There’s nothing quite like good briefs
This post was written by Clifford Boobyer on Wednesday, December 7th, 2005 at 2:10 pm and is filed under Useful stuff.
We’ve taken the time to write a paper entitled ‘How to write a solid brief‘, an article that outlines the importance of writing a good, solid creative brief. This is a valuable reference for both the creative and account teams within an agency and also for the clients that commission them. Most projects that go pete tong these days, we believe, are from either party not agreeing from the onset what the goals or deliverables of the project are to be. It’s so much easier to know where you are going when you have the parameters mapped out ahead of you. Think of it as being nautical navigational charts for ol’ time sailors… or something like that. The full article is available from our further reading page on the firedog site. {Not that we usually plug ourselves as being thought leaders, or that this entire blog is actually geared to make us successful, rich and ultimately attractive human beings. Perish the thought.}
creative brief, project deliverables, project agreement
December 9th, 2005 at 11:22 am
When we engage a creative team, it’s surprising how often we find that designers rush off a one or two-pager in an attempt to summarise the work we’ve discussed. This usually gives the impression that either they’re too busy to write a detailed brief or that they don’t fully understand what has been asked of them
From a buyer’s perspective, a good detailed brief that’s agreed up-front fosters confidence in the relationship which ultimately improves the relationship.
December 16th, 2005 at 6:01 pm
It is important to distill a client brief into a creative brief, and prioritise the information. Any communication brief needs to answer the core questions;
why, to who, the single ‘take away’ message, the unpack messages that substantiate the core message, the desired response.
Supporting information is necessary of course, but reference material need not all be cut and paste into the brief, reference the reader to an appendices. This process of distillation, which David rightly identifies agency types always perform, actually helps to clarify the objective. Raise the right questions, help develop the communication thinking.
However, designers may not explain this clearly enough. But then some designers believe you don’t need account staff!