Don’t Get Caught with Your Briefs Down

Hands up, who hates filling out forms? 

My personal view is that they often seem like the worst thing in the world. With such little time in our day already, filling out ‘basic’ information just seems pointless... However they are actually your guiding light in the darkest corner of your campaign’s journey.

If, like me, you have spent the last decade or so in a marketing/creative role, you will have most likely taken on a wider, more hands-on remit then when you started. One of the first entrepreneurs I had the pleasure of working with would often say, “Your job is to keep the plates spinning. Inevitably they will crash but it’s your job to prioritise the most important ones and keep them going.” What was great about his approach is that he addressed the fact that mistakes are a part of life, however learning from them and preventing them, as best we can, is the difference between a successful campaign and a failure. Building on his analogy, the Briefing Form is a safety net for some of your most important ‘plates’.

I’ve been in a number of meeting rooms where the creative teams, either internal or external, have pitched an idea that is based on preference rather than objective. The worrying thing about these pitches is they can often be brilliant! Enthusiasm and a well-positioned deck can lead all of us down the wrong creative road. However, if you have taken the time to complete a briefing form prior to these meetings, in which you identify everything from budget to expected ROI, brand guidelines to the creative tone, then these hyped and entertaining pitches will never deviate from the intention of the project.

Today’s Insight film continues the Briefing Form theme and looks at the art of writing a good brief. Seasoned strategy director Ayo Hughes and senior producer Marie Ann Morrell present ‘Brief Encounters’.