The creative brief.

Maybe you're starting work on a new creative campaign and the team can't wait to get started, but where do you begin? There's content to create, such as videos to produce, landing pages to set up, articles to write and so on.

What's more, all teams need to be aligned on objectives, target audience, budget and deadline, among other things. For this, you need a creative brief.

If we had to sum up the creative brief in one sentence: "a creative brief is a document that informs the creative approach and delivery of new marketing or advertising campaigns."

First of all, when a brand carries out a communications strategy, 3 results should follow:
⁃ Notice a difference and a transformation after the communication strategy.
⁃ Evolve perceptions around the brand, product, service: FROM: current perception -> TO: desired perception.
⁃ Achieve objectives whether Marketing (penetration, distribution, average basket), Business (sales, market share, revenues, profits) or Communication (awareness, affinity, differentiation).

To achieve the above results, it's essential to draw up a brief that will ensure we don't lose focus or go off in the wrong direction.The brief, a rigid framework but not too rigidUsedby all teams, the creative brief is drawn up by the strategic planner on the basis of information provided by the sales team.

Who creates a brief depends on how it is used. In an agency setting, a client will provide a high-level brief to the account manager on the work to be done. The account manager then draws up a more detailed brief to be used internally in conjunction with the art director. This document is what will guide the teams' work.
As we can see, the creative brief is the result of a collaborative effort by several departments. Its wording and form depend on the departments involved.

In terms of form, the brief, as its name suggests, needs to be short and to the point. It's important that the content is obvious and understandable to everyone.
If we're talking about an existing brand or campaign, the brief must provide a solution to a specific problem, and to do this, it must be based on tangible elements (market research, field surveys, sector analysis, etc.) and not simply on intuition.
In the case of the creation of a new identity, the document must explain the needs or expectations of the product by consumers/users.

Submitted to the creative team, it must be validated by them. That's why it's essential for the creative brief to be inspiring and creatively fertile for the creative teams. The document provides a rigid framework, but not too rigid either. Let's take a look at the first elements of a creative brief that you could send to your agency. We've listed some of the non-exhaustive elements of a first draft creative brief:
-The objective: what are the business goals and the established marketing strategy? What effect should the communication generate?
-The problem: what's preventing your brand from achieving its business objectives?
-The target: who do we want to talk to? Who does the brand say it is talking to in order to achieve its objectives?
-The brand truth: on what tangible elements of the brand/product/service is the message based?
-Insight: what human truth do we have the opportunity to base our message on?
-Benefit: what is the unique proposition of the product / service and what is the main benefit for the consumer?
-Strategic idea: the synthesis of the message to be conveyed. What should communication make audiences think/feel/feel?

Based on this document, the sales representative will contact the Art Director to further develop the necessary creative elements. In this way, the constituent elements of the creative concept will be discussed. Once the creative concept has been devised, the sales representative will contact the customer to submit the ideas and proposed media (print, online, video, radio, etc.).

Note that a creative brief can take a long time to draw up. It's best to delay your communication until you're sure your document is relevant. A creative brief can take a long time to draw up. It is preferable to delay your communication but to be certain of the relevance of your brief.

Agence BB® Switzerland Switzerland accompanies and advises numerous customers in the creation of this document.