What’s a Creative Brief, Really?
Creative briefs are often treated as the holiest documents in agencies. Some planners might even prefer writing their briefs on carved stone tablets with molten gold.
Note:
Before you read further, let me disclose that I’m still starting out in Advertising. I’m no Sutherland or Trott, but I share my perspective. Thank you! You may read on now.
The Creative Brief
I first heard about the concept of a creative brief when Sidheshwar Sharma, our strategic planning teacher at XIC, walked in and presented the famous Sistine Chapel example by Damian O’Malley.
He asked us a simple question:
“If you were to brief Michelangelo about painting the ceiling of Sistine Chapel, how would you do it?”
Honestly, most of us didn’t know much about creative briefs until that point of time. We were unaware of the ‘baton passing’ process that exists between teams within agencies.
Until that point, I thought that all the strategists, copywriters, and account managers simply gathered in a conference hall and got started with making an ad.
“Guys, this is the client’s problem. Thoughts?”
Turned out, it didn’t work that way.
By the end of college, I became a bit more familiar with the briefing process. I realized the importance of creative briefs and the significance of their nuances like brevity, relevance, and creativity.
In short, I realized that the brief paper (or presentation) has a big role to play as it lays the solid foundation on which creative execution is based.
Yes, creative briefs are different — but only in terms of structure
Now, take a look at different brief formats of various advertising agencies and you’d notice that they’re primarily inspired by the agency culture — however, their core remains the same.
Saatchi & Saatchi uses the OIIC format, BBDO follows the Get-To-By strategy, and using PowerPoint to brief creatives has become the most common practice nowadays.
Some briefs might appear stashed with research, whereas others could be sort of poetic and beautiful. Yet, they share some parts in common.
All creative briefs have the same core and share the following common elements (this might seem textbook-like, so spare that):
- The underlying agenda or purpose of a campaign, because teams must know why they’re doing something to be able to care about it.
- One single-minded objective, maybe two, but nothing more. It’s ideal to avoid diluting efforts by adding too many goals.
- Crucial information, though, not like an instruction manual but to explain the problem in layman terms and eliminate any space for doubts.
- Well-defined target audience and some context about their relationship and relevance with the product or service.
- An insight or a truth about the product that resonates the most with the consumer — why it matters to them.
- A brief explanation, because too many words can be interpreted differently, and there’s less space for assumptions.
- An inspiring direction to foster the imagination of the creative team and make them take on a journey or a challenge.
- Communication elements like the brand personality, tone, or philosophy to preserve the consistency — unless it’s already discussed.
Also, a brief isn’t supposed to end up blankly. It’s meant to succinctly address the issue and leave the creatives with a mission.
So, are creative briefs used commonly, or are they rare?
I may sound unreasonable to some, but almost all of us are used to briefing people. Creatively or not, that’s another thing.
Most of the things that we do have fixed outcomes that we expect — so we follow the same briefing process.
In the case of agencies, the creative output isn’t obvious or expected, so the creatives have the liberty to experiment — they’re free to explore.
Read the following instances from day-to-day life:
What you'll notice is that you always subtly give a hint about what you like and ask for a specific outcome.
“Veg sandwich. Brown bread, crispy.” — That’s a brief.
“Medium hair. Short at the sides, thin locks.” — That’s a brief.
“Cook something light, not too spicy.” — That’s a brief.
While we don’t realize, we’re always instructing people with specifics about the outcomes that we expect.
The difference here, however, as compared with creative briefs, is that they’re usual tasks that aren’t thought through or have a larger impact — hence they’re trivialized.
But the moment they serve a larger objective, they’d be given importance, and probably be expressed more creatively and thoughtfully.
Now imagine this.
Advertising campaigns reach thousands of people. A gigantic bulk of the money is at stake. And if you were responsible for deciding how the business must communicate, then you wouldn’t take it lightly, would you?
Want to understand the briefing process better? Try this simple exercise
Picture this — you’re a fashion boutique owner and have to design a costume for Lady Gaga to reflect her views against bullying for the Born This Way Foundation event, how would you inspire your team to do it?
Or let’s say some billionaire walked into your vegan restaurant and asked you to invent food items to replace kids’ fast food habits with healthy eating. What would you ask your chefs to invent?
That explains the ‘creative’ part of a creative brief better. The following audition scene from Walk the Line is a perfect example to show the primary objective of the overall briefing process.
Johnny Cash is creative — but he’s singing the usual gospels. The studio owner, Sam Phillips, has precise business acumen and knows what the audience craves. He gives Johnny a brief, and that’s when Johnny realizes what to do exactly.
Brief transcript:
“Bring… bring it home? All right, let’s bring it home. If you was hit by a truck and you was lying out there in that gutter dying, and you had time to sing *one* song. Huh? One song that people would remember before you’re dirt. One song that would let God know how you felt about your time here on Earth. One song that would sum you up. You tellin’ me that’s the song you’d sing? That same Jimmy Davis tune we hear on the radio all day, about your peace within, and how it’s real, and how you’re gonna shout it? Or… would you sing somethin’ different. Somethin’ real. Somethin’ *you* felt. Cause I’m telling you right now, that’s the kind of song people want to hear. That’s the kind of song that truly saves people. It ain’t got nothin to do with believin’ in God, Mr. Cash. It has to do with believin’ in yourself.”
The given example explains how the right briefs can bring out the best in people and present exactly what’s asked for, even when nobody knows what the outcome could be.
Here are some more examples for clarity:
Example #1: Cadbury Roses
Creative brief:
The outcome:
Example #2: Clorox
Creative brief: “Let’s provide credible music that they’re going to actually want to hear again and again and again.”
The outcome: The Bleach song by Clorox that got thousands of views and people couldn’t recognize that it’s an ad.
Example #3: Violet Evergarden
Creative brief (from an anime series): “Write a love letter that every woman can identify with. A song that makes every man’s heart pound.”
The outcome: True — the final song written by Violet Evergarden for Irma (while it’s fiction, it perfectly serves as an example to explain the creative briefing and execution process).
Example #4: Muhammad Ali’s Tassel Boots
The brief: “Adidas boots with tassels — boots that sparkle and dance.” (That’s what Ali himself asked for).
The outcome:
So, what should creative briefs be like?
If you’ve been working in the creative industry for while or interacting with people — then maybe you’ve already figured out that there aren’t any fixed ways of doing things.
But the intention remains clear: To get work started, to inspire, to get teams moving, and churning out the best response by being as useful as you can.
Next step
Start practicing. Scribble thoughts. Read books. Invent techniques. Ditch doctrines. Be philosophical. Question often. Discover problems. Seek solutions.
We all know that stuff — we’ve heard it.
But all of that doesn’t help until we instinctively become capable of doing things a certain way. That takes time, so maybe, strive for marginal improvement each day.
Sometimes you don’t require extraordinary talent but rather some more time to condition yourself and adapt. I’ve been feeding myself with things that help me understand and explain better.
The next time you come across a problem, an idea, or simply feel like sharing something, then ask this to yourself first: how can I express it better to incite a better response? This single question can make you create better briefs.
