Related Posts
Rising Star
What is your best classroom management trick?
Conversation Starter
Additional Posts in Advertising
I don't wanna do it anymore
Worst boss? Let’s hear it
Every client, ever.
Whoever came up with Prince Chedward is my hero.
“My only concern is that...”
When someone in the creative department turns 40.
Worst bosses. And why. Go 👇
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
Good creatives always come up with their own brief.
Shots fired.
I like a good brief, most briefs are good to get client buy-in but not really formatted to inform creative
I fully agree. I'm a strategist and I refuse to deliver a brief that is more than one page long. I hate "get to by" though because it's lacking insight. But there are lots of other formats that allow a sharp insight and a concise takeaway. It shouldn't be that complicated.
But did you write a good brief?
Sounds good as long as you had a strong insight
Chief
When I get a good brief I re-read it once a day while concepting.
When I get a bad / not insightful brief I basically ignore it and find my own ways in.
Chief
Finding your own ways in doesn’t mean you don’t collaborate. And like someone said, it’s time consuming. If the briefing is not right, I focus on finding a solution rather than helping the account/strategist get to a better brief.
Most briefs I get come with insights like “nobody uses this product or knows it exists” so I have to come up with my own insight because that’s not helpful.
Lucky advertising
Rising Star
What does "cleaving to a concept more than the content" mean?
The content in a brief? The concept in the brief?
If by content do you mean mandatories and check lists in the brief?
What kinda output is the brief for, TV, video, activation, web copy, banner?
We read th brief. Whether the brief is insightful or actionable is a different thing altogether.
No, the content as in the business objective, the root problem, the target consumer—finding your own way in and missing these markers is not creative, it’s wasted time.
Not always tbh. And the blame is not always on whoever is writing the brief.
Sometimes we are just juggling a few projects, all on different stages (conception, production etc…) and something else falls on our lap. Most often than not, the brief is not for something with a real opportunity for amazing work, and we had read an infinite amount of briefs to get an idea of what to do. Sometimes we get it all wrong tho.
My advice is, be honest with yourself and your creatives. Not every project is going to be amazing . Manage your expectations according to assignment, budget etc… sometimes what excites you will not excite creatives, keep it very very short, and focus on the insight, if we need more info we’ll ask for it.
They should have to. It should be one line.
Yes, and you’d be surprised how many times CD’s change the ideas to be off strategy
When I find myself going off brief, it’s often because I’m looking for an insight to guide the big idea that has a true tension point that’s more unexpected and is topical in current conversation to help the campaign get press.
Chief
Good creatives follow the briefing if it’s a good one.
Good strategists/accounts are open to change the briefing if it’s a bad one.
If this happens a lot you’re either working with the wrong creatives or your briefings are bad.
Genuine question: when you get an uninspiring brief, do you push back or do you move on?
Depends where you fall in the eco-system. I lead Creative Services at a big media company and the Account Exec’s were terrified to push back on the media planners even when the brief literally said that they wanted out-of-the-box thinking several times but only had one page of dismal product facts. Not every campaign or team is going to be brilliant but every person every step of the way has the opportunity to make it better.
👏🏼
Little twist on this: I do not generally find creatives don’t follow briefs. I HAVE found on the brand side that sometimes if you are working with an agency on the customer research phase prior to a creative brief, they may latch onto findings they find more exciting areas for exploration than what the research actually shows customers think or believe. It takes discipline to get to the right place creatively, and the work has to be based on core truths. That obviously shouldn’t mean just parroting back to customers what they say (that’s way lazy), but it does mean that if they say what they really love about you is X, you don’t talk up Y just because YOU think it’s more fun. You find the most creative, compelling way to talk about X that there is.