How to write a creative brief like a pro
A great creative brief forms the building blocks from which all work flourishes. It can be the difference between very happy clients and award-winning work and working through many rounds of amends with frustrated clients.
At minimum, a brief should outline a project or campaign's objectives, goals, and expectations. But a great creative brief sets the foundation for a successful campaign and inspires the creative team in a way that’s easy to read, retain and revisit whenever they need. In this blog, we’ll help you learn more about what makes a great creative brief and how to write one.
Getting started: do you clearly understand your client's brief?
Client briefs come in all shapes and sizes - from thoroughly written briefs packed with detail and insight to a short conversation or notes on an email.
However your client shares the information, your job, by and large, remains the same: to understand what they’re asking you to do, and to identify what else you need to know for the agency to be able to do the job.
According to a report by Better Briefs Project: “The brief is one of the most valuable and paradoxically most neglected tools marketers have to create good work.” And it’s little wonder, given that over 80% of both marketers and creative agencies agree that writing brief is hard.
Still, it’s a job worth doing, and worth doing well. And it’s the responsibility of client services teams to fully understand a client brief and - importantly - push back if vital information is missing.
Some key things to consider when reviewing a client brief are:
● Budget
● Goals and objectives
● Target audience
● The overall vision for the campaign
● Clarify any unclear information and identify potential obstacles that may arise - consider ‘the 5 W’s’: who, what, where, when and why.
Remember, as an account manager or executive, there’s no expectation for you to know everything. But demonstrating that you’ve considered the brief and thought of questions shows that you’re using your initiative to fill in some gaps before reaching out to the relevant people in your agency to help answer the more tricky parts.
How to write a creative brief
1. Set the scene, succinctly
Before diving into the nitty-gritty details of the creative brief with your internal team, start with a project summary and quickly set the scene for the project’s broader context. Include any headlines on relevant information about the client's industry, competitors, and previous marketing efforts and results. This context helps the creative team understand the client's position in the market and feeds into developing a strategy that sets them apart from their competitors. Any additional information and reading can be included as an appendix.
2. Define the target audience
Who are you trying to reach? Include demographic information, such as age, gender, income, and location, and any psychographic information, such as values, beliefs, and attitudes. Is there anyone famous you can give as an example to help your team picture who you’re looking to target? All of this information will feed into making sure the campaign messaging and creative direction resonate with the audience.
3. State the objective
This should be clear and concise. Think SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic/ relevant and timely. What is the primary goal of the campaign, for example? Is it to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or boost sales? Make sure that the objective aligns with your client's overall marketing strategy and has a specific metric assigned to it.
4. Key messaging and tone of voice
The messaging and tone of voice should be consistent with your client's brand guidelines. You can attach relevant pages to your brief and include key messaging points the client wants to convey. Is the work lighthearted and humorous, or serious and informative? It can be helpful for the creative process to include examples the client likes.
5. Creative direction
Are there any specific ideas for the visual style, colour palette, or overall aesthetic you can reference for inspiration or that the client has mentioned? If the campaign includes any specific assets, such as videos or images, provide examples to give the creative team a clear understanding of the client's expectations, and provide format specifications up front to avoid rework later.
6. Budget and timelines
The essentials! Including the budget and timelines for the campaign helps the creative team to generate realistic ideas within the project's scope and manage their time effectively.
If there are sections where you feel you don’t have the necessary information, always ask! It’s better to fill any gaps in this initial stage rather than waiting until the project gets underway.
Top tips for a great creative brief
Edit your content
A brief should be, well, brief. While you need to include enough insight, information and direction to lead the creative team in the correct direction, providing an overload of information can do far more harm than good. Only include something if it adds value.
Consider your team’s preferences
There might be some extra quick wins you can use to get the most out of your creative team in the creative briefing. If there are some people who get easily lost or overwhelmed by the details, it may be worth creating a briefing cheat sheet, which only includes the headlines, for them to refer back to. If visual inspiration gets your team excited about an advertising campaign, think about how you can bring it to life with physical samples or screenshots.
Remove barriers to wasted time
Time is precious in agencies, and helping the team working on your project make the most of their time is a key part of your role. Is your brief easy to navigate, with reference material gathered neatly in one location? Or are there multiple documents the creative team must search for before they can get started?
Have you found this article helpful personally, or feel your Client Services colleagues might?
Get in touch now to discuss what types of training Blueberry Spark offers and how we can help your team excel.
