To Be Creative, Be Brief

February 14, 2008 on 7:19 am | In Advertising, Brainstorming, Branding, Copywriting, Creative, Creativity, Marketing, Resources, Writing | 3 Comments

I know that this sounds counterintuitive but it is true: creative people work best when they are given limitations. These limitations help your creative team members focus so that the message they develop will be relevant, impactful, original and true.So, how do you provide these limitations to your creative team: with a creative brief.

There are five basic areas of information you need to supply your creative team in order to get the best possible work. First, is an overview that spells out what’s happening in the market and with the client. Additionally, you need to outline who the communication is addressing and what is the one thing we want to say to that target audience. Think of this area in terms of headlines. We’ll get more specific later in the brief.

Next, what is the purpose of this communication. What do we want our target audience to think, feel, or do after seeing the message? Do we want them to visit a website, call an 800 number, tell a friend?

In the next section of the brief, we more clearly define who we are addressing. Delve as deeply as possible into the demographics and psychographics of an audience. What drives them? Will this be a rational decision or an emotional one for this particular audience? What are their media habits? Where do they live and work? What do they read, watch, listen to, and which websites do they frequent? Detail is king in this section of the brief.

Next, we outline the single most persuasive idea we can convey. This should be a simple, highly specific sentence or two. This is hard work and is where most creative briefs fail. You shouldn’t expect great creative if you can’t give your team this highly condensed information.

Now we need to provide the rest of the story. Is there evidence to support our single most important idea? This is where we layer on both rational and emotional reasons to believe what we have said. Are there other major copy points to help persuade our audience? What is the client’s brand personality? This helps your team understand the tone the message should take.

Then, relate all the details of our offer, if there is one, as well as mandatory client information like logos, address, phone number, and web address.

A final word on developing great creative briefs: bring your brief to life with customer quotes, stories from the marketplace and research. Once you’ve outlined the limits, your team can come back with communications that are on target, creative and effective.

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  • http://www.thefullblog.com Phil Darby

    I agree in principle but you missed one of the mpost important elements out of your briefing format.

    I run workshops on briefing as part of my Brand Discovery programme and I would include all that you suggest in a brief. However, if creatives are going to produce an efficient solution they have to understand the character of the brand, what the “brand promise” is and how that is represented in the tactical proposition that is the subject of the brief. I also include pillars or supporting arguments for the overall Brand Promise. This not only helps creatives get it right first time, every time, it ensures the discipline of the brief author.

    I have a format and a criteria for judging creative work. Its all part of Full Effect Marketing and included in the programmes that I run.

  • http://www.lening-geld-lenen.nl/ geld lenen

    Phil, I think it depends of the real goal. Offcourse a briefing can be around brand promise but for most companies even this is (to) hard to come up with.

    A brand brief i.e. in a creative format can bring up much more from employees and stakeholders.

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