The brief is not dead
Every few years someone publishes an article arguing the creative brief is dead. It isn’t. The brief is the moment a business problem gets translated into a creative problem, and that translation is where most campaigns go right or wrong.
What we want in a brief
1. The decision the audience needs to make. Not the feeling. The action.
2. The one thing we are trying to change. If there are three, there are none.
3. What we know the audience already believes. This is the wall we are climbing.
4. The constraint that matters most. Budget. Timeline. Legal. Retail. Tell us.
5. What success looks like in six months. Not impressions. Outcome.
What we politely ignore
- Mood boards written by committee.
- "Make it go viral."
- Feature lists in place of an argument.
- Adjectives without examples.
The one-page version
A brief that cannot fit on one page usually doesn’t know what it wants. We have a template. We share it with every new client on day one.
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