Some context first
Whatever the project or task you work on, there's not much you can bring to the table if you're not given proper instructions and if you don't know the challenge, the objective and the requirements of a particular task. All of this information is usually communicated to stakeholders through a briefing, usually developed by the project lead or owner.
The template or the format of a briefing varies from industry to industry. For example, military briefings are very heavy on strategy and intelligence, creative briefings are often concept heavy and weather briefings are shorter and more direct. For the purpose of this article we will focus only on creative briefings, which are used by the marketing and communication industry professionals to promote their brands.
What is the role of a creative briefing?
Marketing professionals have lost count of how many times they have heard the expression "A brief is meant to be brief", however, it's easier said than done. Somehow it always ends up becoming a complex task. Whether for finding it hard to be succinct or due to being influenced by internal stakeholders, the truth is most briefings are not short as they are intended to be.
Think of a creative briefing as a cooking recipe, where you communicate what dish you want someone to make you and then provide the cooks with the key ingredients and set some requirements (e.g. allergies) to make the process run smoother. However, providing someone with a recipe doesn't mean you'll be cooking for them, so avoid being prescriptive. It's the cook's job to take in the request, add their own touch and give you the best version of that particular dish based on a cross-over between the information they are given and their own experience, skillset and knowledge (which is the reason why you hired them - hopefully).
Writing a creative briefing is not an easy task. At least not if you want do it right. Ad legend John Hegarty has gone so far to describe a creative brief as "the first ad in the campaign", which is a brilliant and accurate statement that highlights the importance of this document and how much it contributes to the outcome of the work that will be developed. Writing a creative briefing is in itself a creative exercise too, from the perspective that it. In the same way that marketers try putting on a show when presenting brand plans to an audience, that same wow factor should be transferred to creative briefings.
It's very easy to blame creative agencies or content creators for not "getting the brief" or "completely missing the point", and although that does happen sometimes, most times it happens due to a lack of clarity on the expectation, objectives or requirements of the project/task.
To nail your creative briefing, make sure it is both informative and inspiring. Below, we share some tips on how to find the right balance to ensure your equipping your creative team with the tools they need to do amazing work.
What your briefing should not be
A dump of data
A creative briefing is not a testament of how much you can say about your market or your brand. It's less about quantity and more about quality. If you are truly knowledgeable about your brand's challenges, you should be able to be succinct and present your case clearly and make it easy for others to understand.
This means you should avoid dumping all data and information available onto your agency. It's a marketers job, as the brand guardian, to go through all the pieces of information (market data, research reports, customer feedback, etc.) and select the ones that contribute to a better exploration of the problem or opportunity.
If you want to evaluate your briefing in terms of a success metric, think of VPI - Value per Information. You should make sure that most information you share is relevant for that particular briefing and the problem or opportunity you are trying to tackle. Less is more.
A step by step into a solution
The job of a briefing is not to detail a solution nor is it to tell designers what to design and copywriters what words to write. A job done right will leave the creative team clear on the challenge and the role that creativity plays in solving that challenge. Just like David Ogilvy stated, if the brief is clear, he argued, then creative teams know “where they’re going, and they can start thinking about it on the way home”.
About reinventing the wheel
Yes, being inspiring is important. You want your creative team to be jumping on the table with excitement after hearing your briefing. But, let's be honest. Most briefings are not that exciting and don't require the "outside of the box" thinking. Sometimes, inside the box is where you'll find the solution, so make sure that the team stays grounded to the needs of your consumers and think "Do my consumers need me to reinvent the wheel for them or are they just struggling to find a solution to a problem?". A consumer-centric approach will never be a wrong way to go about it when it comes to your brand.
A rushed exercise
Marketers must be able to put their ego aside and understand that at briefing stage they are the ones providing a service to their agency or creative partners. The same way you wouldn't accept your creative partners to rush through your project, make sure you are giving yourself enough time to write your briefing and to capture of the essential information in a clear way. Also, it's always a good idea to get another set of eyes to read your briefing and if you can, get a non-marketer to read it. It'll give you some insight on how easy it is to understand.
A one way road
A briefing is not a one way road that ends with your briefing. If you want your creative partners to feel inspired and that the project is relevant, make sure you keep the door open for collaboration, additional clarification and make yourself available to listen to initial concepts and brainstorming ideas. The more involved you are in the collaboration process the richer and more solid the solution will be.
What your briefing should be
An expression of the consumer
Always think like a consumer. Of course, when answering the question "how do I want people to think of my brand" your first instinct is to want everyone to think that your brand is the most precious thing they've ever seen or touch. But that's not a realistic expectation and distracts the team for the specific task and goal.
Advertising doesn't make miracles, it helps to convey a message in an engaging and impactful way, hopefully at the right time and at the right place. For that to happen, a marketer's job is to represent the consumer in the board room and during the creative process , by making sure the creative partners receive enough detail on who your consumer is, their motivations, frustrations and their relationship with your brand. Those are the skills that you shouldn't expect your agency to possess, simply because it's not the core of their job. It's yours.
Very clear on the objective
Pick one. A creative briefing objective is not about what your brand's annual objectives are. Confusing? Let's dig a bit further.
Your brand's annual objective should include different metrics, from brand equity measurement (awareness, consideration, perceptions, attributes) to business results (sales, market penetration, market shares, etc.). That's the definition of how your brand will grow. However, there's a never a one solution to fit them all, so don't look for a creative briefing to fix all of the brand's problems or you will risk developing work that tries do do everything a little bit and ends up doing not much. A marketer's job is to be strategic and prioritise the most important lever that must be moved with a particular campaign. When you communicate a single-minded objective to your creative partners, you're contributing to a solution. On the other hand, when you dump many objectives you are setting an unrealistic milestone which will make your briefing less credible.
Relatable and realistic
Marketer's temptation to use industry jargon with every sentence is high. However, it's much more important that everyone in the room is able to understand and follow the conversation. Of course some jargon must be included sometimes, but make sure that the language is human-centred. After all, the end recipient of the outcome of your briefing is your consumer. Make sure you start speaking their language upfront.
For example, if you state that your goal is " We want to drive consumer appeal for our product". It sounds nice, but what is actually being said here? What is the reason to believe and what are the product benefits that make that goal likely to happen? Without these, your creative partners will struggle to tell a story. An alternative example could be "Most people hate the process of scheduling a car repair. We want them to feel that with our product their experience will be smooth and quick, since we have built an automated process that removes waiting lists and unnecessary queues."
Don't tell me how to do it, but feel free to show examples
You wouldn't want someone telling you how to do your job, but surely you would appreciate some suggestions or examples of good work. Marketers can help creative partners by providing visual references, such as their past campaigns, competitive references and even great advertising (even if unrelated to the category). It's very helpful for any creative partner to understand what is the client's idea of good work so that they can still follow their own style while keeping in mind your expertise of the industry at the same time.
Your briefing should at least be clear on the following:
- A clear objective
- Details of the target consumer (look to include a complete persona overview, this is when a marketer's expertise comes in handy)
- The brand’s key benefit - might not be as obvious as you would think.
- A reason that consumers should buy it
- A description of the brand’s personality
- The deliverables expected by the marketer - although the outcome of the briefing is the focus, be clear on the output you expect and provide as much detail as possible.
- How success will be measured
How to ASSESS THE QUALITY OF YOUR BRIEFINGS
Being a good professional, includes being able to take criticism and use it to improve the quality of your work. Marketing should be an iterative process and invite experimentation, that's true for Briefings too. The best way to really assess the quality of your briefings is to ask for feedback to your agencies or creative partners.
Try out tools like NPS - Net Promoter Score. Ask your agencies to grade your current and past briefings, by answering a simple question "Would you recommend this briefing to my creative team?". If you have an open and transparent relationship with your creative partners, try taking them out for coffee and ask them if they feel anything has been missing from your briefings. It's a guaranteed win-win-win approach. You win, the agency will appreciate your openness and, more important, the work will benefit from it.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK WITH CONTENT CREATORS?
At Berdi, we are committed to building a place where content creators and brands get together to tell authentic stories and create relevant content.
We believe that original ideas and extraordinary content is the result of many different experiences and skills. We believe that creativity should be celebrated and that there's many talented people yet to be discovered.
Through our platform, we allow brands to publish their content briefings through a simple, direct and visual briefing template made to be as clear as possible. If you are a brand looking for ways to collaborate with your consumers to promote genuine and authentic stories, check out Berdi and give it a try. You can sign-up as a brand for free here: https://app.berdicontent.com/register
