What is a Creative Brief? The 101
In This Article
by Garry Murdock
what is a creative brief?
A creative brief is a formal document outlining the objectives of a project and the creative deliverables needed. It provides stakeholders with crucial information such as target demographics, messaging and tone, unique selling proposition (USP), success metrics, and other important details.
While a creative brief provides a high-level overview, it doesn’t delve into every single detail.
what is a creative brief?
What Is One of the Primary Purposes of a Creative Brief?
One of the main purposes of the brief is to align project stakeholders. The document is developed in the project’s initiation phase and is typically introduced at a first meeting. At this meeting, stakeholders can ask questions, brainstorm ideas or solutions, troubleshoot potential problems, assess risks and map out next steps. This meeting will also help clarify or determine deliverables if they have not yet been decided upon.
All stakeholders should leave the meeting with a solid understanding of what is required of them. The meeting should make clear who the project leader is—often this is the person who wrote the brief but not always. A point person from each department will be needed. A communication channel for the project must also be established (email, Slack, Teams, etc.).
Most companies have blank templates that can be used to create a new brief. It is important to write the brief in a way that everyone can understand, so technical jargon or marketing lingo should be kept to a minimum.
How long?
How Long Should the Brief Be?
Creative Brief
Ideally a creative brief is only one page in length, it should never be more than two. As project lead, you will not be able to include everything in a creative brief—such as concepts or scripts—these types of deliverables are what some of the stakeholders will be needed for, and what will be brainstormed in the initial and subsequent meetings.
what is a creative brief?
Who Uses a Creative Brief?
Project managers, creative directors, brand managers, and consultants are just some of the professionals who use creative briefs to get their projects off the ground. Clients can write them too, to present to their agencies for production—when their company doesn’t have a creative team or the resources to produce the deliverables themselves.
what is a creative brief?
Why Use a Creative Brief?
Imagine attending a meeting where the project lead who organized it wants to get a new product onto the market in six months. Imagine how difficult that meeting would be for all the departments involved if they did not not have some basic information to start.
creative brief
Creative Brief
A creative brief acts as the project’s foundation. Typically, the meeting will start with a read through of the brief. It is likely that some roadblocks to the project’s success will immediately become apparent. For example, it’s possible the due date is unrealistic. However, perhaps the project’s importance demands the immediate hiring of freelancers to meet that date. Or maybe it’s just a matter of a department head reprioritizing their staff’s current projects so the proper personnel, time and resources can be allocated to this one.
what is a creative brief?
What’s Included in a Creative Brief?
A creative brief can come in many forms, although you should consider including the following:
- Project Name.
- List of Stakeholders.
- Project Lead (if already assigned).
- Project Objective. This line or paragraph describes the project’s purpose.
- Target Audience. Define the interests, behavioural traits and needs of the people you wish to attract to your product or service.
- Target Demographic. This is information that is measurable, such as the gender, age range, occupation, marital status and income of your target audience.
- Messaging and tone. What is it that you want your target audience to understand? What is the tone this messaging will convey—for example will it be confident, humourous, perhaps serious? Include here what’s mandatory, what absolutely has to be in the messaging in order to get final approvals later.
- Unique Selling Proposition (USP). What are you providing that’s different than your competitors? Why should customers believe you?
- Call to Action. What do you want your prospects to do? Enrol in a program? Buy your product? Be clear.
- Competitors.
- Risk Assessment including legal and ethical considerations.
- List of Deliverables or “The Ask” (for example: logos, artwork, videos, press releases, social messaging, etc.)
- Distribution Strategy. How should you get your message/product to consumers? For example, if you’ve decided to execute a social media strategy, which channels will you use? Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok?
- Deadline. The deadline marks the final delivery date for all project deliverables. A more detailed schedule with specific due dates for first drafts, revisions, etc., should be provided after the first meeting. This new schedule will account for dependencies between assets as some team members may require the completed work of others in order to produce their own deliverables (for example, perhaps the communications department needs a logo created before they can send out a release).
- Success Metrics. Your project can’t be a winner if you don’t know how to measure success. For example, if you’re selling a subscription to a magazine, how many sales do you need to cover the costs of the project? Everything above that is profit. Carefully establish success metrics early on so that each department will know the value this particular project brings to the company, as these metrics will likely influence your ability to get the manpower and resources needed.
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Final thoughts
Final Thoughts on Creative Briefs
A well thought out and written creative brief can save you time and set you up for success. With the details the brief provides, and an initial meeting, each department can start to plan out the necessary steps required to meet their objectives on time.
When writing your brief, remember to keep your descriptions short and precise, so as to not overload those involved with too much information. Only put in each section what is necessary.
By presenting a creative brief in the initial project meeting, you can convey a professional and organized approach, inspiring confidence in your ability to effectively lead the project.
Final Word
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