Briefs

Is there any subject in an agency that gets discussed more than creative briefs?  I've heard some grumblings recently and it's all very familiar.

The cycle seems to go this way:

1) Briefs are the root of all problems, the lightning rod for frustrations and complaints, the dumping ground for weak strategies and useless information. 
2) It must be the format!  We need a new brief! 
3) Here's a beautiful new format: the great white hope, the panacea for everything. 
4) Then people actually start using it, and think how the heck do I fill this out?  What does that box mean?  Why is there nowhere to put [insert pet topic here]? 
5) At least one client says "I hate it - I don't get why you're always changing briefs.  Keep using the old one."
6) Still, people use it as best they can, but everybody ends up using it differently. Confusion reigns.
7) Which eventually leads back to 1)

I've seen this exact process repeat itself at least 5 times.  I don't know an agency that hasn't gone through it (and you can see some more discussion over at Faris').  So here's some more fuel for the fire.  Maybe the problem is trying to use any one format at all.  Is consistency killing us?

Personally, I think a brief shouldn't be set in stone - both the content and the format should be flexible.  The content needs to be flexible because strategy and execution shouldn't be separated - you don't really know if you have the right strategy until you start trying to create against it, and sometimes the best strategic ideas come from playing around for a while with images and words and music. Creatives are some of the most interesting thinkers, why exclude them from the strategic process? The format needs to be flexible because while some basic housekeeping topics need to be covered off, each project is different and trying to use only one briefing format for everything is like trying to build an entire house using only one tool. We need lots of different tools. Why can't a brief be a postcard, a song, a poem, a picnic?

So in the spirit of adding some tools to our brief writing toolbox, here are a few great thoughts I've found recently on writing better briefs.  First from Leland: present the brief as a question or a challenge.  He makes the great observation that every case study starts this way, maybe briefs should too. 

“How do you launch an unknown ring tone provider among marketing-savvy adults in
only 6 weeks when you are outspent 200 to 1?”

“How do you get people excited about owning a luxury hatchback when the entire American culture firmly believes that hatchbacks are cheap practical cars?”

“If casual dining has become the new fast food, how do you put the special-ness back into a steak dinner?”

Sure, sometimes we put stuff like this in the "Why are we advertising" box -  but what if that is/replaces the proposition?  Each of these questions has an insight about the target and a thought about the response we want to generate.  But instead of telling the creative team exactly what to do/say ("Steak isn't fast food, it's special food!"), it involves them in finding a solution.  As he puts it, every creative likes a challenge.  This also makes sure we all have the discipline of figuring out why we are advertising, what the business issue is we're trying to solve (it's amazing how often this is unclear or gets skipped over entirely). 

Another tack he mentions that I like to use sometimes is to frame it as a fight: "who/what are we against?"  It's one thing to be for "fun times", it's another to be against boredom.

The other thought is an old post of Russell's back 2 jobs ago when he was still at Wieden + Kennedy and they were coming up with all the great Honda work.  He talks about how they approached briefs.

The gist of it is:

1. Don't write stuff down until you need to. "Writing down your strategy for solving an insight problem makes it less likely that you will solve the problem" - this has actually been scientifically demonstrated, more or less, in some really interesting studies.  Malcolm Gladwell talks about it in Blink.
2.  Instead, use all of your senses, use pictures and music and metaphors. Non-verbal stuff usually packs much more meaning than words.
3. Pack briefs with lots of small insights and ideas, rather than narrowing down to one big one.  This may sound counter-intuitive or worse, sloppy and unfocused, but it's not: you can have multiple insights and ideas around the same central theme or challenge.

4. Minimise the writing down and maximise the talking. This makes sure everyone is involved - writing is a solitary exercise, talking is a social one.  Russell often talks about how they created brand rooms for the purpose of debating what goes up on the walls - what actually ended up there, and eventually was captured in a brand book, was useful but secondary.  The real value was in the debates helping everyone to understand the brand better.

Anyway, it's all fine and good for me to natter on about briefs, how about everyone else's experience?  How about some creative people speak up - what do you like/hate in a brief?  Tell us your opinions, leave a comment.

Comments

[MarcusBrown]

I was looking for an agency to represent us a while back. Some agencies came back and said "you are mad" other came back and said "best brief ever". Would you like to see it?

[russell]

Bless you for that. You make me sound quite coherent.

When I was planning director at w+k in portland I was summoned to a meeting with all the partners and creative directors - ie about 20 people (19 of them creatives) who were trying to decide why the creative work wasnt as good as it should have been. (A constant discussion at w+k). Within 5 minutes it was decided that the problem was the quality of the creative briefs (ie it was my fault - or at least the fault of the people in my department). It was then that I really realised that I wasn't a Planning Director at all, I was a Planning Shop Steward.

In this instance I thought the simplest strategy was to nod and agree, they really just wanted to vent. So I agreed to changing the briefing form. We made the font of the subheads on the briefs two points bigger, and the font of the body copy on the brief one point smaller. That seemed to make them all happy. In the next meeting they blamed TV production.

I only mention this to agree with your point that the 'it's the creative briefs' conversation will always be with us. There's no point fighting it.

We all know that the real magic of a briefing happens in conversation and relationships, what goes on the bit of paper doesn't matter. So just don't worry about it.

[MM]

I hate the term 'creative brief'. It doesn't even reflect the process and if i see another brief which asks "What one thing...".

There is nothing brief about selling a clients product.

[wells]

Russell is correct. It is the briefing that is far more important than the brief. The brief allows you to type out thoughts, facts and opinions, but it is the briefing conversations and debates that inspire creative teams to take license with a brief that is usually more informative than inspirational.

[wells]

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Anyway, it's all fine and good for me to natter on about briefs, how about everyone else's experience? How about some creative people speak up - what do you like/hate in a brief? Tell us your opinions, leave a comment.

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