first off feeling and then stating how the solution does/doesn’t meet the Brief solution
- Focus on whats most important
- Keep the top one or two priorities in line
- Focus on all issues will lessen the impact of what you say and what is edited
- Stay focused on the majors in order improve deliverables through more focused work.
Brief in Practice
