Writing Brief for the Internal Team

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In collaboration with the Marketing team, when it comes to write a creative brief for the internal Creative team, this audience knows already the brand, the product (or service) and the TA. That’s really different from writing a client brief for the agency folks. So what is neededed is to be on point. Why? Because of the nature of the internal Creative team itself and the reason why they are there in the first place. In advertising, time is key, and especially timing. There are some communication material part of an on going campaign that need to be put out there asap, and it's when the internal Creative team comes in. Whereas in an agency they may have some weeks to deliver an outcome, the internal folks have some days, if not only hours. How? Because of the nature of the emergency, the approach when it comes to write the creative brief is actually to... not to write the creative brief. Instead, what is needed is a system that allows the Marketing team to write many on point (literally) creative briefs by themselves, in an effective and efficient way. Speed up the process.

In collaboration with the Marketing team, when it comes to write a client brief for the agency folks, what is needed is to be a little bit tactical about the content. Why? Because most of the time, Marketing team focuses on the brand, the business, the product (or service) and the TA. Means that there are a lot of data and information to cover. The Marketing team is in general generous when it comes to share information because they are passionate. The challenge is to find the right amount of what needs to be shared in order to avoid the folks from the agency to feel over warmed. How? By using empathy skill. It's all about finding the right balance between what data and information to deliver in the first place, and what additional data and information gonna be shared verbally during the briefing. That way, when it comes to the briefing session, instead of being a one way communication, it will be a more conversational one. So when it comes to write a client brief, it's definitely required to be intentional and tactical by distilling the data & information. Master the delivery.

Briefing

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Writing the brief, is only a part of the equation. Now, you need to brief. Why? Because part of the marketing's job, is to make end-customers care about the brand. To do so, you need make the agency folks or internal creative team care in the first place. How? Level 01: by sharing data & information in person, in an inspiring way. Level 02: by going the extra-mile. A little bit of ‘provocation’ or challenge, triggers the creatives as person. By connecting with them on a deeper level, you connect them with the brief. As a result, you make them deeply and truly care. So you move the agency folks or internal creative team from a place where they have to do their job, to a new one where they act like they are on a mission (and if you do it well, this mission is aligned with the company brand's mission). One of the reason we should see the briefing as an endeavor, it’s because at the end of the day, we want to feel that sense of achievement. We aren’t here to do ‘just okay work' right? We want people to care because we care in the very first place. And when all the stars are aligned, is when we do out of this world works, it’s when the magic happens.

The briefing is done, so the work about the brief is finished right? The answer is "Yes". It's done, in an ideal world. And chances are, that ideal world is not the one we are currently living in. Unlike computers, humans need time to digest data and information. The briefing session usually happens fast. So a debrief session is handy because it allows the agency to double check if they understood the client's expectation. Also, it's useful for the folks from client-side because they can double check if the agency got their message across right. And ‘best’ is, sometimes, key points or a crucial element of a brief is... not written in the brief itself. That’s just human nature. So a debrief session is the perfect time to uncover it. Now, we gonna talk about the interesting part of a debrief... It's when sometimes we see emerging creative directions thru questions that seem not relevant to the project. Why? Because if a brief is a box, then irrelevant questions are what could lead to, out of the box propositions. As you may understood by now, a brainstorming session can start during a debrief session.

disclaimer: pictures in this page are for illustration purpose only.