A creative brief is a document that outlines the goals of your project. It helps keep everyone on the same page and ensures that you get what you want from your creative team. If you’ve never written a creative brief before, it can seem like an intimidating task. But with this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how to create an effective brief that allows you to collaborate with your agency more effectively than ever before.
What is a Creative Brief?
A creative brief is a document that describes the work to be done. It’s used by both the client and agency, and it helps both parties understand what the other wants. The brief helps clarify expectations and responsibilities, which allows for more effective collaboration between everyone involved in the project.
A good creative brief:
- Is specific about your goals and objectives (what you want)
- Is honest about what you don’t know (what you need)
- Is clear about what you expect the agency to do for you
- Is concise and easy to read
- Is detailed enough to provide a clear direction for your project
- Is written by you, not the agency
- Is written by you, not the agency Is written by you, not the agency
Why is a Creative Brief Necessary?
A creative brief is a collaboration between a client and an agency. It’s an opportunity for both parties to work together more effectively, by helping the client communicate their needs and goals clearly, and allowing the agency to do what they do best: create great work.
A good creative brief can also help you avoid misunderstandings or miscommunication between yourself or your team on one side, and your client on the other side–which can lead to wasted time (and money).
What Should Be Included in a Creative Brief?
A creative brief is a document that describes who you are, what you’re selling and why. It should include all the information needed to get started on your project.
A good creative brief will include:
- Who is the audience? (e.g., young professionals)
- What is the product or service? (e.g., an innovative new website)
- A description of the problem that needs solving (e.g., no one knows about our new website)
- The goal for this brief (e.g., increase traffic to our site by 20% in three months)
- Target market(s): Who do we want as customers/users? When defining demographics, think about things like age range and geographic location–but also consider psychographics like personality traits or lifestyle choices that might impact how someone uses something!
As an example, a website aimed at young professionals in their 20s might have different target demographics than one for retirees. The former might be more interested in social networking sites or news feeds; the latter might be looking for medical information or financial advice.
The goal of the brief is to help you create a product that people want to use. Once you have a clear idea of who your audience is and what they need, you’ll be able to create something that meets those needs.
Who Should Write a Creative Brief?
The creative brief is a collaborative process. The person who writes the brief should be someone who knows their audience well and understands their business goals. They’ll need to make sure they’re writing something that will resonate with users, so they should also have some experience working on projects similar to yours in terms of scope, budget, and timeline.
The person reviewing the brief will need similar skillsets: familiarity with both users/customers and product development processes (or at least an understanding of what goes into developing products). This reviewer should be able to identify areas where further research is needed–or where assumptions made by other team members may not match reality–so they can help guide further iteration before moving forward with any designs or prototypes.
The person approving design decisions should also know something about user experience design; otherwise, they run the risk of making poor choices based solely on personal preferences instead of facts about how people behave when using your digital products!
How Can You Write a Great Creative Brief?
A great creative brief is:
- It’s important to be clear about what you want the final product to look like and how it will be used. Take some time to consider the audience, objectives, budget and timeline before writing your brief.
- Your team won’t have time or energy for long-winded instructions that don’t get straight to the point in every sentence (and paragraph). Keep things short and sweet by using bullet points whenever possible!
- You should always be able to explain exactly what you mean when writing a creative brief–don’t assume that anyone else knows exactly what goes through your mind when coming up with ideas or solving problems! This is especially important if there are multiple parties involved in creating content, such as copywriters and designers who may work independently of one another without any communication between departments at all times during production processes, so make sure everyone knows exactly what kind of style guide exists before starting work on anything new.
Can you use a creative brief template?
You can use a free creative brief template to get your ideas organized and on paper. But it’s important to remember that a creative brief is not a one-size-fits-all document; it needs to be tailored to the project at hand. A good starting point is looking up some examples online, or asking other designers or creatives in your network for their own personal templates they use when writing briefs.
There are many different ways of organizing information in these documents, so make sure you find one that works best for you before committing yourself and spending time filling it out!
A creative brief helps the client and agency work together more effectively
A creative brief is a document that defines the project and acts as a roadmap for how the agency will work with you to deliver on your goals. It’s an extremely helpful tool for both clients and agencies because it helps everyone stay on the same page, which makes it easier for everyone to work together more effectively during the course of the project.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this guide has helped you understand the basics of what a creative brief is and why it’s so important. Now you can go out into the world and use your newfound knowledge to create amazing work!
