The creative brief is the holy grail of all sacred ad documents—it’s the foundation of any successful creative campaign, outlining the client’s vision, and strategic approach, ensuring everyone is on the same page.

A great creative brief outlines the problem to solve—and the path to get there—while giving your team the ingredients to do their most inspired work without prescribing the solution. As iconic architect David Rockwell says, “A great brief is an inspiring thought starter.”

 

What goes into a creative brief?

A creative brief outlines a campaign’s stated goals by defining the project’s scope, deadlines, deliverables, and demographics specific to the creative part of your project. It is equal parts inspiration and a helpful map to get a creative team on board with how to approach a campaign.

The goal? Get all the stakeholders—designers, copywriters, media planners, and more—aligned with key messaging and a strategic approach to executing a project successfully. Think of it as a one-stop shop for your project’s essential information, delivered in simple language that a designer, copywriter, developer, or another stakeholder can easily understand.

 

Why are creative briefs so essential?

You need a plan. A creative brief lets you articulate your vision and justify its benefits while sharing how you plan to target your audience. Simply put, a creative brief puts everyone on the same page before a project kicks off.

A well-crafted creative brief will also save you time (and money) because it is as much about aligning objectives as it is about anticipating obstacles. Better to get clear in the pre-planning stages of a campaign than further down the line. Here are some key reasons a great creative brief is so critical:

1. Gives your creative team a broad vision of the brand, business, and product.
2. Offers inspiration and a starting point for concepting.
3. Reduces client/creative conflict by getting all parties on the same page at the outset.
4. Aligns client budget and expectations with creative media strategy.
5. Clearly defines deliverables, deadlines, and checkpoints.
6. And last but not least, before they can sign off on a project, clients will expect to see a creative brief, and your creative team will need it before they can start working.

 

Who creates the creative brief?

In an ad agency environment, a strategist or planner crafts the creative brief, whereas, in other types of companies, it may be done by the account manager in close consultation with the client.

 

What goes into a creative brief?

It’s wise to include all that can help the creative team understand the vision and path forward, including:

• A brief overview of the campaign’s purpose and objectives
• Short brand statement
• Key challenges the campaign aims to resolve
• Target audience and demographics for the campaign
• Primary message and rationale for the approach
• Channels the campaign will run on
• List of specific deliverables for the creative team
• Deadlines and checkpoints

When all is said/done—the creative brief may not look like much; many are just two pages long, but the effort that goes into crafting this seemingly simple document is immense. Despite their importance, creative briefs are often poorly understood and not well-executed due to their open-ended nature. But we’re here to demystify this cornerstone document so your creative projects can get the solid backbone and structure they deserve.

 

Here are the 10 essential questions to answer to create an effective creative brief.

Covering these bases can be the difference between a struggling project and an incredibly effective one.

1. Why are we doing this project?

Context is critical for making great work—if your creative team is going to create anything exceptional, they need to know the ‘why.’

• Why is the project necessary?
• What need does it serve?
• What do we want to achieve?
• What is the opportunity—what is the challenge?

No need to delve into the historical nitty gritty; just stick to the salient information.

 

2. Who is the target audience?

You can only target your content if you’re sure for whom it’s being created. Make sure you know the ‘who’ of the project at the outset. Define who the desired end users are.

• Where are they located?
• What’s the target age?
• What motivates this group?
• What’s their socio-economic level?

Delineating this type of information can be the difference between a successful campaign and a big waste of time, money, and effort.

 

3. What is the core business objective?

Why are we creating this campaign? Is it to get more sign-ups via CRM? Is it to sell more sneakers? Or to ramp up engagement metrics? Define what success looks like—for a campaign to create value and be more than window dressing, but rather high-contributing parts of a larger strategy.

4. Who is the competition, and what are they doing?

After identifying your target audience, including information on the competitive landscape. Add links to review, along with any similar projects they’ve undertaken, and share relevant demographic details—where is there overlap, and where are there differences? Share what they did well and what could be done differently (and better) with your campaign.

5. Who are the stakeholders?

Address the ‘who’—but from the working side. You want to make sure everyone is clear on how the workflow flows. Who are the decision-makers on the client side? To whom should you go for approval on drafts?

6. What are the deliverables, and where will they be used?

Specificity is your friend. Be sure to list the main goal of the project—is it a print campaign? Commercial? Both? Then share what you plan to do with the creative so your team can deliver the right format in the right specs.

• Where do you plan to use the creative?
• In what formats do you need your campaign delivered? For example, if it’s a video, how many final versions are required, and how long should each version be?
• If you plan to use the creative on social media, share which channels and the size and resolution specs for each.

7. What is the BIG idea?

If your campaign could be distilled into a few key messages—what would they be? What undergirding principle should the creative team keep coming back to that will help guide their efforts? Some agencies refer to this as the human purpose or big idea that will make the campaign resonate with the intended target audience. Done right, this can be a powerful guardrail for a creative project.

8. How do we want this campaign to look?

This section is where you paint, in broad strokes, what you want the campaign to look and feel like. Specify:

• Tone
• Color palette
• Fonts
• Logo specs
• Any other guidelines related to the project

9. What are the deadlines?

The ‘when’ of the project is a point of critical alignment. Discuss timelines for feedback with the client so the creative team can stay on track with checkpoints and deadlines.

Defining these from the start will help mitigate delays and keep your project on track. While this is more a point for discussion than something always included in a brief, it is essential to list certain key milestones. Some important timings to confirm include:

• When does the project start?
• When are the final campaign deliverables due?
• What are the milestone checkpoints?
• How many cycles of revisions are budgeted?
• How many iterations are expected, and when are they needed?

The campaign you’re creating ties into concrete launch dates—keeping all stakeholders on track can become a critical component of its success.  Some folks include a timeline in the brief, working backward from when the campaign or project needs to go live, which can look something like this:

• Day 1: Kick-off meeting
• Day 10: Final creative brief due
• Day 30: Content due to client
• Day 35: Content due back from client for team revisions
• Day 42: Second review process
• Day 47: Content due back from client for final team revisions
• Day 54: Final Review Process

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Bottom Line

If you want to do exceptional work, you need a stellar creative brief outlining the problem to solve—and the path to solve it—while providing everyone with all the salient information to do their best work without telling the creative team how to do it. As the foundation of any successful campaign, the creative brief ensures everyone is on the same page and has a shared vision. And as they teach us from a young age: teamwork makes the dream work.

 

About the author.

An award-winning creator and digital health, wellness, and lifestyle content strategist—Karina writes, produces, and edits compelling content across multiple platforms—including articles, video, interactive tools, and documentary film. Her work has been featured on MSN Lifestyle, Apartment Therapy, Goop, Psycom, Yahoo News, Pregnancy & Newborn, Eat This Not That, thirdAGE, and Remedy Health Media digital properties and has spanned insight pieces on psychedelic toad medicine to forecasting the future of work to why sustainability needs to become more sustainable.

Nothing brings a team together like making an idea come to life. But there’s a way to nurture and guide the journey so that the outcome is everything you want—or more. Feedback is a vital part of taking an idea from concept to finished product, and several best practices exist to make that happen successfully.

If you are the person managing the creatives, there are some things you can do at the outset of a project to put some guardrails in place and keep things running smoothly. Before a project kicks off, make sure that you and your creative team are aligned so that everyone is working towards the same goal.

To do that, outline the project’s scope, delineate the exact deliverables you need, and map out your timeline—the more clarity up front, the better.

Once the project has kicked off, communication is everything. And how you provide feedback can be the difference between success and failure.

Here are some tips for providing intelligent, respectful, and constructive feedback when collaborating with creatives.

 

ASK QUESTIONS—LOTS OF THEM

Asking the right questions is essential for sparking ideas. Especially if you are in the ideation phase of a project, it’s necessary to poke holes in ideas and to pressure-test the thinking behind concepts. It’s ok for ideas to fail. As the Silicon Valley maxim says: Fail often but fail fast. From technology to art to entertainment, great creators are the ones who take chances and question the way things are.

When your project is in motion, and you are reviewing work, asking questions is a great technique to ensure a collaborative conversation. Say you don’t like the hue of a muted mint green; instead of nixing it outright, ask your creative to talk about their color choice. A simple, open-ended question can be eye-opening. That muted mint that made you cringe may actually be trending and give your project some up-to-date cultural currency.

 

IDENTIFY PROBLEMS, NOT SOLUTIONS

Share your thoughts, but don’t tell creative precisely what to do. There’s a BIG difference between being specific versus coming up with the solution. Most creatives work best when they can maintain a sense of ownership of the work. Remember—this is their area of expertise. Trust that they know what they are doing, and they will likely come up with a better solution.

Yes, creatives have blind spots, but rather than rewrite or redesign something yourself, explain what you feel is not working. For example, don’t say, “make the logo bigger—instead, explain why you want it bigger. Is it hard to read? Is it getting lost on the page? Once you have identified what is not working about something, your designer may see a more elegant solution that involves shifting the color, placement, or injecting more white space. A problem-focused approach invites more fruitful collaboration.

 

START ON A POSITIVE NOTE

When giving feedback to a creative, start with what is working. Starting on a positive note helps frame the overall mindset of the meeting. Think: “This typeface is really working well,” or “I like your use of bold color,” or “Your intro sets up the piece very well.” And then move on to the parts of the project that are not working so well for you. Stay focused on the problem, and let the creative craft a solution. Remember, you hired them for their expertise, so give them a chance to take your notes and recraft the work with your feedback in mind.

 

BE HONEST. BE CLEAR. BE KIND.

Deliver feedback with honesty, sincerity, kindness, and, perhaps most importantly—respect. Emotions are part of the creative process; keeping the focus on the work in a mindful manner can help keep them from kicking into high gear. Some ways to do that include identifying what traits of the work are or are not feeding the end goal. Are there redundancies? If the copy is unclear, what would help clarify the message? Are there details that are off-strategy or don’t capture your brand’s personality? Saying you found something confusing is infinitely better than saying, “no one will ever understand this.” Speak to specifics. And as any therapist would recommend, avoid “you” or “I” statements and instead share what you feel is missing the mark. You can help keep things moving forward smoothly.

 

CONSOLIDATE FEEDBACK

There may be nothing worse for a creative than receiving a pile of feedback in disparate emails or calls from an entire team. Collaboration can birth better work, but a tangle of disparate feedback leads to chaos and confusion. Gather feedback only from relevant stakeholders.

If multiple people need to review and approve the final product, gather and consolidate your collected feedback in one document before sharing it with the creative. Live PDFs are a smart way to do this. Keep comments concise—and be mindful of nixing conflicting remarks and any other criticism that is not constructive. When delivering the feedback, think more bullet points and less long paragraphs. Make it easy for the creative to digest your comments and make necessary changes.

 

SET PARAMETERS AND HONOR BOUNDARIES

Craft a trusted creative partnership by managing expectations from the beginning. Set timelines for check-ins at the start of a project, with time scheduled for feedback at different points of the project. And when asked to provide feedback, do it in a timely fashion.

Agree ahead of time on how many rounds of revisions are included and try to stay within those bounds.

Aim to stick to the original scope of the agreed-upon project. If you decide midstream to expand beyond what you initially thought was needed, be prepared to offer proper compensation. Beware of scope creep that is not negotiated. Nothing sours a relationship with a creative person than uncompensated scope creep. If your needs expand or shift, chat with your creative and plot out a new, refined plan of attack. Your relationship and project will be all the better for it.

 

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Key Takeaway

Learning to give great constructive feedback is a valuable skill that will pay dividends. Some truly magical things can happen when all parties feel seen, heard, and respected. Improve your creative relationships by referencing these tips whenever embarking upon a new creative endeavor.

 

About the author.

An award-winning creator and digital health, wellness, and lifestyle content strategist—Karina writes, produces, and edits compelling content across multiple platforms—including articles, video, interactive tools, and documentary film. Her work has been featured on MSN Lifestyle, Apartment Therapy, Goop, Psycom, Yahoo News, Pregnancy & Newborn, Eat This Not That, thirdAGE, and Remedy Health Media digital properties and has spanned insight pieces on psychedelic toad medicine to forecasting the future of work to why sustainability needs to become more sustainable.

When the economy gets rocky, are freelancers “Jumping Ship” or leaving the freelance life? That’s something Creative Circle wanted to know. So it designed a survey with this title and theme and sent it to its Influencer Panel.

The Influencer Panel leverages the opinions of Creative Circle’s deep pool of candidates across the U.S. and Canada. This group took root late last summer to serve a sounding board on issues of interest to the Creative Circle community. By sharing their views, the participants are helping to shape the experiences for both valued candidates and client companies.

Diving into the Survey

What did those on the frontlines have to say about “Jumping Ship?” After all, they are in the field, on assignments, and in the pipeline as freelancers, contractors, temporary or permanent employees.

This post reveals the findings and more. Beyond the raw data, it addresses what can we learn from the aggregated views of the 239 survey participants?  And of utmost importance, how can we best put the results to use?

Here’s a snapshot of the respondents:

• More than 60% of the participants derive their main source of income from freelancing
• About 80% are between the ages of 27-58, divided fairly evenly into: 27-42 (41%) and 43-58 (39%)
• Some one-third (33.5%) has freelanced for more than 10 years; slightly less (30%) has been earning income as freelancers for 4-10 years; and (28%) for 1-3 year years
• More than half (52%) describe their freelance work schedule as “inconsistent” and “fluctuating;” the balance is equally divided (24% each) between “consistently 40+ hours a week” or “consistently less than 40 hours a week”
• Of the myriad reasons they choose to freelance, the top three are: the ability to work remotely, flexible schedule, and variety of work; next in line was: control over the type of work, followed by control over who I work with; significant votes also went to better pay and fulfilling work
• The overwhelming majority consider the current economic climate challenging; almost three-quarters (72%) deem it “uncertain;” the remainder falls into two fairly equal segments: 15% disagree with this premise, 13% don’t know.

In all, these sample participants have a history of working as freelancers and know the ins and outs of the freelance life.

So What’s the Verdict? Leave Freelancing or Stay Put?

Employers have been showing freelancers the money

Freelancers report that their rate of pay has increased. Make that increased significantly. Creative Circle confirms this trend. The firm acknowledges that the average pay rate for freelancers has bumped up 15% over the past 12 months.

Those who may leave seek more stability and then some

The reasons for disembarking the freelance ship center mainly on stability and consistency. Most respondents cite the quest for “a more stable paycheck” as their number one motivation. There are other factors too, such as wanting to have “a more consistent schedule.” Some also link leaving the freelance life with the desire “to collaborate and connect with co-workers.”

What’s ahead for those who depart freelancing

Those who decide to bolt from the freelance are not abandoning the workaday world. About three-quarters (74%) plan to seek a full-time job as a W-2 employee. Another 15% will set out to find a part-time job as a W-2 employee and about 4% will look for a job in another industry.

What freelancers want most

The top three things freelancers look for in typical assignments are: the ability to work remotely (69%), followed by great pay (62%) and flexibility (42%). Coming in next are: long-term assignments (31%), work that is fulfilling (23%), tasks they are excited about (20%), variety of work (12%) and benefits (8%).

Freelancers are holding steady in their area of expertise

Despite choppy seas, freelancers are not jumping ship. They’re in it and sticking to it. That’s the consensus of at least 72% of respondents, who will hold the freelancing reins tight in this economy. Of those in this category, 53% are “very likely” to continue freelancing for the next 12 months. Add to that 19%, who are “likely” to remain. Only 13% are thinking about bailing: 5% are “very unlikely” and 8% are “somewhat unlikely” to continue as is.

Temperature Check on the Ground and in the Cloud

Has business been in slo-mo?

Over the past 12 months, almost half (47%) of the freelancers felt business has been slower. Another one-third (34%) considered it business as usual and almost 20% thought it was busier.

That said, has the amount of freelance hours work fluctuated?

Interestingly, the largest segment of responses—almost one-third (32%)—reported that their freelance hours stayed the same over the past year. Beyond that, survey participants were equally divided (15%) in each major category, from hours increased by 11-50%, decreased by 11-50%, and decreased by more than 50%.

What comes in goes out?

As for expenses over the same period, have they increased, decreased, or remained the same for freelancers? It’s no surprise that increases dominate the picture. One-third (33%) reported increases of 11-50%, 27% experienced increases of 1-10% and 11% said that their expenses increased more than 50%. Another significant chunk of responses fell into the category of staying the same–almost 22%. Decreases were negligible.

How do cloud labor sites rate for getting freelance work?

More than two-thirds (69%) have not used sites such as Fiverr or Upwork to secure freelance gigs, although more than half of this non-use group (37%) is considering trying this out. Of the almost one-third who have gone this route: the largest proportion (19%) did not get any paid work whereas only 12% successfully secured paid work.

What was the cloud experience?

Of those who used cloud labor sites for freelance work, more than half (54%) rated the experience as “negative,” 28% were neutral and the remaining 17% were “positive” or “very positive.”

Would they reach for the cloud again?

The largest category of responses (44%) was “maybe.” Almost one-third (32%) indicated “no” and the balance (24%) would do it again.

Putting Insights from the Survey into Practice

Aside from understanding the trend line of responses from the survey and details surrounding it, are there things both ends of the freelance equation can do to their advantage? Yes.

Employers: The Time Is Now to Engage Freelancers

• Bring freelancers into your organization to make up for lost headcount. Available and eager to work, freelancers can replace the staff shortfall from cuts in the payroll during a harsh economic environment
• Likewise, add freelancers to supplement staff to help meet and expand business needs
• Use freelancers for strategic work not only for tactical tasks; they seek assignments that they find stimulating and rewarding
• Regarding rewards, offer market-based pay rates or better to attract and retain the best freelancers
• Accommodate freelancers’ preferences for remote work and flexible schedules
• Be aware: engaging freelancers is only the front end; once the decisions and selections are made, savvy employers should onboard these resources in ways that make them part of the team
• For more information, see Freelancing Is Surging! How to Integrate Contract Workers into Your Marketing Strategy Now

Freelancers: It’s Your Time Too!

Difficult economic times do not necessarily spell reduced need in the marketplace for freelance talent; in fact, the opposite may be true: the word is out that freelancing is on the rise!

For those on the fence about leaving the freelance fold, keep with it if at all possible, especially in light of reported information about increased pay rates

Remember the advantages the freelance life potentially offers, from remote work arrangements to flexibility and variety of work

Stay current on your skills and get additional training to expand your capabilities and possibilities

Keep your resume, work samples, LinkedIn profile and website up to date, error-free and attractive; stay alert to trends in the market and position yourself accordingly to prosper

Network, network, network

If you’re having trouble identifying and landing gigs, reach out to and register with Creative Circle

 

About the author.
You name it, she covers it. That’s the can-do attitude Sherry M. Adler brings to the craft of writing. A polished marketing and communications professional, she has a passion for learning and the world at large. She uses it plus the power of words to inform and energize stakeholders of all kinds. And to show how all of this can make a difference, she calls her business WriteResults NY, LLC.