How to brief your creative agency

We live in an amazing time for marketing. There have never been as many chances to create outstanding brand experiences. But too many projects fall at the first hurdle because the brief isn't clear enough. If the ROI of marketing is as important as we say it is, then making sure the project direction is clear should be top priority. The creative process is messy and unpredictable, so having clarity and direction from the start is vital.

With that said, here are some top do's and don'ts for briefing your agency.

Do: Give clear direction

Strategy is all about making choices. Be single minded and bold about what you want the work to achieve. For example, have you decided whether your brief is there to win new customers or upsell to existing ones? It would be very difficult for one campaign to do both. While it's tempting to stuff a brief with both things, you need different briefs to meet different goals.

Don't: Get your Sharpies out

Marketers use agencies to come up with ideas they can’t think of themselves. So resist the temptation to talk about your vision for the YouTube videos in detail, or to start comping something together in Powerpoint. Great Creative Directors have this saying that goes "tell me where to fish." Meaning, give me a rod and show me where the fish are - but let me catch one myself. If you clock yourself micromanaging things to follow your personal preference, it's time to rethink.

Do: Cover the basics

There are three things that make up a good brief. The goal, the target audience and the budget. The reason? They're all linked. The budget will help decide how much ammunition we have to hit the goal. If you want to make your budget smaller, that usually means changing the goal to be more modest. Or you could have a smaller campaign run to a slightly bigger audience. And changing the target audience means checking that the budget and goal are in sync with that audience. We often get asked if it's possible the bring the budget down on a piece of work. The answer to that depends on whether we can bring down the target audience and the budget to match.

Don't: Stuff the brief

It's tempting when working with dwindling budgets to get a 2 for 1 BOGOFF style deal on your creative. Though there might be a lot you want to say, the reality is that most people don't have the time or energy to process lots of information. And while everyone wants to build their brand and drive sales, doing both in the same communication is unlikely. Is this a brief to support the customer through a sale? Or is it designed to showcase the product to disinterested new users with an emotional message? Single minded marketing has only one key message, and generally only tried to do one thing?

Do: Keep the brief brief

A good brief is, erm, brief. Research by betterbriefs.com found that the top complaint about marketing briefs is a lack of focus. 78% of marketers believe the briefs they write "provide clear strategic direction." Only 5% of agencies agree. So once you have a draft brief - try cutting it right down. Share it with someone you trust to review it and see if it's clear. Can you cut even more?

Don't: Confuse an outcome with a goal.

We all want results. More sales, more profit and more success. But these are the outcomes of lots of things working together. We have to actually do things to get to the result, and if we achieve the goal - the outcome will take care of itself. So what's a good goal? You could try to move from the 4th biggest brand to the 3rd biggest. Or you could try to stem or reverse a decline in profits. If you can do them, the profit and sales will follow. But increasing sales or profit can't be a goal in and of itself.

Do: Treat it like a jumping off point

The brief is just the start of any creative project, so it's important to shape it and take time discussing every word. We know that it can be very difficult in some companies to reach a point where you have a clear brief that hasn't been ruined by committee. That said, don't send anything to your agency that you think isn't clear enough. Ask your agency for critique. Is something missing or unclear?