The creative brief. It’s the cornerstone of any successful marketing campaign. And yet, many marketers don’t use it effectively — or at all. Well, now there’s no excuse. Download this free creative brief template and start using it today.
Would you call up a home builder and say, “Hey, I need a house, can I have it next week”?
Of course you wouldn’t. Because it’s your house, built with your money, and you’d want to make absolutely sure the final product met your needs.
No doubt you’d also want to sit down with that builder to talk about things and make sure everyone knew exactly what you wanted.
Smart marketing teams work the same way. But instead of blueprints, they draw up their plans using a document called the creative brief.
In this blog post, we talk about the creative brief—what it is and why it’s so vitally important to your marketing communications process. Don’t forget to download a free creative brief template you can start using today.
(New for 2022: I’ve updated this creative brief template with some small tweaks, including a sample project schedule you can customize to your needs.)
The creative brief — frequently asked questions
Click a link to be taken to that section on this page.
- What is a creative brief?
- Why is the creative brief important?
- Who needs a creative brief?
- Who writes the creative brief?
- Who uses the creative brief?
- What makes a good creative brief?
- How long should a creative brief be?
- Does every job need a creative brief?
- What if I don’t have time to write a creative brief?
Jump to the free creative brief template download
What is a creative brief?
A creative brief is a document used by advertising agencies and in-house marketing departments to help the creative team (copywriters, graphic designers, and other creative and marketing communications professionals) deliver work that meets campaign objectives.
Think of the creative brief as a road map for producing successful work. Follow the sign posts and you’ll get to where you want to go.
Why is the creative brief important?
A good creative brief is Step One of an effective marketing production process. It’s the document that literally gets everyone on the same page.
The creative brief:
- Helps all team members understand your job — its purpose, strategy, audience, key messages, and deliverables.
- Informs your creative team’s thinking to help them hit as close to the mark as possible.
- Serves as the measuring stick against which every creative decision is judged.
- Keeps reviewers focused on business objectives rather than personal preferences during creative reviews and approvals.
- Helps keep jobs on schedule, costs under budget, and frustration to a minimum.
Who needs a creative brief?
You do if you want to create good work without pulling your hair out, missing a due date, or driving your team crazy.
Who writes the creative brief?
Creative briefs are usually written by account managers or project managers who work closely with job requestors to translate their vision into actionable information.
Creative briefs are often shared with the creative team at project kickoff meetings, where all aspects of the job are discussed and agreed upon. In some organizations, the creative brief is written or fine-tuned at the kickoff meeting with input from creative team members.
Who uses the creative brief?
Everyone involved in the production of a marketing communications project should use, and have input into, the creative brief:
- The agency or marketing team uses the creative brief to get approval from the client (job requestor) to start the job.
- The creative team uses the brief to quickly get up to speed on the job and understand what they are being asked to do.
- Everyone uses the creative brief to stay on track and determine whether or not the work meets objectives.
What makes a good creative brief?
A good creative brief needs to ask and answer key questions about the job to be produced. Why is your company communicating? Who are you communicating with? What do you want to say to them? What actions do you want them to take as a result of the communication?
Writing a good creative brief can be challenging. It requires a strong understanding of the brand, the product or service to be marketed, the target audience, the key messages to be communicated, and every other important aspect of the job.
But it’s worth every bit of effort you put into it. A good creative brief helps everyone get off to a strong start. A bad creative brief — or even worse, no creative brief at all — practically ensures endless rounds of confusion and frustration.
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How long should a creative brief be?
The answer depends on the job. A good creative brief tells the creative team everything they need to know to effectively meet objectives through their design and copy.
But “brief” is the operative word. If a brief is too long, no one will want to fill it out. Too short, and it won’t convey the information your team needs.
Does every job need a creative brief?
Honestly, no. But your default answer to this question should be “yes.” Start there and let the team decide if a job is too simple or too small (for example, a reprint of an existing piece with only minor changes) to warrant a creative brief, or if everyone on the team already understands the job well enough to proceed without a brief.
Some organizations create shorter versions of their creative briefs to use specifically for simpler jobs. That’s great so long as it provides the information everyone needs.
What if I don’t have time to write a creative brief?
Please don’t do this to yourself . . . or your team. If your project is worth doing, it’s worth taking the time to think through the details and help everyone understand what you are asking of them. The time and effort you spend up front writing the creative brief will almost certainly save you and your team hours, days, or even weeks of spinning your wheels later.
Get your free creative brief template now
Click the image at right to download your free creative brief template in a format of your choice. You can save a copy to your own Google Drive or download the file to your computer in another format such as Microsoft Word.
I’ve used a variation of this creative brief template for nearly 15 years, and it’s been a big help. Oh, I’m not saying it’s the end-all, be-all of creative briefs, but if you aren’t using a brief now, or you aren’t happy with your current one, this is a good place to start.
Feel free to add, remove, or change the fields and format to fit your needs and liking (once you have made a copy and/or downloaded to your device). You might even consider creating separate creative brief templates for specific types of jobs — for example, content marketing blog posts and video projects. Talk with your creatives and other team members to decide together what will work best for your organization.
This template includes fields for:
Date submitted
This is the date on which the job requestor submitted the completed creative brief to the Marketing or Creative department.
Project due date
The date by which the final work is needed.
Project name
Give your project a descriptive name or job number.
Project owner
Who requested the job? Who is the person driving the project and acting as the key contact for answering questions?
Project summary and objective
Briefly describe the market situation and opportunity. What is the reason you are communicating and what are you trying to achieve? Include any important marketing trends affecting your business. (For example, if you are a cable TV provider, are streaming boxes stealing customers from you?)
New piece or revision?
If updating an existing piece, provide a sample.
Product/service description
What is the product or service to be promoted? How does it benefit customers? What makes it unique? Include price, guarantee, cancellation policy, etc.
Deliverables
List all components to be produced and include or point to specifications.
Target audience
Who are you talking to? Identify by age, gender, job title, income, location and lifestyle. What do they think of you? What are their needs, problems, motivations, hot buttons? How do they solve their problems now?
Competitors
Who are they and what are their notable strengths and weaknesses?
Key messages and copy points
What is the single most important message to communicate? What are the supporting messages important to this audience? Spell out the “big idea” and all other info you want to convey, including important product or service details, dates and locations, etc.
Most job requestors will try to skimp on this section. Don’t let them do it! Sit down with them and have a conversation to make sure you get what your copywriter needs.
Visuals — photos and graphics
Who, what, where are you showing? If using existing graphics, include file names and locations.
Offer/fulfillment piece details
Are you offering an incentive for responding? Is this an invitation to an event? If the goal is lead generation, will you need a fulfillment piece such as an e-book, welcome letter, or information kit? If no fulfillment piece exists, you’ll need to write a brief for that, too.
Call to action
What specific action do you want recipients to take?
Contact information to include
Names, phone numbers, email addresses, URLs, etc. If creating a letter or email, whose name should appear at the bottom? If a digital ad, what is the URL for the landing page?
Mandatory elements
What copy and design elements must the final work include? Examples include logo, tagline, toll-free number, images, disclaimers, terms and conditions.
Test plan, if applicable
Do you plan to test anything? Headlines, format, colors, body copy, calls to action? What elements will need a second version for an A/B test?
Specifications
Tell the creative team in detail what they have to work with and what they will need to deliver. If the job is for a direct mail package, what are the physical dimensions of the letter and envelope? The buckslip? Can the creative team make these decisions based on what they think they will need? Are you printing in one color, two colors, four colors? If it’s a digital job such as a blog post, email, or search or social ads, provide character and line counts and the type of format to be delivered.
Resources
What existing materials (sample pieces, branding and style guidelines) will help the copywriter and designer in the creation of this piece? Who are the in-house experts your creative team can talk to for more information?
Project schedule
Specify production dates for key steps such as the kickoff meeting, copy due, copy review and approval, graphic design, layout review and approval, routing to stakeholders, revisions, printing or publishing to the web, etc. Dates should be realistic. Work backward from the drop date and do your best to give everyone adequate time to do their parts.
Project budget
How much do you have to spend on this campaign?
Project sign-off
Who all needs to review and approve the work? Who has the final say on its approval?
Notes
Anything else you think might be helpful to members of your team.
Download your free creative brief template
There you have it — everything you need to know to write a clear and effective creative brief. Now all you need is the brief itself. Download your free creative brief template here.
And don’t forget to spread the love! Feel free to share this template with your fellow creatives inside and outside of your organization.
Have a suggestion for improving this creative brief template? Let me know in the comments below!
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