Briefing creative agencies

Résumé du document

Firstly, it is important to note that there is little published material to help advertisers brief agencies as briefing media agencies are rather different, though much of the required information is common. Advertisers brief agencies to obtain creative solutions for communication problems. How the agency arrives at the solution is not important to them, but a better understanding of what agencies are looking for could improve the quality of the briefs. Creative agencies have equivocal attitudes towards the advertisers' briefs. They want to be informed, guided and challenged but not to be set impossible tasks or drowned in paperwork. They welcome briefs that will inspire their creative talents and will invariably make a considerable effort to translate the brief into their own preferred style. Since the rise of account planning as an agency discipline, agencies have seen the development of the creative brief as part of the planner's craft, a specialized skill that separates good planners from the less good. Agencies do not trust clients to produce fully crafted creative briefs.

Extraits

[...] In addition, the brief should provide details of how results are to be evaluated, both in terms of specific targets and the methodology of evaluation Finally, they need a timetable preferably with room to do the job properly, though miracles can be achieved (12). Inspiration 'Write a terrific brief and sell the company to the agencies. You want to be a favourite client' referring to pitch situations). It is far from easy to offer the inspiration that will encourage the agency to do its very best to answer the brief. Money helps, but ideas are far better. [...]

[...] What do agencies want? To an extent, this must be inferred from what agencies say about the briefs they receive, since there is little published 'How to brief the agency' material. It is clear from recent research that the ideal is to have both written and verbal briefings. This provides a recorded statement that both sides can buy into, and the opportunity for the agency to raise issues, question and clarify. Arguably, the brief should be developed as a joint client–agency effort 17). [...]

[...] A good brief defines what a communication (or campaign) is expected to deliver the targets it should achieve, how it is expected to achieve them, and why they are important. It should avoid confusion 'assumptions, muddles and woolliness' It should provide the necessary background understanding about the brand and its situation to inform creative development. The scale and detail will vary according to whether the relationship between client and agency is new or established The information in a comprehensive new brief could be organised broadly as shown in the accompanying box. [...]

[...] It is easy to make briefs unrealistic. Advertising, in particular, works best when it is trying to communicate an essentially simple message 13). The agency will want to translate the core of the brief into a short, single-minded proposition statement; it will not want to be instructed to include, in a short TV commercial, seven different unique selling points (USPs) (10). Genuine USPs are a rare breed, in these days of parity–product competition, and if your brand has one, it is very lucky. [...]

[...] Creative agencies have equivocal attitudes towards advertisers' briefs. They want to be informed, guided and challenged but not to be set impossible tasks or drowned in paperwork. They welcome briefs that will inspire their creative talents but will, invariably, make a considerable effort to translate the brief into their own preferred style (see warc.com's Best Practice paper on creative briefing). Since the rise of account planning as an agency discipline, agencies have seen the development of the creative brief as part of the planner's craft, a specialised skill that separates good planners from the less good. [...]