The creative brief is one of the most important documents in an advertising agency. It underpins all the work that an agency does and can make or break a campaign.
A brief doesn’t have to be a massive labour of work, in fact two pages is often just right, but there are some things you can do to brief your agency better. Below are our top tips for making your briefs better to get the best result from your agency.
Be clear about your objectives
Are you looking to increase sales or raise brand awareness or generate more leads? Let your agency know what you’re trying to achieve and what success will look like - 45% increase in sales, higher brand recall, 500 more followers. Knowing how success will be judged means the creative team can get their heads around the problem and focus on creating the right outcome for your business.
Share your budget
Sometimes budgets are small and agencies understand that. But it’s better to know what we need to work to from the beginning rather than wasting everyone’s time trying to get to the moon when we just need to get to Gore.
The more background info the merrier
Your agency probably knows a lot about your business but it doesn’t always have the benefit of sitting in on your internal meetings where often key pieces of information are shared. The more background information you can share on your business, and your target audience, the better. Quite often it’s those tiny gems that can really make a campaign great.
Dislikes are better when we know them
Hate the colour green? The boss hates the word “super”? Market research found the audience doesn’t respond well to flowers? These are great things to include in the brief – especially if the campaign does lend itself to some obvious elements which could be massive no nos.
Be clear about the deliverables needed
Understanding the entire picture of the campaign and how it will be rolled out is so important. If creative needs to work across billboards, print and digital ads it’s important to know this from the outset as it can entirely change the idea and creative design. Knowing this from the outset means that your agency can produce a concept that will work across all elements.
