Note: In this follow-up to a MarketingProfs Classic—and one of our most popular articles ever—Steve McNamara shares his experiences at some of the world's leading ad agencies.
Want to make your ads more effective? Project a stronger brand personality? A well-written creative brief is the road map that will lead the way. Here's how.
1. Write it down, right from the start
When I was a new Creative Director at Capital One, a marketing manager called me and said, "Can't I just give you a brain-dump over the phone? I don't have time to write a brief."
Sound familiar? If so, you should explain that a written brief will save time in the long run and get the project off to a focused start.
Long experience has taught me that starting creative work based on verbal input alone will burn kilos of cash. Typically, you get ideas that don't reflect the brand personality, don't talk to the target audience, and neglect important details.
2. Use the right brief for the project
I learned this simple lesson at JWT, where we had just one creative brief—which was great for, say, a print campaign for regular clients, such as Citibank. But that one brief was not so great for quick-turn revisions on 10 banner ads, a 15-minute video, or a 20-page Web site.
I recommend that you have at least three briefs:
- Basic brief. This is the one you'll use for new ads and campaigns for a creative team that has worked with and is familiar with the client.
- Quick brief. This is a brief for those small copy and design projects with tight deadlines.
- Advanced brief. This is the brief you should prepare for new business pitches and new branding initiatives or campaigns. Or perhaps when bringing a new creative team to a current client. Look to the advanced brief for a super-thorough analysis of the target audience, consumer-buying behavior, the client's positioning, and so forth.
Beyond those three, you might want specialized briefs for direct response or for long-format projects such as Web sites, brochures, videos.
You can purchase a variety of popular briefs or craft a set of briefs to suit your business. It's not difficult, and it's well worth the effort.
3. Spend extra time with the client
Go ahead. Open your calendar. Pick up the phone. Schedule interviews with key executives in sales, customer service, marketing, as well as management.
One goal of your interviews is to learn about the client's products and market. Another goal is to understand the client's culture and personality. You may want to reflect that personality in your ads.
Also, look for interesting stories about the company, the founder/owner, or customers. You might find a campaign idea there.
Be sure to prepare your interview questions in advance. And bring a portable recorder to capture comments you can share with your creative partners.
4. Find a single, key insight
The trick here is to look at buying behavior—or, more specifically, discover one significant reason why consumers buy... or why they don't.
Example: Many people in the affluent 40+ market are reluctant to buy our high-end HD TV because they believe the technology is time consuming to set up and difficult to master.
Example: The majority of Asian women buy the same cooking oil their mothers used, simply grabbing a familiar bottle off the shelf.
Where do you get this insight? The client may know intuitively. Or may have conducted research. Or may be willing to do so.
I have a tool that tells me where to look. I picked it up from a research guy at FCB. To get it, google "consumer involvement theory."
5. Include customer input or quotes in the brief
Yes, that means you will have to ask real buyers what they like about the service. Why they bought the product in the first place. How it compares to competing offerings. And what words they would use to express a recommendation.
I learned the value of this trick at Rapp-Collins, where I would sometimes walk out on the sidewalk, video camera in hand, and snag interviews from people passing by.
Clients love to see real customers talk about their products or even their product category. The creative team loves to hear real customers use real language to describe how they really feel—or don't feel—about investment services, premium ice cream, and snacks for their pet pooch.
Those wonderful glimpses of reality frequently find their way into the ads.
6. Write a tell-all
A common problem is that many briefs are ambiguous, lacking specific details, or are incomplete. To avoid these mistakes, keep in mind that the brief should tell everyone on the creative team everything they will need to make the ad or campaign.
Ideally, the brief should be so complete that the writer and art director can deliver the project without going back to the brief writer for clarification.
A "client services checklist" can help:
[ ] Do we have sufficient reference sources: previous ads, brochures, competitor ads, books, videos or Web sites?
[ ] Do we have contact info/ links for people, research or resources that can help the creative team?
[ ] Do we represent the client's issues, concerns, wishes?
[ ] Do we have a complete package of information for the creative team?
