The word "brief" is a key term that appears in Google search as many as 12,000 times a month. According to Joe Talcott, former global marketing director at McDonald's, it is the most important tool in a creative marketer's arsenal, and at the same time the simplest and most fundamental one.

Meanwhile, according to a survey conducted among more than 250 executives from various agencies, as much as 30 percent of their employees' time is wasted due to poor communication with clients. Not to mention the high costs associated with poor briefing borne by clients. In turn, according to the 2019 ANA report, fewer than 3 in 10 respondents believe that the current level of trust between client-side marketers and agencies is high. What accounts for such a small percentage, and what mistakes do marketers most often make when creating a brief?

Marketing brief – what is it?

According to the Management Encyclopedia, a brief is a synthetically prepared document in which the marketer writes down expectations for the campaign, provides basic information about the brand, the goals and expectations to be met, as well as other necessary guidelines, such as the available budget or the brand's competitive environment. If we were to define what a brief is in one sentence, it would undoubtedly simply be a set of the client's expectations toward the agency, which at the same time stimulates the agency and focuses on the results it is to deliver.

- A marketing brief is nothing more than clearly formulated expectations and a kind of signpost for the agency. Its primary purpose is to present, in a simple and transparent yet exhaustive way, the expectations, goals and guidelines for a given contractor. A good marketing brief is an investment, and the art of creating it is paradoxically one of the most valuable skills, one that helps avoid, among other things, financial and time losses on both sides of the pitch process. And that is where the greatest challenge begins. Marketers want to manage their budget as effectively as possible, and at the same time they suffer painful losses due to mistakes at the brief-creation stage, which they often make entirely unconsciously. Seeing a market gap in this area, we created a platform that streamlines the process of preparing such a document and at the same time makes it possible to invite advertising agencies to take part in a pitch, selecting only those best suited to the specifics of a given brief, based on a database of nearly 450 agencies available on the site. – says Marcin Chyliński, Founder & Co-owner, brief4U.com

Both the marketer and the agency benefit from a good brief

If you don't know the question, the chance that you'll answer it correctly is small – this is a simple rule that also defines a good brief, while at the same time formulating the problem that so often arises on the marketer-agency line. A properly completed document leaves no margin for error, saves time and money, and significantly facilitates communication between the parties. Both the marketer and the agency benefit from a meticulously prepared brief.

– We can compare the elements of this document to the foundations of a building. Strong foundations guarantee that the building won't collapse; even if the roof is damaged, the house will still stand in place. In the case of a brief – if we properly prepare the agency to carry out the campaign, it doesn't have to be the best on the market for the campaign to be carried out successfully and the money well spent. If, however, we reverse the situation and fail to ensure a complete and well-thought-out brief – even the best agency may not meet our expectations, because it simply won't know what they are. That is why one of the key questions a brief should answer is "why?" – adds Marcin Chyliński.

Advertising brief, creative brief or one for a PR agency?

What a good marketing brief is and what functions it serves

A brief can take on a different character and type, depending on the industry we operate in, the specifics of the so-called barrier on the brand we want to address, or the stage of development our brand is at. One of the more commonly used is the creative brief.

The purpose of such a document, as the name suggests, is to stimulate the agency to creative work, hence in such a document the key will be a precise presentation of the target group we want to direct the message to, defining the problem we want to address, but at the same time limiting the amount of data and figures that contribute nothing creative to the work of the creative team. If, on the other hand, we want to commission a promotional campaign in wide-reach media, we prepare a media brief. When we want to carry out an advertising campaign, we then develop an advertising brief. The most complex document is the strategic brief, which comprehensively visualizes the campaign concept.

The 5 cardinal sins of marketers when creating a brief

According to the 2019 ANA report, only just under 30 percent of respondents indicated that the current level of trust between client-side marketers and advertising agencies is high. More than half consider it medium, and nearly 17 percent described that trust as low. In addition, both sides indicate that the increase in trust is influenced primarily by transparency of actions, including good communication. The problem on the marketer-agency line is visible, and the source of misunderstandings is often the aforementioned brief. What are the most common mistakes marketers make when creating them?

  1. No or incorrectly formulated business problem – it often happens that marketers prepare complete briefs containing a lot of detailed information, but at the stage of defining the business problem they define it incorrectly or, worse, omit this element. This almost immediately dooms the campaign to failure. Identifying the business problem should be one of the key elements of the brief.
  2. Imprecise definition of the target group – that's a shot in the proverbial foot. Why? It is thanks to a well-defined audience – their demographic profile and often also psychographic profile – that we are able to match the product to their expectations and thus become a pioneer in the market in a given industry. Ignoring this point in your brief is a blind pursuit of the goal, which we may pay for with significantly higher campaign costs and wasted time, achieving mediocre results.
  3. Less is more – as Talcott explains, some creative directors post briefs on a bulletin board, and creative teams choose the ones they most want to work on, leaving the rest to be assigned at a later date. The better the brief, the better the talent working on it: it's motivating, because creative teams usually just want to do great work. If the brief is 25 pages long, they won't be interested. It is therefore worth balancing the information we want to include so that the brief is synthetic yet exhaustive.
  4. A coherent whole – too much information, overly general content, an unspecified target group and a poor hierarchy of goals – these are just a few factors that make a marketing brief unreadable and inconsistent for the agency, which will take action based on it to promote a product or service. Creating a list of priorities or a technological platform that intuitively guides us through the entire brief-creation process will help organize chaotic thoughts.
  5. Copy and paste – duplicating briefs, a lack of creativity and ideas is a recipe for disaster. To succeed and stand out from the competition, it is worth paying attention to the originality of your projects, which will be adapted to new trends and realities, resulting in greater interest from potential consumers.

"If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend the first four sharpening the axe." – Abraham Lincoln

The key to success is the approach to the project that is the brief. Ensuring that it is simple, coherent, interesting and exhaustive, inspiring creative work, yet at the same time transparent. Well-defined goals and their hierarchy, good evaluation criteria, good insight, a precise definition of the audience, originality and an open mind, and above all the right amount of time devoted at this stage, guarantee the success of the campaign, good service from the agency and, most importantly, consumer satisfaction.