Creative Brief-How To

PHOENIX 9: THE CREATIVE BRIEF

The Creative Brief

• The primary purpose of a creative brief is to provide a clear and concise direction to the creative team

• Good creative briefs do more than that

• They also inspire the creative team

A Good Creative Brief …

• Is brief and single minded

• Is logical and rooted in a compelling truth

• Incorporates a powerful human insight (NOT OBSERVATIONS!!!)

• Is compatible with the overall brand strategy (brand essence)

• Is the result of hard work and team work

THE LB CREATIVE BRIEF

Creative brief and briefing: Objectives

• To direct: make it clear what the advertising is trying to do.

• To inspire: to make creative people excited about the task ahead.

• To give creative people a strategic idea which will be the seed for the creative idea.

• To provide a benchmark, agreed by all parties, against which the creative work will be assessed.


Creative brief

• Records the objective of an advertising* What do we want this advertising to do?

* Who are we talking to and what insights do we have about them?

* How do we want them to describe the brand -- how would they talk about its benefit and character?

* What’s the single most important thing we want them to take out of this advertising?

* How can we make this believable?

* Is there anything else worth thinking about that might help us get to great creative work?

* Are there any executional mandatories?


What do we want this advertising to do?

• Describe in plain, human language the job we want advertising to do.* Not the marketing objectives, but the part this communication can

play in achieving them

* Must be affordable and achievable

* Usually a concise summary what effects the advertising is intended to have on whom.



• Try to be specific about what the advertising is trying to achieve and with whom. Advertising can only:

*Reassure existing user

*Persuade skeptics

*Convince new users

*Convert competitive users

*Remind lapsed users

*Influence level of awareness

*Change degree of interest or desire

*Heighten involvement

*Strengthen preference

*Change attitude, perception, opinion or belief

*Reinforce existing attitude, belief or behavior

*Induce direct action, e.g., get the target to call, fax, visit the showroom, etc…

Remember that advertising can take a customer to a showroom,

But it can’t make him/her buy the car



• Good Example – To persuade the medium and heavy beer drinkers that Danish Light offers the taste and enjoyment of a regular beer without that “heavy filled up feeling” in their stomach

• Good Example – To persuade business travelers to consider transiting/stopping over at Dubai International Airport instead of Qatar International Airport

• Bad Example – To create awareness for Goldstar TV

• Bad Example – To sell $20 million worth of casual wear clothes for women in 1990


Who are we talking to?

• Avoid target descriptions like “AB housewives between 20-40 years old”

• Remember the target is not a statistic but a real living person

• Bring the target to life

• Write as if you’re describing a real individual



• Don’t forget that a target description must be focused

• Broad target definitions leave the creative team feeling clueless

• Describe the target’s lifestyle, needs, attitudes, hopes, desires, fears, opinions of the brand, etc…

• Clearly identify whether the target is a current user, non-user, loyal user, lapsed user, heavy user, light user, etc…

• Spend time unearthing and digging for insights about the target



• Good example – Cold sufferers. You know how you feel when you’ve got a cold – that pathetic little inner child of yours suddenly wakes up and, before you know it, you’re moaning and whining, you’ve gone all wimpy and sniveling; red puffy eyes, pale skin, lank hair – everything seems to be sagging! You feel like something from a Salvador Dali painting; you want to snuggle up in bed and – Dammit – you want your Mommy! But it’s not fair, is it, because no one else takes your suffering seriously. “Pull yourself together man – we’re not talking leprosy here! Don’t be such a baby. Get on with it and stop moaning!”



• Gee. Your instincts tell you to be a child, but you’re not allowed to because you’ve “only” got a cold. And worse still – oh cruel irony! – even your attempts to retain your adulthood in the midst of your suffering betrays that sniveling little inner child of yours: “oh don’t worry about me, I’ll be alright ..”; “no, no, please, I don’t want to sound like a martyr..”. I’m sorry, but when you’ve got a cold, you’re doomed to become a Child-Adult!

THE CREATIVE BRIEF

How do we want them to describe the brand – how would they talk about its essence and personality?

• A reformulation in consumer words of the essence and personality quadrants of the brand circle

• Don’t use client lingo such as, “McDonald’s offers you a great time and great taste.” That’s not the way consumers talk!

THE CREATIVE BRIEF

• Good example – Johnnie Walker Red makes me bigger. Pushes boundaries back, connects me to an adventurous world where I can burn brighter.

• Good example – Vick’s knows how I feel when I’ve got a cold. It’s like your mom when you were a kid – full of warm human understanding and able to put everything right.

How do we want them to describe the brand – how would they talk about its essence and personality?

THE CREATIVE BRIEF

How do we want them to describe the brand – how would they talk about its essence and personality?)

• Bad example – Lighty is the new sunflower oil which will make my fried food lighter than ever. It’s as light as a sunflower.

THE CREATIVE BRIEF

What’s the single most important thing we want them to take out of this advertising?

• Should clearly indicate what the ad is trying to evoke

• One thought!

• Heart of the brief which all other sections revolve around

• Should embody a motivating connection between a relevant human need and a key brand benefit

• Should clearly fulfill the profile written in “who are we talking to”

THE CREATIVE BRIEF

What’s the single most important thing we want them to take out of this advertising? (cont’d)

• Good example – Johnnie Walker Red fires up your spirit.

• Good example – Vicks mothers the child in all of us.

• Good example – Mercedes. Serenity

• Bad example – Al Marai is tasty, tasty, tasty; and fresh

• Good example – Danish Light Beer. Beer without the belly

• Bad example – Savola. The light way to fry (insight???)

THE CREATIVE BRIEF

How can we make this believable?

• Why we feel our target should respond to the SMP* Can be rational supports – facts about how the brand is better than

or different from competition (real or perceived, performance or brand character)

* Can be emotional supports – the insights about consumer needs which the brand can be positioned to fulfill

• List only those key supports that are directly relevant to your promise

THE CREATIVE BRIEF

How can we make this believable? (con’t)

• Good example – Reduced calories and carbohydrates (only 3.5% alcohol content as opposed to 5% among regular beers). Danish Light is proven to be less filling. It also comes from the stable of Carlsberg Brewery (one of the world’s best).

• Good example – No cereal has more wheatbran fiber than Kellogg’s All-Bran. One small bowl contains as much fiber as 6 bananas or ¾ lb baked beans or 16 prunes or 7 slices of brown bread.

THE CREATIVE BRIEF

Is there anything else worth thinking about that might help us get to great creative work?

• Don’t list out “nice to know facts” here

• If what you list out does not enhance creativity, it has no business being here

• This section if written well, can enable a creative person to make a creative leap

• This is an opportunity for an account/brand person to put on a creative cap

THE CREATIVE BRIEF

Is there anything else worth thinking about that might help us get to great creative work?

• Good example – The tonality of the advertising is potent, inspiring and instinctive. Red Label reflects the value of men whom the course of life has not always run smooth, but who never give up, and are particularly admired – John Travolta, Boris Becker, Roberto Baggio.

THE CREATIVE BRIEF

Are there any executional mandatories?

• Best kept to an absolute minimum

• Absolute client mandatories should be included, but not “so-called” mandatories based on opinion

• Try to convert demands of “how it will be said” into discussions of “what we are aiming to convey”

• Could include brand equities

• Could also include budget reference, a specific campaign format or media vehicle

THE CREATIVE BRIEF

Are there any executional mandatories?

• Good example - Johnny Walker Red is the world’s number one whisky. The brand must behave with authority and stature. The campaign will run across European Markets and must be capable of transcending cultural boundaries.

• Good example – Sassoon swing hairshot to visualize body and bounce. Show stylish, aspirational women.

HOW IS THE BRAND ESSENCE TRANSLATED INTO THE CREATIVE BRIEF?

If a brand’s Essence is ‘Funny’, then the role of the creative work is to tell us the joke that will

lead us to conclude that the brand is funny

i.e.,

• The Brand Essence is not the same thing as the creative proposition

• The creative work needs to leave the viewer with a clear sense of the Brand Essence; it needs to enable the viewer to conclude what the Essence is

• The style and tone of voice of the creative work needs to be consistent with the brand’s various attributes

ON THE BRIEF

Brand Essence

‘how do we want them to describe this brand - how would they talk about its essence and its personality?’

But,

Don’t just copy the essence statement! Bring it to life!

The Personality Quadrant can, obviously, be helpful

ON THE BRIEF

Functions& Perfor-

mance

Should be evident in how we talk about the ‘target audience’

Source of Authority &

Perfor-mance

Will tend to inform what goes into the ‘what support do we have’ box

Documents

Creative Brief-How To