It's all very well producing the perfect brief on paper but after all that work to get it right, what happens if it doesn't motivate your creative team?
Chris Whitson, planning partner at Stephens Francis Whitson, explores the different ways of making sure your team is just as enthusiastic and inspired as you are.
You've spent weeks sweating the strategy, liaising with the client, understanding the objectives and became ever more proficient in the finer elements of PowerPoint. Yet, it could all be for nothing if you don't get one more bit right. You see, the reality is that the vast majority of the work we do will only be judged by the consumer's reaction to the finished product. If the campaign fails to encourage them to do whatever it is you want them to do, it will ultimately be considered a failure.
It is far too simplistic to suggest that the success or failure of a campaign hinges on the creative product. Indeed, many direct marketing experts will tell you if you communicate the right offer to the right person at the right time, they will respond, regardless of the creative output. Maybe, but I'm not so sure.
Either way, you stand a much better chance of achieving success if the creative output is compelling and motivating. I've already said that I believe the creative brief to be the most important piece of paper in any agency. However, of equal importance is the briefing session itself. This is your chance to pass on all the great work you've done to the creative team. You've written the perfect brief but how do you brief it in? Here we'll go through some hints and tips that will help you run the perfect briefing session.
An uninspired creative team will produce uninspiring work
It seems a fairly obvious thing to say, but it's true. Remember, the members of the team you're briefing will undoubtedly have numerous briefs on their desks at the same time, all vying for attention. How do you convince them to put yours at the top of the pile?
1. Try breaking with the status quo. Too many briefs happen at the creative team's desk in a snatched five minutes between meetings. It's hard to inspire a team like this. Make the briefing an event. Make it feel like the most important thing you have to do today. It's key to get the team members away from their ongoing work; if you don't they are likely to be thinking about something other than your brief.
2. Dress the room: give the team visual clues to the challenge. Showing how competitors position the same product can help a great deal. There is nothing a creative team likes better than a bit of healthy competition - if you show them someone else's work they'll try and better it - especially if it's brilliant!
If you don't care, why should they?
One of the greatest crimes in a briefing is to lack enthusiasm for the brief. If it looks like you've cobbled the brief together in five minutes and you spend the same time briefing the team, why should you expect them to do anything different?
1. Never apologise for a brief. OK, it's true not all briefs are equal: a pan-European brand launch may be slightly more engaging than a rate-change mailing, but it doesn't mean it's not as important to the client's business. I've often heard a planner or an account handler start a briefing with the sentence: 'I'm sorry, it's not the most exciting job and we've got no time on this one.' Never fall into this trap; you've just given the creative team licence to spend five minutes on it and move on. I can guarantee that you'll be disappointed with the end product.
We can all read
The creative brief is designed to be an aide-memoire to the brief itself. You should hardly refer to it in the brief itself. There is nothing more excruciating than watching a bunch of people sit round a table while the brief is read out word for word.
1. Consider sending the brief to the team in advance (24 hours not five minutes) and ask them all to read it in advance of the meeting. You'll have a much more productive conversation and a much more engaged team.
Put them in the consumer's shoes
It's crucial you find a way to bring the product and the audience to life for the team. If you don't you'll end up with their interpretation of it, which may not be the same thing.
1. If the product is a physical place (a hotel, a bank, a retailer) do the briefing there. That way the team can see first hand what the product is and how the target market interacts with it.
2. Try going to a place full of your target market: Targeting white van man? How about breakfast in your local greasy spoon? Teenage girls? Spend some time in your nearest Topshop. OK, these two are pretty crass stereotypes, but a quick piece of TGI analysis to determine your target market's favourite supermarket or department store may be a worthwhile exercise.
What does success looks like?
The truth is there is no definitive guide to good briefing. All the above hints and tips boil down to the same raw ingredient: effort. If you put the effort in then you are much more likely to inspire your team. I always give myself one marker of success. If everyone in the team is scribbling ideas down and encouraging me to leave as we near the end of the briefing, I know I've done a good job: they're already fired up and itching to get started. The perfect result. Good luck!