Briefing a new marketing agency

Life’s A Pitch (Part 2 of 3): Writing a decent creative brief

Most people find writing a creative immensely difficult and more often than not, people make a bad job of it. This is designed to be helpful advice for all, regardless of whether you’re new to writing briefs or you’ve been in the industry for years.  Like countless peers, I’ve spent years writing briefs.  Moreover, in my various new business roles, I’ve received and written a vast amount of potential client/pitch briefs.  In such instances, the brief is obviously the key to getting it right.

Whilst it’s important for agency-side parties to be usefully inquisitive, the work you receive will be a reasonable reflection of the brief you provide in the first place (i.e. get the brief wrong and the work represented will likely be shit).  So with that in mind, here’s a simple guide to what that brief should consist of.  The majority of this content is media/channel-neutral.  It’s a creative brief outline – which will work through the line.

1. PURPOSE OF BRIEF (‘so what’s occurring?’)

This needs to be an outline of the business objectives and a succinct introduction to the brand, its sector, and the product/service to be launched/repositioned/put online/immortalised in advertising etc. You’ll know pretty much all there is to know about your brand and your sector; therefore there is often a temptation to provide far too much information.  Keep it simple; give a flavour, but try not to offload piles and piles of information if it is not relevant to the brief.  Remember, the agency will ask questions, which you would hope, will be good questions. If they do not, take note. Their ability to listen is as important as their ability to create.

2. INSIGHTS (‘What should we ask ourselves to get this right’?)

Assuming you’re more interested in one of the agencies coming back with the right work rather than putting them to the test, it’s always a good idea to drop in a couple of insightful questions around the problem.  For example: “How do we hook our potential consumer, using a balance of emotive and technical messages – conveying a balance of brand personality and depth of expertise?”  These questions are obviously rhetorical, but can help drive the agencies’ approach far better.

3. TARGET AUDIENCE (‘so who wants to know?’)

Tip: “Everyone” is not an insightful brief of the target market!

Obviously this can be socio-demographic information, but if you think a little deeper, you might provide an introduction to a couple of personas.  For example: Tell the agency a story about ‘Claire, the girl next door’; talk about where she lives/her likes/dislikes/where she shops/what sites she’s likely browsing. Build a story regarding Claire – bring her to life.  It’s a far more interesting way to describe your target market – again, offering the opportunity for more insightful consideration.

4. COMPETITION (‘who else is doing this?’)

Not a difficult area of the brief.  List your top competitors and their web addresses.  Leave the agencies to do the rest.  It’s their job to decide how relevant the competitors’ marketing strategy/tactics are.  However, DO provide a concise indication of your understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of what your competitors are up to.  Also, if you like something they’re doing – say.  Your competitors are allowed to be great at what they do, after all…

5. THE USP (‘what’s the single most important thing we want the customer to know?’)

Ah, the USP…  This is the bit where most people get it wrong – agencies included.  Why?  For many reasons.  1. Because people tend to list more than one proposition (even though we’re looking for the unique point; 2. Because it’s not all that easy to sum absolutely all of the features and benefits of your brand/product/service into one line.  Difficult, but not impossible…  This is arguably the most important section of the brief.  If you are ambiguous at this stage, don’t be surprised if indecisive work is presented back to you.  Get it right, and see the difference.

6. REINFORCING THE USP (‘can we actually support/prove that?’)

Bearing in mind that the USP information should be short and sweet, this is the area where you can expand and rationalise your thoughts.  Again, keep it simple; use bullet-points, all of which support your thinking.  Don’t ramble; don’t repeat yourself.  Furthermore, don’t under-estimate the importance of this are of the brief (as people often do).

7.  LOOK & FEEL, TONE OF VOICE (‘How should it look and what should it sound like?’)

You’ll likely already have a set of brand guidelines or brand bible.  If they’re any good, they’ll contain this information.  Copy the more salient points and stipulations.  Regardless, the key here is to give some descriptors relating to how your brand/product/service feels – how it looks – how it exists.  Don’t be afraid of incorporating a little passion here – after all, it’s your brand!!!

8. MANDATORY INCLUSIONS/EXCLUSIONS (‘what must be in, what needs to be out?’)

It’s always helpful to nail down a bullet-point list of dos & don’ts, to save time.  If you know full well that a certain line of messaging does not work when it comes to your brand, mention it.  If the CEO’s wife hates yellow (sighs), put it in the brief!  This is all about making the whole process more efficient.

9. REQUIREMENTS (‘what do we want?’)

Short and simple.  A bullet-point list of what you’d like to see.  For example: 1. A brand identity; 2. Wire frames and a home page; 3. A suite of ‘ad concepts’ etc etc…

10. TIMINGS (‘when do we want it?’)

State the pitch date and time.  Do yourself a favour and give your agencies enough time to tackle the brief properly.  Try to ensure the process does not end up as a rush.

Next month I'll share, part 3 of 3, my experience of how to choose the right agency. 'Til then!

Thanks to Martin O'Toole for sharing his advice and opinions in this post. With 15 years in media and through-the-line agencies, managing the client-acquisition and creative strategy process, Martin is now MD and co-founder of McGrath O’Toole McGrath O’Toole. Martin’s big on building commercial relationships based entirely on transparency and brutal honesty. Find Martin here on LinkedIn.