never leave home without ya (creative) briefs

by Erica

As someone interested in working within the advertising world in a creative capacity, the brief is key. Inspiration is key. In order to really take off with an idea, it has to talk to me. I think I dove into this a little bit in my creativity post — creativity is communication. It’s finding a cool, unique and exciting way to convey something. And that communication could be through any medium. Actually, it’s cooler when it’s a medium you wouldn’t have expected. I’m interested in communication and the way that people use various media to make that happen. Creative briefs have a lot to say. And it’s important that creatives get to use what it’s saying and get a spring board. Because let’s be real here, creative people are really just interested in creating cool and exciting stuff. The brief lays down the nuts and bolts and reigns them in a little bit. Can’t just have a bunch of creative people running around in a wall-less room. Things would be crazy! But fun.

I did some super searching (and believe me, I mean super) for a brief that I liked. The bulk of my search was finding brief formats at all, actually. But nonetheless, with guided help (thanks!) I found some! This one in particular spoke to me. It’s a personal approach brief from one of the account planners at McCann Erickson. Of course I like the personal one. I also like that it’s in red writing. I’ve taken a few graphic design classes (out of curiosity mainly, not quite sure it’s my thing), and through it I learned that white background/black text is a standard. There’s hardly anything creatively inspiring about the standard. That’s like ordering a hamburger with no condiments – and who does that? Let’s get a visual.

(Looks sad, doesn’t it?)

(Even just a little more inspiring, right? And all it’s got is ketchup)

(Anyway, so inspired I can’t finish this post.)

Well, now that I’m so hungry this blog post is looking less and less intriguing. I’ll get into my analysis. What I believe is so powerful about this brief (beyond that it’s in cool red color), is the way it’s talking. The brief itself takes on a personality, so the brand can too. That’s awesome. Creatives like to be talked to. This brief allows room for personality. The brand can literally talk. And it can do so because the brief uses expressions like ‘what do they think of us?’ and ‘what do we want to say?’ – we, us. It’s speaking from the perspective of brand. So beyond just getting the answers to these questions, the creative is also getting the way in which the brand would respond to the question. We’re basically interviewing the brand here – what could be more ideal? A lot of the briefs I looked at didn’t have this awesome wording opportunity (and trust me, I’ve got a folder of 24 saved on my computer now – because they’ll come in handy later, right?). The wording is casual. It’s not too jargon-ridden. It’s to the point. The thing that turns a creative off most is rigidness. ‘Things to be anal about’ – that’s great! It’s how I would talk. I can have an effective conversation with the brand I’m working with.

The opening thought is a cool notion too. It gets me into a mindset to start thinking about something. Anything. It doesn’t just jump straight to business – I like that. Isn’t it proper to have at least a 10 min convo before jumping into official talk? Or did I make that up? Maybe it’s because that’s how the Swiss banker explained things in ‘Wolf of Wall Street.’ Anyway, I also like how it moves downright into the question of all creativity – ‘what do we need the communication to do?’ It’s easy, simple, and clear. Clarity is such a key. I think the major thing that I would look into changing would be the question ‘what do we need and by when?’ I feel this is really open-ended. Maybe I’d move to a bit more specific and maybe key that up into two questions. ‘What are we doing?’ ‘By when do we need to do it?’ I don’t know – those probably weren’t better. It’s the only question on the brief that doesn’t dive directly into dealing with how the brand-consumer-creative triangle is functioning, so that might be why I think it’s weaker.

I like that the strengths of this brief come in the form of knowing how the brand perceives its consumers. It allows for the brief to develop a personality for the brand. And this is inspiring. Moving back to that hamburger thing I’ve got going on. Yes – I am judging you by what condiments you put on your burger. And yes, those condiments do say something about where you’re functioning and what you’re about –> just like this creative brief. You go account planner at McCann Erickson! Now go eat a burger!