How to write a brief an agency can use
Most weak work traces back to a brief that was agreed by everyone because it asked for everything.
One objective, one audience, one thing to say, the real constraints, and the names of everyone who can say no. A brief with three objectives is not a brief, it is a negotiation that will happen later, at the presentation, in front of people.
A brief is a decision document. Its job is to remove options before anybody starts, which is why the painful version written in an afternoon saves a month.
One objective
Awareness, consideration, acquisition, retention, or a specific commercial number. Pick one. Three objectives produce work that is a compromise between them, and the compromise is always the safest option on the table.
A real audience
Not "men and women 25 to 45 in metros", which describes forty million people and excludes nobody. Describe someone specific enough that the creative team could picture them answering the phone. Include what they currently believe, since the job is to change that.
One thing to say
If the work has to communicate five points, it communicates none. Write the single sentence you want repeated back to you, and list the other four as supporting material that can appear where there is room.
The real constraints
Budget, as a number. Timings, with the immovable date named. Legal and regulatory requirements. Mandatory elements, honestly listed, including the ones somebody senior will insist on at the end whether or not they are in the brief now.
Who can say no
The most useful section and the one almost always missing. Name every person whose approval is required, in order. Work dies in the gap between the people who commissioned it and the people who turn out to have a veto, which is the subject of approvals that do not kill the work.
What does not belong
The solution. If the brief describes the execution, you have hired an expensive production service and will get exactly what you asked for, which is rarely what you needed. The distinction is in the brief is not the idea.
Questions we get asked
How long should a creative brief be?
One page plus appendices. Anything longer is usually unresolved disagreement written down rather than decisions taken.
What is the most commonly missing part of a brief?
The list of people who can say no. Work dies in the gap between whoever commissioned it and whoever turns out to hold a veto.
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