One of a marketer’s rites of passage is writing their first agency brief. It might be to kick off a campaign or to test out a new agency as part of a beauty parade. Briefs take a lot of thought. The right brief leads to the right campaign leads to the right results. But have we gone overboard on producing the perfect brief?

The time from first meeting with an agency to actually getting the brief past the account team and into the creative halls can often be as much as a month. First of all your agency will probably re-write it. They’ll add in their own specifics, from a proposition to their own magic insight on your account. Sometimes, they’ll just reformat your efforts.To-ing and fro-ing, trying to re-explain exactly what you meant – all very time consuming.  All needing to be factored in as you develop your campaign plan

At blur Group our approach makes the brief the centre of interaction. Our process means from brief to creative pitch happens sooner rather than later. We’ve proved that great results can happen without a drawn-out briefing round and are now sharing some of these tips to help you get better Creative results with us, or with your existing agency.

• Specify a budget. Don’t be shy, don’t ever ask ‘how much do you think I should spend?’. Work out your budget and stick to it. This may not strictly fit in the domain of creativity, but it will avoid disappointment and argument later.
• Be descriptive of your audience. Campaigns work because you know everything about the person you ultimately want to respond and buy. Be sure that this is expressed to the nth degree. If you talk about a target audience of 25-34 year olds but fail to mention that it’s only for those with an income of over 50K then the messages may fail.
• Refer to what’s worked before. This isn’t going to result in tired repeats, but will give more insight into the audience. If people hated the celebrity endorsement but loved the real world testimonials – include it.
• Mention everything that’s essential. If it’s vital that there is a price offer as part of the campaign, now is the time to specify it. If your agency produces a world-beating ad and then you mention that the killer component is the 10% off, then the ad may not look quite as effective.  Similarly if you’re trying to build up a brand then having something clever but subtle isn’t going to pass your test. Make it easy for the agency to know all the components that count, including brand rules.
• Say what you like and don’t like – and give examples. Could be colour. Could be cartoon versus serious. If you hate cliches say so now. In the end there is nothing worse than producing good creative work that doesn’t hit the spot because of personal likes/dislikes. So get them out of the way at the start.
• Outline your proposition. For example,  your product might be the  ’only nail varnish that doesn’t chip’ – your agency can convert this to the more creative proposition of ‘hard as nails’. Don’t sweat on providing them with the creative version, but make sure they know what is standout so they don’t miss the mark.
• Don’t be afraid of features. Car ads may be flashy, stylishly out there, high-budget and crazily conceptual but they’ll often use this as a vehicle (ouch) to outline some very important features (inbuilt satnav, new technology braking system). If you have features that differentiate your brand put them in the brief. Again, it’s one of those things that are much harder to ad when the creative is all but complete.
• Assess your risk levels. How many times have you sat in a presentation from your agency and seen the 1,2,3 approach. One very dull treatment, one extreme and one that they think is going to hit the spot. This all takes time and in the end, you as a client will pay to see work that isn’t just for comparative purposes, but is wheeled out time and time again knowing that it’s never going to be used. Rather like an investment portfolio, specify just how much risk you’re willing to take. Include the views of others in your organisation.  No point asking for wild creative with a video showing frolicking dancers if your CEO will only accept a man in a business suit shaking hands with a partner. Be realistic and truthful as to how far an agency can go.

Of course if you have worked closely with your agency for some time, they should know a lot of this. But every campaign is different. Work your brief well and you’ll end up with work that you’re proud of. When the essentials are covered it will be Creativity that shines through.

Let us know what you always include in your Creative brief!