Wearing my creative briefs

A member of my team was questioning the creative brief.

She then began interviewing some people internally about what works and doesn't.

It's now blown out into a cool little investigation.

And she's not alone.

Dare put up a great deck on how to properly use the brief.

Creative Brief Workshop

I have to wonder if the problem is really how to best use a brief.

Is it really that "simple"?

Gareth Kay has one of the best slideshares on the digital creative brief I've ever seen.

I'd go so far as to say he believes the brief is broken.

I have to wonder if he is on to something.

The brief in the post digital age

What do you think of the creative brief?  Is it broken?  It is just misused?

(H/T to Paul for the slideshare finds!)

Comments

[Leigh]

ahem...allow me a ranty moment.....

The creative brief is a specific tool that has a specific purpose. Some of the best creative campaign work I've seen has been in part bc of a great (aka insightful) creative brief (or at least a great conversation that was ignited over the writing of a insightful creative brief).

However, they do not work for all things. (once again i get frustrated with the digital blogosphere's desire to compare apples to oranges - walking out of a film to marketing or advertising - wah? oh wait i forgot, we create art?? Andy Warhol not withstanding...)

If one is creating a new product. - creative brief probably won't work. If one is operationalizing a brand across an organization - thinking creative brief is not the right tool. Working through a customer experience pathway, again wrong tool.

Final note:

I would add two other things to Dare's reasons for writing creative briefs that I think are even more important than larity, brevity and fertility – which are focus and inspiration.

Final final note:

With all the focus on complexity, simple just really isn't getting the respect it deserves these days. Sometimes there are great reasons to strive for simple.

rant over. (for now...mooohahhahhha)

[Sean Howard]

Hey Leigh,

Thanks for the comment. I felt the Dare presentation did a great job at focusing on focus (single theme), inspiration and keeping it simple. I recommend downloading the presentation as he has full speaking notes included and it rocks. It gives a lot of context to what is being presented in the slides.

But I'm also wondering about the ability of a brief to drive sustainable action from our audiences. Much as you state a brief has a very specific purpose. No argument that great briefs can lead to great creative.

I am quite taken with Gareth's questioning around how so much has changed and yet our brief format has not.

[Leigh]

I actually think what we use the brief for has changed quite a bit. (It used to be used for pretty much everything and was central to all advertising)

Moreover, i think many people have created new frameworks and tools for things the brief (and older agency processes) no longer work for.

Many people (yourself included) I know have also enhanced and changed the way in which they work/create with teams after the briefing (dare i mention the 'design thinking' word heh ;).

So I guess what i'm questioning is all the questioning around the brief format. And I'm wondering if the brief isn't the issue but rather what we put into it (as per the Dare presentation), we use it for (right tool to solve the right challenge) and then how we go about creation as a result of it (collaborative multi-disciplinary teams, brainstorm techniques, etc.).