Creative briefs are an essential piece to the puzzle when discussing successful creative projects. Starting a project without a proper creative brief will likely lead to a very unorganized rough and tumble process, and unfortunately this mistake is made quite often. There has more recently been a bit of a divide between creative teams and clients in terms of how they handle project intake. According to the 2019 In-House Creative Management Report from InSource and inMotionNow, 58% of clients believed they provided clear and complete creative briefs. However, only 27% of agencies concur with their clients. This misalignment occurring at the very beginning of projects creates a whirlwind of confusion that could easily be avoided. The Creative Management Report also reported that 67% of creative teams have a tough time collaborating when providing the project input required to get started. More effective and thorough creative briefs may just be what is missing for creatives and agencies to collaborate more efficiently.
An ideal creative brief should be a guide for the creative team to let them know the objective of the project. This will allow the team to better manage what everyone is working on and determine whether other external factors are aligned with client expectations. Sufficient creative briefs also foster better relationships among team members which will also allow for collaboration to prosper. At the end of the day, the creative brief should be available to the team at any time and place and should serve as the foundation of the project. There are a few notable characteristics that are consistently found in well written creative briefs, and these will help you get your next project kicked off without a hitch!
Clear
A project without clarity is bound to go haywire at some point in the process. When collaborating with others, it is monumentally important to make sure everyone is on the same page and working together to achieve the same goal. Go above and beyond to understand your clients business and services to ensure your brief is on track with what the customer wants, and the rest of the project will follow through much more seamlessly.
Concise
An effective creative brief doesn’t need to be any longer than 2 pages. Doing research on your client’s business will lead to an overhaul of information gained, but the best creative briefs condense that into something short and sweet. As long as you have presented the main essential points, your brief will be effective, and your peers will likely appreciate not being handed a novel of a creative brief to dive into.
Communicative
Communication is huge in a team setting, and the creative brief is meant to clearly communicate information from the client to your creative team. If the brief does not successfully communicate its message to creatives, then chances are the client is not going to receive what they wanted. Use language that is easy to understand and stay away from vague wordy sentences. The goal of the creative brief is not to impress anyone with how well you can write, just simply get the message across!
Along with these characteristics, creative briefs should also address key considerations including the product, the market, and of course the customer. A well written creative brief is basically the crowning achievement of project kickoff and allows the rest of the project to be carried out more efficiently with a common goal in mind. Keep these tips in mind when writing your next creative brief and watch as you reap the benefits of this overlooked part of project kickoff!
This content was originally published in the article “How to Create an Effective Creative Brief Template” by Finances Online. You can view the full original article here.