So on we go after a first post which didn't really say much did it? This is gleanings from Nikki Crumpton's (Head of Planning Mccan) seminar at the APG Network, along with Russell Davies' and Dylan William's at the APG Creative briefing course. Of course I can't help but stick my own oar in.
And first, I'd like to democratise the whole thing. It tends to be the planner who writes them, but I physically wrote more as a suit. No one has the divine right to write a creative brief.
Here's my credentials as brief writer: husband, uncle, brother, son, cat owner, driver, wage slave - HUMAN BEING.
Strategy - and therefore briefs are really about how people behave. And we're all human beings (just about). Richard Huntington often talks about planning from within - how do I think, what would I do? That's a good start. Being able to put yourself in an audience's position helps too. But ANYONE CAN DO THEM. They are hard, but the only way to get really good is to do lots of them.
If you're a suit wanting to get strategic, have a look at the briefs the planners write and see what you'd do different. Do speculative ones for projects you think might happen. In some places, the less meaty ones may be your responsibility - and the briefs no one wants to write are the ones no creatives want to work from. Work hard on making them as good they can be. I learned more from working on the homebuilding briefs no one wanted to do than anything else I think.
And the creatives loved me for simply making them not dull.
I used to practice by looking at finished ads and writing what I thought the briefs might have been, and putting them in front of creatives to see what they thought. Once you can 'work back', you'll find starting from scratch much easier.
Anyway.............
We're going to divide this into three parts:
- Why briefs are important.
- How to go about writing them.
- How to brief creatives.
Part 1 is worth dwelling on for a second. From an 'outside the London bubble' perspective, creative briefs are not as common as they should be. They're not ingrained in the process. Which is pretty daft. On the other hand, some resent having to do them, which a little silly too.
They are actually great for being profitable and making life easy. They help better work, saving time and helping fairer remuneration.
Better work because it provides a direction for our collective efforts, it also channels creativity. Some would be inclined to say it controls rampant creativity.
On one level I would say yes - without an agreed criteria, there's no way you can reject a script featuring Tom Jones whipping Princess Leia (and come to think of it why would you?) apart from the old, "I like, I don't like argument". But it can also FREE up creativity - allowing you to post rationalise something really good that just needs a nudge to be ON brief.
It forces everyone to be analytical, strategic and make decisions BEFORE the first review, There's nothing more hateful for everyone than deciding what the brief really is after seeing some work.
It also forces you to not give into difficult moments - those, "Will the client buy it?" moments. If it's on brief, and that's based a strategy you all buy into, well, if the work's right, it's right. It forces admissions that they don't want to present it since they just don't think the client will like it. It gets you out of the smoke and mirrors and into THE REAL reason stuff gets in front of the client.
That also saves time since there SHOULD be less of the endless internal rebriefs - and that means saving money too since most agencies judge profits based on how much time has been spent on a job (I'm not saying that's right, it's just a fact).
And the more organised you look, the more you and the client judge work from an agreed criteria, the less work SHOULD BE rejected. You work quicker, fall out less and argue over invoices less. Everybody wins.
And finally, you will be helping the creatives if you give them a good brief. There's nothing more frightening than a blank piece of paper - apart from not knowing where to start, and having to second guess what will happen in the first review. Creatives suffer duff briefs all the time - any effort to make the one you do interesting, and a joy to work from will be greatly appreciated (just don't expect them to tell you that).
Don't expect them to work TO the brief precisely either. The brief is the start, no more no less. As John Steel says, "Creatives work from a brief, not to it".
Next up is how to go about writing them.
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