It might seem that it is very simple to prepare a brief, but in practice it can prove to be a difficult and bumpy road. The more complex the advertising campaign, the more comprehensive and detailed the brief should be. How to prepare it to make it work?
What is a creative brief?
To put it simply, a brief is a document that should contain clearly formulated customer’s expectations of the agency. Its form depends on the agency; however, sometimes the customer has a ready brief and sends it to the agency when starting cooperation. Depending on the order, a detailed completion of a document can be quite labour-intensive, but it is definitely not a waste of time. At later stages of cooperation, it significantly saves the agency and the customer time, as well as helps to avoid misunderstandings. The creative brief should be carefully thought-out, as well as determine the expectations and requirements of the company – creating a sales campaign is significantly different from the image-related one.
Read more: How to create successful marketing strategies?
What information should be included in the brief?
The form of the brief is of secondary importance, the information contained in it is crucial. This will give the agency a good opportunity to get an insight into the company’s goals, expectations, and requirements. What should the creative brief comprise?
- Company and product information
Currently, information about companies is at one’s fingertips, the agency will easily find it on the web. However, in order to understand the goals, vision, and mission of the brand, it is better to seek information at the source. The description may include the structure of the company, existing communication activities, strengths and weaknesses that need to be improved in future communication, as well as promoted products.
- Target group
Identifying and understanding the target audience is one of the most important elements of the entire campaign, so it is a good idea to include such information in a creative brief. A template of a document can be provided by an agency with an indication of the most relevant data. First of all, it should contain demographic information, i.e. gender, age, education, place of residence, or income. The psychographic profile also includes the audience lifestyle, interests, or leisure activities. Different products are dedicated to various target groups, so it is worth identifying personas for each group. Only this way can we get to know the insight, i.e. the hidden consumer need.
- Desired project objectives
The creative brief should include the campaign goals, such as improving the company’s image, increasing sales, or building awareness among the ta audience. The goal that the brand wants to achieve is closely related to the selection of marketing tools, so it is worth describing the information in detail.
- Competition analysis
It is good to include information about the company’s competitors in the brief. In order to better illustrate the situation, the document may feature market positions, promotional activities, or communication channels of the key and indirect competitors.
- Previous actions
The creative brief should contain information on past marketing activities. This will help to avoid misunderstandings, duplication of errors, or repetitions of communication that have not worked.
In addition, it is worth including in the document the schedule of actions, benchmarks, namely implementations that can serve as a model, as well as the budget (price ranges), as a guide for agencies, allowing to adjust the concept to the company’s financial capabilities.
