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How to Write a Creative Brief

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These are the slides from a workshop I delivered for the CIPR Scotland. It was a PR professionals workshop, meant to give them the skills to take a proper creative brief in order to, in turn, brief a designer to produce the creatives.

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Page 1: How to Write a Creative Brief
Page 2: How to Write a Creative Brief

WRITING A CREATIVE BRIEF

‘HOW TO HELP YOUR CLIENTS SPEAK CLEARLY’

CIPR ‘FRESH’ SERIES WORKSHOP - 30.4.13

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WHY DO YOU HAVE TO KNOW HOW TO WRITE A

BRIEF?

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WHAT IS A BRAND?

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A BRAND IS NOT...

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A BRAND IS...

• Integrity

• Knowledge

• Expertise

• Reliability

• Low cost

...how people feel about your company. Its a set of values that a company wants to attach itself to, e.g...

You’re asking for an emotional investment from your clients so in that respect, a brand is much more akin to a reputation because if you don’t engage them on some emotional level, you probably won’t get them as a client.

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“YOUR BRAND IS WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT YOU WHEN YOU’RE NOT IN THE ROOM”

JEFF BEZOS, CEO, AMAZON

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WHY A GOOD BRIEF IS ESSENTIAL

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WHY A GOOD BRIEF IS ESSENTIAL

• Knowledge - Clients will always know the most about their business so their insight will form the cornerstone of your brief.

• Reputation - You’re responsible for your clients brand so a good brief is essential to maintain their reputation. In doing so, you’re enhancing your own reputation with them,

• Speed - Ensures the project can move along with minimal hold ups.

• Education - Leading your client through this in a structured manner can be an eye opener and demonstrate your added value to them.

• Protection - A tight brief that everyone adheres to is your protection against those clients that always try and get something for nothing.

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WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DON’T TAKE A PROPER

BRIEF?

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TAKING THE BRIEF

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...DON’T DO THIS!

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THE BRIEFING PROCESS

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THE BRIEFING PROCESS

• Record everything - No matter how trivial you think it might be.

• How long should it be? - No more than 3 pages at most

• T.E.D. - Use Tell, Explain And Describe questions to get the best information.

• Be bold! - Don’t be afraid to ask difficult questions in order to find out the pertinent information.

• Progress through it in a specific order - By keeping a tight structure, you make sure nothing gets missed.

• Questions should be needs based - Always focus on discovering your clients needs as the project they are briefing you on needs to have some an end result.

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WRITING THE BRIEF

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SECTIONS

• Overview

• Inspiration

• Background

At Brightspace, we look at three main areas...

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OVERVIEW

• Full contact details - You MUST get all of these.

• Set project milestones - This ensures everyone involved knows when specific milestones need to be hit, keeping the project on time.

• Project description - Get the client to tell you, in their own words, exactly what they want you to do for them.

• Measuring effectiveness - What will success look like to your client?

• Deliverables - What are the specific elements that are to be designed, e.g. website, brochure etc.?

• Resources available - Do they have any existing images, copy already written etc. that you can utilise.

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INSPIRATION

• Brand voice - What values and tone of voice do you need to communicate?

• The client / service - Get the client to tell you, in their own words, about their service / product, more about their company etc.

• The project goals - What, specifically, do they want you to achieve?

• The audience - Your client SHOULD know about their audience and be able to tell you all. If they don’t, you might have to look at getting some market research done.

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MORE INSPIRATION

• How do you want the viewer to feel? - Moved? motivated? scared? warm and fuzzy?

• What do we want them to do as a result of this? - What action do you want them take? Be mindful of all the calls to action.

• Messages to communicate - Is there a single message thats more important to communicate than any other?

• Secondary messages? - Are there any? What are they?

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BACKGROUND

• Is this project part of a bigger marketing campaign? - What other marketing activities are they engaged in? What stage are they at with other activities.

• If yes, how does it fit in with the other activities? - Asking this can open dialogue that allows you to sell other services to your client.

• Current website and any social media links for reference

• Client / Competitors websites / social media links - Who are their competitors? Get the client to tell you about them in their own words.

• Budget - Hopefully the client has a budget in mind. They possibly won’t but try and get a figure from them though as this is about managing expectations (what they want) against reality (what they can afford).

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ADDITIONAL INFO

• Do they have corporate guidelines? - Its important to know as your designer doesn’t want to get halfway through the project to find out they have to start again because there are existing guidelines to follow.

• Are there any technical specs? - Same as above, there may be specific technical guidelines they have that need followed.

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WHAT NOW?

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WHAT NOW?

• Type up the brief carefully

• The client MUST sign and date it! - Remember, this is the clients acceptance of YOUR brief and before the project proceeds, they MUST sign it off.

• Give it to your designer to produce some amazing work! - Goes without saying!

• Follow it religiously - The signed and agreed brief should provide a number of touchpoints throughout the project that everyone should be aware of and adhere to.

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WANT TO KNOW MORE...

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WANT TO KNOW MORE?

• Seth Godin - www.sethgodin.com

• Win Without Pitching - www.winwithoutpitching.com

Websites

Books

• Design is a Job - Mike Monteiro

• How to Write an Inspired Creative Brief - Howard Ibach

• Six Thinking Hats - Edward de Bono

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THANK YOU!

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