A creative brief is a document that's produced by the person requesting creative work to define the most important aspects of that piece of work. And in marketing, this is often the first step when creating work with other teams, both internal and external, because they set and manage expectations for everyone involved. And by the end of this video, you will have a better understanding of how creative briefs are used, and what components they typically consist of. So whether you need a promotional video, a landing page, a set of Facebook ads, or printed brochure, it is important that everyone you work with shares the same understanding of what has to be created for what target customer to achieve a specific goal.
A creative brief is a guide and a source of inspiration for the professional who will ultimately receive the request. And there can be situations in your marketing career where you are the author, or the recipient of a creative brief. So in the first situation, you are for example planning an ad campaign on Facebook and Instagram for a specific product, and you need stunning images and compelling copy. So in order for your graphic design agency and your internal copywriter to help you produce their best work, you write a creative brief for them outlining your needs. In the second case, the marketing manager for specific product is planning a holiday campaign, and writes a creative brief for the whole team to specify how this campaign is supposed to be executed along all marketing channels. Now as social media marketing manager, you receive the brief, so you know exactly how to adapt the base campaign to the social media advertising world. And without that brief, your campaign might feel and sound different, or promote different products than those that were advertised on TV, or via email. A template for a creative brief can vary by organization, but it should give us much details and context as possible to the recipients.
So after this video, you can access our template that you will also use later when it's time for your course project. And I will walk you through the different components of the template in a moment. So to illustrate what information to provide in your brief, we will also write a brief together as we go. We'll find the written and more detailed version of that same brief later in Course 5, when it's time for your project. The purpose of our example brief now is to instruct a designer who will design an ad for Calla & Ivy. The flower shop is launching a new subscription service. They want to promote in the Netherlands, and they need an Instagram ad to do that.
Typically, a creative brief includes the following components. First, describe your objective. And this is concise statement of what you want to accomplish in your target market. Do you want to inform, persuade, or motivate an audience? And what specific action do you want them to take? For Calla & Ivy, the objective is to encourage their customers to take advantage of a sale, and purchase their new DIY floral subscription that they will be offering next month. DIY, or Do It Yourself, in this case, means that the customer receives a curated selection of flowers they can assemble themselves into a bouquet of their liking. Next, describe your target audience. Who's the creative work addressing?
Describe in as much detail as possible who you want to engage in influence. Use demographic information, describe their interests, behaviors, needs, and fears. Calla & Ivy want to target 25 to 55 year old women with a household income of 50 to 150,000 euros, who have an undergraduate or professional degree, and live in the Netherlands. Also, this audience has an interest in gardening, flowers, urban biking, sustainability, and local businesses. And they are looking for convenient and easy access to beautifully arranged flowers.
Next to cover in your brief are your competitors. Ask yourself, who in your field also targets the same audience? Summarize what products they are currently selling, or campaigns they are running that might affect reaching your own objectives. And this information is important for your designers and copywriters, so they can make sure that your brand stands out.
In Calla & Ivy's case, there are several floral shops that offer subscriptions in the Amsterdam area. Five shops are direct competitors in the area, but none of them are selling subscriptions that include some kind of DIY component. Next in your brief, describe your offer. In other words, what are you trying to promote or sell exactly? What aspects or features of your offer stand out? Calla & Ivy are promoting a DIY floral subscription. And a subscription provides flowers and additional pieces for an individual to design their own bouquet. The subscription arrives once per quarter, and can be combined with a monthly, biweekly, or weekly subscription as a replacement for that period's floral arrangement. After describing your offer, describe your key benefit. What is the single most important benefit of your offer for your target audience? It should be highly relevant to their needs. Connect with them on an emotional level, and be differentiated from what your competitors are communicating. You can include secondary benefits, but getting the single most important benefit on point is crucial.
So let's have a look at Calla & Ivy's key benefit. Their flower arrangement can simply be placed as they are, or they can be used as an opportunity for a fun project. Floral arranging can be calming and relaxing. And their target audience is often busy and rushed, so they hope it provides a time for them to sit down and calm their mind and body. Next thing in your brief, describe the problem you're solving. What important problem of your target audience is your offer solving? And spelling this out also helps you to verify that your key benefit is the right one. Calla & Ivy is solving
the relaxation problem. They want their audience to be able to get away at any time. And their subscription gives customers the time in space to get away for a mental vacation, or doing something productive with their hands. The next item to cover in your brief are proof points. Ask yourself, what information can you share to make your offer credible and trustworthy? Can you share customer quotes, satisfaction levels, low price guarantees, or test results that lend you external credibility? So for Calla & Ivy's proof points, they can share customer quotes and satisfaction levels for the other subscription products. And they also have a strong reputation in the area for providing excellent quality and service.
Once you've captured all the background information, it's time to describe the actual deliverables. So what asset or assets do you need specifically, images, video, a PowerPoint presentation? Include details about the specific file format, size, or other technical requirements. Calla & Ivy are looking for images for an Instagram ad. And in their brief, also specify the file type, maximum file size, and image resolution. In order to ensure that you get the kind of deliverable that you are imagining, next, specify the look and feel in your brief. Add some keywords or personality traits that describe what you want the tone of voice and the design to feel like. For Calla & Ivy, they went their ad to feel playful, unique, relaxing and organic. Finally, provide necessary guidelines, and information on logistics.
First, guidelines. Here you can include specific design features that you want to see included, such as specific headlines, or product photos, or more general guidelines for the execution, such as color palettes and fonts to use.
And second, logistics. This section includes all the logistical details, such as the project timeline, deadlines, the budget, and who will approve the final work. And depending on the size of the company, and the number of people that you work with, there can be multiple recipients involved in the creative brief, from designers to copywriters, but also legal or finance. So no matter how big your team, and whether it's an internal creative team, or an external agency, preparing a creative brief makes sure that everyone is aligned early on. And you will practice writing your own creative brief later in the course project.
