A guide to writing great creative communication

briefs

2015

Thomas Bunnell

I wrote this guide to act as a useful reference when creating inspiring and well-crafted creative briefs. It’s not definitive, nor is it necessarily intended to bring anything revelatory to the topic but is instead aimed at codifying some useful ideas and advice on the subject.

The purpose of this document

This guide takes the view that the role of the creative brief is to act as a tool to inspire imaginative responses to problems. Its value is relative to the truth and clarity that lies behind its constitute parts and although every agency will have their own version of the creative brief, most tend to fit on one page and include the following sections:

1.The challenge – the problem we need to solve. 2.The target consumer – the people who is the target of the communication.3.The insight – the surprising truth surrounding human behaviour that is relevant to

solving the problem.4. The brand/product truth – the feature or attribute that provides value. 5.The creative proposition – the key thought that pushes the solution process in

the right direction.

This guide helps explain each area and offers some tips and advice on how they are best developed.

The role of the creative brief

#1The challenge

The ‘challenge’ or ‘problem’ is the start point to a brief, and is the foundation on which to build a strategy. As such, it is paramount that this is accurately identified because it dictates all subsequent processes and what any output will work towards solving. As the saying goes ‘a problem defined is a problem half solved’. The challenge should outline what is stopping a brand from achieving its business objective. For example, if a biscuit brand’s business objective is to ‘increase the number of people buying biscuits’, the challenge might be that people currently don’t perceive the brand of biscuits as being nutritious. It may also be because people see the biscuits as being a kids brand and therefore not for them. Or it might be because they see the biscuit brand as being only for special occasions. Solutions will naturally differ depending on the challenge. As such, it’s important that the brief accurately identifies what is the challenge, which can be achieved through robust research. Some common mistakes when writing the challenge are either relaying the business objectives (such as ‘drive sales’) or outlining a basic pre-requisite (like ‘increase awareness’) both of which fail to provide any sense of analysis on the actual challenge and are unlikely to lead to a meaningful creative solution.

The challenge

#2The target consumer

The target consumer (or audience) is simply the group of people whose perception or behaviour needs to be changed. This group will often be the ones that provide the biggest opportunity for growth or show the greatest proclivity for loyalty.

Within this section of the brief, a target consumer may include an outline of age, socio demographics, or mind-set, but the key thing to remember is that a target consumer definition should be clear, tightly defined, and above all, feel real and identifiable. This will not only help when generating rich insights but will also allow solutions to have focus and depth – broad vague definitions often result in solutions that fail to meaningfully connect with anyone.

Although target consumer definitions need to capture the most salient and significant details, they don’t need to be extensive. Strategists often use an appendix as a place to provide deeper and richer target consumer information.

The target consumer

#3The insight

An insight is a surprising truth surrounding human behaviour that also explains the drivers of that behaviour or action. By understanding human behaviour through an insight we’re able to identify a meaningful role and value a brand or product can offer, which in turn can help form the basis of a communications strategy.This may sound simple but sharp, effective, game changing insights are not only hard to find, they can often be mistaken or misconstrued. Common failings of a creative brief is when an insight is substituted by an observation or fact. In both these instances, such insights tend to lack an explanation of why a human behaviour exists or fails to provide any depth that makes it distinctive or revelatory – both of which are key requirements of a powerful insights.In this way, an insight is something that’s personable, human, and identifiable - specifically for the target consumer.

The insight

#4The brand/product truth

A brand or product truth is a feature or attribute. It is sometimes defined as a proof point, reason to believe, or a unique selling point (USP), and is what target consumers look to in order to understand the value gained by buying or interacting with the brand. In this sense it’s not always something tangible (like a new flavour or the resolution of a TV screen) but it can be conceptual like an organisational philosophy, set of values, or a vision.

The one key requirement of a brand/product truth is that above all, it is a real truth. A failing to alight on something real will leave solutions hollow or meaningless. Or worse still, if the truth is in fact false, will lead to dishonest solutions that that can be more damaging for companies. Brands and products are likely to carry multiple truths, and alighting on the one that’s most appropriate will usually fall out of an understanding of the challenge and whether it meaningfully addresses it, as well as an understanding of whether it is a truth that is unique to the brand or compelling for the target consumer.

In some instances, the brand/product truth will be self-selecting, as most products and services will look to address a human need that is currently not being provided for within the category, or one has been improved upon.

The brand/product truth

#5The creative proposition

The creative proposition usually ends up getting the most attention in any creative brief, and is the sentence that is amended again and again in order to ensure it’s clear, coherent, and inspiring.

The creative proposition bridges the insight with the brand/product truth, in a way that’s relevant to the challenge – helping to spur the solution process in the right direction. It is also used as the barometer as to the whether or not creative solutions are strategically on point. The phrase ‘does this creative idea answer to the proposition’ is a recurring question during a creative review. 

Different strategists have different schools of thought on how a creative proposition should be expressed. Some will stress that the brand name or product should always be present within the proposition, others demand both an emotional and functional benefit needs to be outlined. Some prefer to use eloquent language whilst others opt for more colloquial phrases. There are lengthy propositions, descriptive propositions, concise propositions, flowery propositions, blunt propositions, and detailed propositions…

The creative proposition

…These stylistic differences tend to be a result of different strategic backgrounds as well as the nature and requirements of the brief itself. Strategists will argue to the cows come home about what type of articulation is right, but ultimately, a creative proposition is there to serve the creative solution and strategic approach. Thus, one of the measurements of success is going to be how well it resonates with the solutions team and how effective it is in outlining an approach to a challenge.

I believe that at a very basic level, a brand should play an active role within the proposition and that there should be a consumer benefit tied to an implicit goal. Equally important, a proposition needs to be exciting and help make great lateral leaps during the creative process.

The creative proposition cont’d:

#6The creative proposition

checklist

Ten things to consider when reviewing your creative proposition…

1. Can the proposition be supported? Within an effective proposition there should always be clear line of sight to the consumer insight and a brand/product truth in a way that responds to the marketing task.

2. Is it clear what we want consumers to do, think or feel?This might be present within other areas of the brief but an effective proposition should allude to what the resultant consumer action needs to be.

3. Is there one clear single minded idea at the heart? Trying to get a proposition to do several different things is usually a result of a lack of clarity around the marketing challenge and the priority.

4. Does it make sense to others? A discussion with another strategist or a creative will not only allow you to road test the proposition, it might also help you build upon your thinking and refine the thought and expression.

5. Does it excite you? If you’re not excited by the proposition it’s unlikely that anyone else will be, making it harder to yield any exciting work from the creative process. 

The creative proposition checklist

6. Can you think of more than one big idea off of the proposition? A good test for whether a creative proposition is working hard enough is whether you yourself can see multiple ideas.

7. Is it a proposition or a strapline? When circling ideas for propositions, it’s easy to get carried away and jump to solutions which often take the form of a strapline. A strapline does not necessarily outline a clear emotional benefit of using a brand or service.

8. Can it be simplified? Memorable propositions tend to be pithy and whilst an adjective can help bring to life to a proposition, too many starts to dilute and provide a sense of uncertainty of what it is you’re trying to say.

9. Could it be applied to another brand?If the proposition could readily be applied to a competitor it’s probably because it is not distinctive enough.

10.Have you given it the overnight test? A fresh pair of eyes helps brings a renewed perspective.

The creative proposition checklist cont’d:

Thank you