Several people spanning sundry skill sets need to come together in harmony to produce great campaigns, and harmony is better achieved if everyone is reading off of the same sheet of music, so to speak. Without that, time and money are wasted, quality invariably declines and results suffer. This article outlines some tried and true practices to follow when planning for your marketing campaigns.
The Creative Brief
For the best possible, most consistent results, always work from a brief. Without the brief, everything is a moving target.
Even if you think you’ve got it all in your head, take the time to get it all down on paper, in a consistent format that has proven to work well for your organization. Faithfully following this practice ensures that you aren’t missing anything and that expectations are leveled with all team members and stakeholders.
Who Writes the Creative Brief?
In a traditional, big-agency environment, the account planner or account exec writes the brief. However, it has been my long-held belief that everyone on the team should know how to craft one.
Designers and copywriters benefit from this skill because they can’t always count on a good strategy to be handed to them, and at the very least, they should be able to back check the briefs supplied to them.
Any other stakeholders will be more productive participants if they are familiar with the constructs and process of writing briefs.
Many ad planners and marketers have their own preferred flavor of brief. Mine was derived from various sources over the years and has proved to be a reliable format time after time.
Tony is a strategic design leader with 30 years experience in brand strategy & development, user experience strategy & design, advertising, creative direction, graphic design, writing, performance-based digital marketing, sales enablement, account planning and management, and design management.
After holding design leadership positions at several firms in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and teaching design thinking, disruptive innovation and strategic management as an adjunct professor at Parsons The New School for Design, Tony opened Brinton Design in 2015.
Tony is a classically trained painter and draftsman in the traditon of the Masters. He's passionate about art & design, teaching, storytelling and humanizing technology. Tony works at the intersection of business, design and technology to improve people's quality of living and create new value for organizations.
