Today I’ll talk about something that affects my working life every single day: briefs.
Briefs take a lot of thought and the whole point of it is to ensure that you allocate your resources to hit your marketing/campaign objectives. The right brief leads to the right campaign execution and the right campaign execution leads to the right results, which is what agency and client want to achieve.
Do you have a marketing challenge? Or perhaps a full campaign that you want an agency to plan and create for you? Or maybe you just need an advert designing?
Whatever it is, it all starts with the brief. If you are new to briefing or even if you have been doing it for a long time, here are my 8 top points to be considered.
1. Give background information.
Get together as much information as you can about the company and the product or service you want to promote. What has and hasn’t worked before is also a great help. Any information of how you have communicated before is not a waste of space in your brief, as it will give more insight into your audience, which nicely leads me to the next point…
2. Find out about your audience.
Campaigns work because you know everything (you can) about the people you are targeting. It is these people that you are hoping will ultimately want to respond and buy. Research and analyse your data to figure out what makes your target audience tick, what they want and what they may expect from you. And then go and exceed their expectations.
3. One line says it all.
Think about what you are trying to achieve with your marketing and then put this in one line. Think: ‘if I could achieve one thing and one thing only, what would this be?” This helps you with prioritising your objectives and focusing on your main proposition.
4. Think about how daring you want to be.
Whatever you are promoting, chances are that you know your audience better than most people. So tell us if you think it’s time to shake things up. Tell us if you want to surprise them. This type of information can completely change the way things are developed.
5. Don’t like this, don’t like that.
Yes, we want to know your (and your audience’s) likes and dislikes. If there is a particular colour/tone/image that you/they hate don’t be shy, put it in the brief.
There is nothing worse than producing good creative work that doesn’t hit the spot because of likes and dislikes. So get them out of the way at the start.
6. There is always a price tag
Be clear on the budget. If you are not entirely sure, try to give some level of indication. The budget has to be realistic and in accordance to the scope of your campaign. It’s also good practice to say how you intend to measure success, so we can put some steps in place along the process to help you be able to do that. There should always be a response rate in mind so we can calculate the success of the activity in real ROI terms.
7. Say what you expect
Include your requirements, particularly in terms of timings. Then everyone knows what is required for when. Not doing this at the start can result in a whole heap of confusion and can lead to expensive mistakes. By being exact with what you need to have planned, created, produced and reported will aid in the cost effectiveness and success of your activity. By being precise with what you need, the success of the communication is greatly improved.
8. ‘I know that now!’
When all is done and dusted, a good tip is to look at the brief you supplied and take into account how your project or marketing activity went on that occasion. It’s good to think about what went well, what didn’t go well and what can be done better next time. If you create a process and follow all the steps consistently, with refinements over time, you will be on the way to creating great outcomes for your business in every brief you write.
And now you know all about the perfect brief, what are you waiting for?
Marilia Spindler is an Account Executive at Happy Creative, a full service marketing agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk
