on briefing
TRANSCRIPT
ON
BRIEFING.
A PLANNER’S VIEW.
panos papadopoulos, january 2015
There are two kinds of brief Sid.
Fuck, there are two kinds of everything.
The clienT’s brief
It’s rare
It’s confusing
It’s overloaded
And yet, there’s one thing it never is.
Useless
It is an open door to the client’s frustrations. Their agonies.
And it often signals the way we should go, strategically.
The client is often unwilling –or unable- to clearly articulate their dos and don’ts, their wishes, their desires.
So it takes a bit of deciphering, a bit of decoding, reading between the lines.
We all know how to do that, don’t we? Our lives are a constant game of “show & tell”. Educated guesswork.
Without empathy no one goes far.
She’s so into me.
If he doesn’t stop talking about himself, I’ll show him a set of clean heels.
All we need to do is put our Whys next to the right parts. From then on, it’s educated guesswork.
It also helps if we look for irregularities. For non-sequiturs. For anything that deviates from the pattern of the client’s logic. These often raise red flags regarding things we must pay attention to.
OK, we did our bit. We decoded the client’s brief. We figured out what the client meant but did not say.
Now, it’s time to forward the client’s brief to the creatives, right?
WRONG
The creative brief
Stating the obvious: the client’s brief can only serve as fuel for the creative brief.
Just as the creative brief serves as the springboard for the creative work.
The creative brief must must help creatives navigate toward a clear objective. And it must be a clear statement of intent: we are here to do mind-blowing work.
Talented creatives need 3 things to do mind-blowing work.
informationdirectioninspiration
direction
Do we really need to ‘direct’ anyone in this business?After all we are big boys & girls.
:Yes we do.
Project overload dictates that creatives must be helped to cut through the clutter.
A brief is a compass. It tells the creatives whether there is a path that leads to great creative work.
Or whether they are doomed to be lost in the creative wilderness, once again.
Our direction needs to strike a fine balance between ‘narrow’ and ‘broad’.
Narrow enough to point to a clear direction.Broad enough to allow the creatives some breathing space.
Briefing tools such as the ‘campaign idea’, the ‘big idea’, the ‘message’ serve exactly this purpose.
They aim at giving the work a sense of direction.
This sense of direction is at the core of every strategic endeavor. After all, strategy is about roadmapping. The need for strategy is the need for a compass. For an angle of attack. For a well-lit path to a predefined objective.
In the brief, direction should be simple. Concise. Elegant. It should be boiled down to a simple message, as catchy and direct as a T-shirt quote.
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information
Information is the backbone of a brief.
What’s the story of our brand? Which category? What does the competition look like? What is the business objective? What are the various & sundry of the project?
The client’s brief can be a good source of info. Some desktop research is often required to spice up the details.
The question remains: how much info is enough?
To be sure, how about we put in the brief all the info we can get our hands on? All that seems even remotely relevant to our project? We can get all the info from the client’s brief, add a bit of our own and serve it as a full-fat meal complete with dessert and beverages.
Right?
WRONG
The answer to how much information is “as much as required by the direction”.
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inspiration
It’s the most self-evident part of the brief.Without inspiration, direction and information are pointless.
And yet it’s the one most often left out.
Inspiration is not just a part of the brief.
It begins with the first word and flows long after the brief is done. Everything about a brief must be inspired, and therefore inspiring.
Inspiration should be the combined result of passionate writing and mind-opening stimuli.
Go all the way. Show the creatives that this project is worthy of their love and passion.
disclaimers
A good brief is rarely –if ever- the product of a single mind, no matter how enlightened.Try to use others as sounding boards and active contributors – colleagues from other disciplines are especially useful.
1.MAKE IT A GROUP EFFORT
2.INVOLVE THE CREATIVES
Always discuss the brief thoroughly with the creatives before finalizing it. Their feedback will enrich the brief, might even stir it in the right direction. Added to that, getting everyone on board early in the process always helps forge a tighter and a more determined team.
Brief-writing is a form of creative writing, albeit one that’s disciplined & well-structured. Write briefs you’d appreciate receiving. Clear, precise, and, yeah, brief. These are the basic qualities of every well-thought-out brief; after all, we want to help the creatives produce astounding work, not show-off our Shakespearean prowess in verbal flourishes.
3.WALK A MILE IN THEIR SHOES
. A brief is not just a procedural document. It is –or rather, must be- the outpurring of the writer’s sensitivities. A mirror of his ambition, his courage, his passion. Write with a clear head and an open heart. Write like you mean business.
Every brief marks the start of an unexpected journey. Every brief is a chance to make history.
4.IF YOU DO NOT ENJOY WRITING IT, THEY WILL NOT ENJOY WORKING ON IT
A great brief always begins at the end of your comfort zone.
panos is an errant planner, always in search
of the next brief
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