suitcase - creative brief

Write a better creative brief

The creative brief is the starting point for any marketing activity, yet it is often overlooked.

Think of it like you approach packing your suitcase for your holiday. No-one wants to arrive on holiday to find that they left their swimsuit or sun block at home. The better prepared you are, the better your holiday. You need to make sure that all the right kit is packed, and what you do pack is fit for purpose.

What’s so important about a creative brief?

For marketing managers the creative brief should be the cornerstone of their marketing training. Whether you’re briefing a designer, media buyer or marketing consultant the creative brief is the document that should be created at the start of every marketing project. Good preparation will deliver a better result.

Sadly, the creative brief is sometimes lacking, sometimes forgotten altogether.

Briefing is needed at several stages of a campaign, which means that a marketing manager might need to create different documents to brief individual teams – a creative brief, copy brief, design brief – at the end of the day all marketing activity needs a good quality, thorough brief.

To continue the suitcase analogy – you’ll pack different items for different types of holiday. The same is true for briefing. An image brief will obviously have specific information that a copy brief will not, and vice versa.

Poor briefing is an ongoing source of frustration for creatives in the industry.

The Marketoonist's take on the creative brief process.
The Marketoonist’s take on the creative brief process.

So why is a creative brief important?

It gives essential direction at the start of a project

The brief should spell out the general business context – the ‘why are we doing this’. The context allows your supplier to understand how you have got to this place and why you need a solution.

It should include a review of the market, your competitors and the key issues happening within your sector at the moment. This is a summary of your market insight so that your team can get up to speed as quickly as possible.

It will save time (and money)

Clarity from the outset will ensure that the project delivers what you are looking for. Without that clarity, your supplier won’t know that you want from the project and it could be that the answer you are given isn’t actually what you were looking for. A poor brief often leads to a poor response.

Be clear about your requirements in the creative brief and you will get a solution that meets your needs.

It states objectives and measurement

The creative brief will prompt you to think about your objectives and how success will be measured. In today’s digital marketing world measurement and evaluation are integral to any marketing activity. What do you want to achieve and how will you know if you have achieved it?

Frame your objectives using the SMART format, so that you include the measurable results you expect to achieve from your campaign.

A creative brief prompts you to summarise customer insight

Do you know what will motivate your prospects to engage with your brand? What insights do you have into the market, your customer pain points, behaviours, needs and wants?

A creative brief challenges you to research and document your insights and find out more about your target markets so that you can help shape a solution that speaks to their needs.

A briefing document leads to a shorter approval process

If the creative brief is agreed on upfront by stakeholders (tip – it should be) then everyone who plays a role in the approval process will be aligned on the requirements at the start of the project. This can literally save days at the end of a project. There’s nothing worse than presenting a finished creative, plan or strategy and an important stakeholder questioning the overall direction of the project.

If you develop a thorough creative brief upfront and circulate it for stakeholder approval before sending it to your agency, on you can avoid many hours of compromise and additional cost later.

If you are ready to brief a project but don’t know where to start you can use our creative brief template. You’re welcome.