The communication brief is a very important element in the process of developing effective marketing solutions together with your agency. Not only does the brief provide a focal point for the entire project and a detailed roadmap for the creative team, it also serves as a “contract” between the client and agency.
Writing the brief forces us to clarify and explain the business problem, the market situation, the competitive environment, the audience, etc. The bottom line is that once the agency is ready to begin creative development, there’s a good chance that both teams — your own as well as the agency’s — are on the same page, have adopted the same perspective and have the same expectations.
In our brief process, there are two brief formats: the Strategic brief and the Creative brief. You use a Strategic brief when the agency is new; or when the assignment involves a new business direction (e.g. a launch of a new product, a launch into a new market segment). An important purpose of the brief is then to create a strategic foundation or framework for the marketing communications needed.
The point of departure is usually a marketing or business problem that needs to be addressed using marketing communications. As a result, the strategic brief puts emphasis on reviewing the market and business background, as well as on discussing and determining the role of marketing communications.
The ultimate aim of the strategic brief is to develop a marketing communications program (rather than an individual activity or a single ad or brochure), in support of the new market scenario or business direction.
By contrast, a Creative Brief is used when the business direction is known, understood and accepted by everyone involved. What we’re expected to create is not a framework but a specific marketing communications solution addressing a specific and well-defined need. Consequently, there is less emphasis on business and more on audience, mindsets, effects, message and substantiation.
Writing a Strategic or Creative brief essentially comes down to answering a series of stringent questions relating to the project at hand. The questions have been phrased and ordered in such a way as to present a logical flow.
Normally the brief structure is built around the following questions:
- What’s the background to this project?
- What’s the problem we’re trying to solve?
- Who are we talking to?
- What’s the mindset of that audience?
- What positioning fits that mindset?
- What effects are we trying to achieve?
- What message will achieve those effects?
- What evidence substantiates that message?
- What constraints exist for expressing it?
In a following post, we will dive deeper into the detailed agenda of the Strategic brief. If you are curious already now, reach out to me at ulf@sfinxconsulting.se
