The topic of the creative brief is not a sexy one. The creative brief is that boring, mentally-draining tool by which the agency captures the strategy of the campaign from the client.
As an agency, we don’t always do a good job of stressing how important this one little Word document is. With impossible deadlines, busy schedules and pressure from leadership, we don’t want to further complicate our clients’ lives by insisting that we all slow down to hash out the brief.
We get as much information as possible and when we’ve reached the client’s limits on knowledge and patience, we forge ahead. Usually we know our clients well enough that we can hit the mark. But we should always strive for better, more insightful input so that we can deliver successful and targeted creative for every campaign.
This is not just our unique struggle, it is an industry-wide challenge, one that’s been around since the beginning of ad time. We thought it was old news, so we were surprised to see two recent columns posted on this topic on AdAge.com. From the number of responses, it seems the subject is just as relevant as ever.
Marketers, Quit Blaming Your Agency – It’s Your Brief at Fault
by Rupal Parekh
May 23, 2011
Agencies should demand better briefs from their clients
by Matt McDermott
May 27, 2011
We can relate to the sentiments of both authors and many of the comments generated. The responsibility lies with both the client and the agency to set a framework for success, and this means taking time on the front end to really understand who we are talking to, what we are saying and what the key market influences will be.
As marketing vehicles constantly change and evolve in the digital age, one thing remains the same in the advertising world, we’re only as good as the creative brief.
easthouse
