Five Principles of a Good Brief

By Mark Rollinson

Allan Biggar, chairman of All About Brands, has opined that "clients should never underestimate the power of a creative brief written with flair and insight to enthuse and inspire an agency."

The most common reason for a project failing in this business is the lack of a clear creative brief. The process of developing, discussing and agreeing a clear brief with your colleagues and your agency will focus your thinking on what it is you are expecting from your marketing activity and what you expect your agency to contribute.

It's not unusual for a large company to retain three or more agencies to work on different aspects of their corporate or brand communications. That means that the benefits of holding a meeting that permits all parties the chance to debate and contribute to the briefing process has never been greater. Having people with advertising, branding, media, direct marketing, public relations, event management and other communications skills together in one room at the beginning of a project will add enormous value and set a shared agenda for the work ahead.

Finally, a written brief acts as a benchmark for evaluating the resulting creative work, avoiding purely subjective reactions.

"When we engage with an agency, we need them to get the creative right the first time," says Kate Triggs, communications director at Mubadala in Abu Dhabi. "The only way to ensure that is to take the time to brief them accurately."

1. Write it down. This first tip seems simple enough: Make sure that the brief has been put into writing. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece of prose - the mere act of writing it down will focus your thinking on what you need to achieve from any given piece of marketing activity.

A written brief is vital in ensuring the 'buy-in' of other key people in your organisation. This buy-in is essential in order to avoid wasting time and resources when senior executives - often outside the marketing department - challenge key assumptions in the brief, leading to belated changes in direction. Written briefs should have the approval of all key decision-makers before they are sent to your agency.

"The whole idea is to stimulate the imagination of your creative agencies. Don't leave the writing of the brief to your procurement department, which will write the brief as though they were buying building materials or stationery supplies," said All About Brands Country Manager Alex Brown.

2. The brief brief. Briefs are called briefs because they are meant to be brief. Make sure they are a summary of your thinking and requirements. Don't overload them with information. It is better to add details or research as appendices.

Too much information can fog the process. Relevance and context are more important than loads of stats and data.

"Be open in your choice of media channels," comments Simon Impey, creative director and founder of London-based ad agency Open Soho, Ltd. "You might feel you have a requirement for a press campaign, when actually your message can strategically and creatively target your audience through a more appropriate media."

3. Clearly define your objectives. "The point of communications is to get people to do things. Which people? What things? Answer those questions and you have the foundations of a brief right there," said Regan Burns, director of Brandsmiths.

Define your objectives and what you want to achieve. Use concrete business objectives and avoid vague terms such as "improve our brand image" Every objective should start with, "To…"

Make sure your objectives are focused and measurable. Otherwise, you can't create criteria against which your agency's success can be measured.

"Establishing a clear set of objectives and outputs and outcomes that can be measured is at the heart of a successful briefing process," notes Jean Phillipe Coulaud, communications director of Abu Dhabi's Urban Planning Council.

4.  Provide a budget. There is nothing more frustrating than coming up with a great creative campaign and then finding out it costs five times more than the client's available budget. At the very least, set a ballpark figure to frame your agencies' thinking. Mind games like, "if we tell them what we've got to spend, they'll spend it" aren't helpful. A written brief that includes objectives and success criteria is vital for accountability,and creates the ability to demonstrate the effectiveness of your advertising, media, branding, PR, direct marketing, sales promotion and indeed all forms of commercial communications.

If you can demonstrate the effectiveness of your marketing spend and your agencies, you will find it much easier to secure your marketing and communications budgets.

If you don't trust your agency to give you the right advice as part of an open and trusting relationship, then you need a different agency.

5.  Set a deadline. Be clear about delivery deadlines and give your agency as much time as possible. Remember, there will already have other work when you brief them. It's unlikely they'll be able to drop everything and start right away.

Of course, there are going to be times when you need your agency to respond swiftly to a tactical opportunity. On those occasions, it is not unreasonable for a communications company to drop everything and accelerate the delivery of a project. But this should be the exception, not the norm. You should normally allow time for the agency to absorb the brief, discuss it with their creative teams and come back for a question-and-answer session if needed.

After that, unless the project has an exceptionally quick turnaround, they should supply you with a schedule highlighting the key stages and deliverables of the project. This schedule should provide for an initial concept presentation, time for you to digest the concept thoroughly, and for a second or even third concept presentation if you are not excited by the initial ideas. Once the creative concept has been selected and approved your agency can provide detailed production schedules.

Remember the old adage that you can have it good, you can have it fast, and you can have it cheap - but that you can't have any more than two of the above at the same time!

If you practice these five principles you will demonstrate that you know how to treat an agency and that you respect their work. If you give them the best possible opportunity - as co-custodians of your brand - to blow you away with their creativity, you'll be the winner. Nothing motivates creative people more than producing great work. You will find that you will establish an upward spiral of creative excellence that will drive your brand and consequently your business forward faster than you ever thought possible.

Mark Rollinson is CEO of Brand Faith. He advises Abu Dhabi's Executive Affairs Authority on the development and implementation of the nation's brand. He can be reached at Mark@BrandFaith.com.