I stumbled across a quote recently from legendary ad agency founder Pat Fallon:
“If the creative brief is not itself creative, what right do its authors have to expect anything different?”
The brief is often treated as a formality or a tick-box exercise, rather than one of the most important tools in a marketer’s toolkit. A brief is frequently the opposite of brief, as an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink catch-all. The creative team is left to guess where to start and where to focus.
Briefing creative work is a classic situation of “garbage in, garbage out.”
I had a chance to work with the founders of BetterBriefs on a cartoon collaboration. BetterBriefs commissioned the first global study on briefs, and one of their findings in particular is striking:
“78% of marketers believe their briefs provide clear strategic direction. Only 5% of agencies agree.”
They revealed a chasm between marketers and their creative partners that both sides can help bridge. Marketers can learn to prioritize writing better briefs and agencies can learn to insist on them.
The status quo of briefs is such a low bar that investment in this area can stand out. “A” briefs inspire “A” creative work. “B” briefs inspire “B” creative work. And so on.
Particularly in an era of budget cuts, marketing needs to punch harder than its weight. Investing in exceptional briefs can lead to exceptional creative that can do just that.
Here are a few related cartoons I’ve drawn over the years:
