We have received a wide range of briefs over the years – one-liner emails, quick telephone discussions with our own back-of-a-fag-packet notes, face-to-face meetings and detailed 20-page written documents. It’s not how the brief is delivered that I’m interested in… but rather the information included in the brief. When it comes to a campaign brief, the age-old saying of ‘the more you put in, the more you get out’, is definitely relevant.
When you consider that it’s called a ‘brief’, you can see why it’s easy to underestimate its importance. Yet the brief is the most important piece of information that a client can give its agency. Not only does it set the tone and indicate what type of response you expect, but the more information you include, the more it allows the agency to correctly interpret your campaign objectives and provide you with a fitting response.
While it doesn’t need to be oodles of pages long (in this instance you should stick to keeping it ‘brief’ – two to three pages, really), a written brief followed by an informal follow-up conversation usually deliver the best results. The document enables you to clearly set-out your objectives, budget, target audience, desired outcomes and how you expect to measure the results; it minimises the opportunity for misinterpretation and clearly defines your expectations.
Here is a quick checklist of the information a good written brief should include:
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Background on the company, relevant products and competitors: What are the USPs and key messages that you would like to focus on in the campaign?
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Your marketing and business objectives: What do you want to achieve with this campaign? How does this support your business objectives? What response do you hope to get from the target audience(s)?
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Your audience: Who do you want to target with this campaign? Do they already have any perceptions about your business or product that the agency should be aware of? If there are different audiences, what are the different messages you want to communicate to each of them?
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Campaign budget: Without some direction on what you’re planning to spend, the agency will find it hard to deliver a strategic, resourceful and creative response that will match both the brief and budget you have in mind. Equally, if your budget has not yet been set, then it is a good idea to explain this in your brief.
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Any preferred communication channels: With the plethora of communication channels available to communicate with your audience, a good agency will identify the ones it believes will deliver the best return on your marketing investment. However, if you already have a set of channels in mind, it is advisable to mention these in your brief so that the agency can tailor its response accordingly.
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Measurement: Do you have any existing campaign measurement tools or KPIs in place? If not, how do you plan to measure the success of the campaign and are you looking to the agency to suggest this as part of its response?
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Timings: It is essential for the agency to understand the timings of the campaign and any key milestone dates – whether these are events, product launches or other announcements – in between in order to propose the best campaign to deliver your objectives.
Although it might require a bit more time, thinking and energy to put together a clear and detailed brief for your next communications campaign, the response you’ll receive will be well worth the effort.