A look at current perspectives on the creative brief

1. The Creative Brief Project Day 3 Thoughts and Findings Prepared by: Ed Cotton-BSSP/Influx @cotton February 2010

2. Contents The Creative Brief Project Methodology Recommendations Core Themes The Brief is Fundamental The Brief Needs A Re-Model It’s Not About the Brief Things to Think About Next

3. The Creative Brief Project On an on-going conversation about the stimulus and inspiration of creativity Open to all, conducted in and proliferated via social media

5. Objective Understand the current relevancy of the creative brief, the physical form and in so doing, learn more about the importance of the process. Establish a domain on Twitter to continue the conversation #creativebriefproject

6. Methodology Highly un-scientific Social conversation-via-Twitter and blogs 72 hours of feedback

7. This Deck Provides recommendations and an overview of the input to date Shares core themes Quotes and commentary from contributors Uncovers the areas that need further development and discussion

8. The Start Point

9. The Conversation

10. Recommendation Old World New World Collaborate and Converse Over Possibilities Standardized Brief Co-Authored Non-Standard Brief Some conversations Briefing Presentation Multiple and Constant Conversations Work Work

11. Recommendations The brief isn’t dead, but Planning leaders should take a long-hard look at their briefing documents and make sure they are still relevant. Maybe multiple brief formats are required The communication world has changed, briefs need to reflect those changes- social ideas/social media/connectivity/WOM/Interactions 3. Emphasis should be placed and training given to ensure that all briefs are clear, well written and tell a powerful, single-minded story that functions as a start point

12. Recommendations 4.The brief should be co-authored with senior creatives to codify a single-minded story at a specific moment in time 5. The brief needs to be turned into a briefing presentation- a discipline and art in itself 6. There needs to be a process that allows the story to evolve with collaborative conversations post-brief-how does this get documented? 7.Energy, thought and design needs to placed the pre-briefing stage in order to develop a collaborative forum to discuss multiple possibilities/opportunities

13. Recommendations 8. We spend time understanding our client’s target audiences- why don’t we spent time constantly understanding creative needs- micro and macro? 9. Find a way to manage the multiple and expanding creative conversations

14. Core Beliefs

15. 1. The Brief is Fundamental

16. Directions Matter More Than Ever

17. I come back to the brief as "What we want you to do", and frankly I'm not fussed about how long it is or what the format might be. The objective is to get people with insight and the capacity for original thought to actually spend quality time thinking about the client's challenge, and set the direction from which everything else flows.”PlannerRick

18. “But amongst the vast digital media of actions, we now need a clear articulation of what the heck we want people to do with our brand ideas. We need a brief that guides brand action and user participation, we need briefs guided by verbs. We need briefs that are robust enough to address action throughout a myriad of media..” Aki Spicer

19. “A well thought out brief will pave the way for great work: Print, Digital, Social or otherwise. Anyone who sees this document as a mere from to fill out should consider a career change. A great brief inspires, aligns, sets expectations, scratches below the surface, seeks truths, dismisses fluff and works as a compass to guide a group as they collaborate to solve a problem.”Posted by Bernard Urban on 02/09/2011 07:15 PM

20. “the (written) brief is a useful tool for gaining alignment with clients or even other agencies.”Posted by Mark Lewis on 02/10/2011 01:53 AM

21. “Get a decent writer and people will read with passion and yearn for more.”Mikkomikko

22. “A creative brief is only ever as good as the person writing it.”roymurphy

23. “We love information and insight. We can always filter, we can always re-shape, but a creative who doesn't want clear direction isn't a creative”Mikkomikko

24. “In fact, in all the new confusion of technology and shortening deadlines and multimedia deployments the brief is more vital than ever. The brief/briefing is meant to articulate what the heck we're doing. Knowing what the heck we're doing should never die.” Aki Spicer

25. 2. The brief needs a re-model

26. Stop Lazy Form-Filling “Planners are to blame for this. We've become a species of habit. I believe if the creatives are going to be handed a physical document (read:creative brief) at the end of the day, can we at least explore different formats?... think as planners, we need to shake off our laziness and almost clockwork-like tendency to start typing out a brief in a Word doc - the creatives are not going to get inspired by mere 'plannerisque' smart text anymore.”Posted by Wesley-Anne Rodrigues on 02/08/2011 04:35 PM

27. Briefs Need to be Customized “I believe the primary purpose of the brief and briefing is to simultaneously inspire and focus creativity. Therefore, no brief should ever look and feel the same as the last or the next. The questions and format should be tailor made to address the different brand, audience, objective and so forth for each campaign. Keep the team involved and on their toes.” Posted by Caitlin McRobbie on 02/08/2011 07:03 PM

28. “It’s based on an antiquated view of how communication works and how culture operates” Gareth Kay

29. 3. It’s not about the brief

30. What goes on around the brief, matters more than the brief itself

31. Brief Writing Wastes Time “In "Truth, Lies & Advertising" Jon states, "I was only able to find four of those briefs. There was a simple reason I could not find the others - there was no such thing as the 'original' brief. They had never been written...Until the day comes when we put creative briefs in consumer magazines or run them in the Superbowl, I think the time spent noodling over detail in a brief is wasted time. Well, perhaps not entirely wasted, but it could at least be better spent. Posted by Shaydon Armstrong on 02/09/2011 06:54 AM

32. “Ostensibly the brief was created so that planner and creative could work together. But, I wonder if the brief isn't a relic of architecture, when the planning department and the creative department were on different floors and paper work was shuffled along in cubby holes or by a nice fellow with a rolling cart. I made it several years working in creative agencies and startups before I ever wrote a brief, or saw one, actually. Posted by Bud Caddell on 02/09/2011 05:25 PM

33. It’s All About the Briefing “You produce something that inspires them to play." ? It is much more about the briefing than the brief.”Posted by samjoseph on 02/09/2011 03:52 PM

34. “In terms of writing the brief Bud and Heidi Hackemer (see her slideshare "Ideas, Ideas, Ideas") have it nailed - the strategic idea comes out of good discussion and idea generation with creatives.”Posted by Mark Lewis on 02/10/2011 01:53 AM

35. Understand the Fragility of Creativity The Brief Can Be Blunt and Brutal

36. Briefs Can Kill the Conversation “I showed up to a meeting at a big soda brand where we were supposed to begin the creative process with a few key teams - another agency started the meeting by pushing over their 1-page, 8-point font, clusterfuck of a brief in a "BOOM" sorta way. The conversation went nowhere for an hour”Posted by Bud Caddell on 02/09/2011 05:25 PM

37. “Creativity is the most essential strength of the agency, so the challenge shouldn't be passed like a football, it should be gently coddled like a newborn baby.”Posted by Bud Caddell on 02/09/2011 05:25 PM

38. “Creativity is always a process, the Brief often assumes that it's simply a matter of stating objectives. That's crucial, but it isn't creativity. If it's your thing, by all means, follow your process, but don't let process rule interaction.”Posted by Bud Caddell on 02/09/2011 05:25 PM

39. How Does Your Idea Get Owned by Someone Else?

40. “After we get together, the creative team often leaves, thinks on the challenge themselves, asks incredible questions, sometimes starts over - in other words, they do make it their own.”Posted by Bud Caddell on 02/09/2011 05:25 PM

41. “In my experience, the actual written brief was a lot less important than the idea exchange in multiple conversations between the planner and the creative team. That's where the sparks are”jwillingpichs

42. Things to Think About Next What is the pre-brief, brief/briefing? How does it work? Does the classic format need updating? How? Should there be multiple formats? How do you manage multiple conversations with extended creative teams? Do we really understand the different needs of the different creative disciplines? Should conversations be live/changeable documents? Can we use technology to do this? Do Planners need to go to creative writing school? Do they need to study drama?

43. Check out Bud’s awesome thinking on creative collaborationhttp://www.slideshare.net/bud_caddell/how-do-you-design-for-creativity

44. add ideas via Twitter to #creativebriefproject