Sir John Hegarty, founder of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, famously said:
“Writing bad briefs is the most expensive way to write advertising.”
The sentiment applies to any form of creative communication and any type of brief. How we brief creative partners is as important as the talent of those creative partners. Writing a truly great brief is a force multiplier of creativity.
And yet the briefing process is very often treated as an afterthought or a tick box exercise.
A couple years ago, I had a chance to collaborate with Pieter-Paul von Weiler and Matt Davies, ex-agency strategists on a mission to improve briefs. They started a company called BetterBriefs that conducted the first global study in how briefs work in practice. This stat blew my mind (yet also rings true):
“78% of marketers believe their briefs provide clear strategic direction. Only 5% of agencies agree.”
With so many aspects of marketing out of a marketer’s direct control (budgets, cross-functional teams, competitive landscape, etc.), the brief is one of the few levers fully in the marketer’s hands.
There’s a common misconception that creativity is stronger without limits. But constraints actually make creativity stronger. It gives direction to aim and raw material to work with. An unfocused or missing brief hamstrings creativity. A clear, inspiring brief helps our marketing work harder.
It’s incumbent on marketers to invest the time to write better briefs. And it’s incumbent on creative partners to push back on briefs that don’t make the grade.
Here are a few related cartoons I’ve drawn over the years:
