Briefing creatives has always been a persistent pain point, and it seems like the list of grievances haven’t changed much over the years.
Here are just a few that I hear all too frequently from creatives at all levels:
- This brief is far from brief, it’s a master’s dissertation thesis in 100 slides with 18 messages
- This brief is too vague
- This brief is too dictatorial
- This brief is asking for a rocketship when the client wants a banner ad
And my personal favourite, the enduring ringer:
- Strategy gets two weeks to write the brief, and I get two days to do the work
Something is clearly broken here.
And by the way, I have no doubt that every strategist, account lead, producer and marketer alike could rattle off a slew of their own frustrations which are all just as valid.
But these frustrations are the symptoms, not the disease.
To remedy it, we must be more ruthless in diagnosing the real problem at hand.
Because more often than not, the real problem is not the brief. It’s not the format. It’s not the process. It’s not even time or money.
It’s our relationship with creatives.
So how do we fix it? Because if we do, strategy and creative can be one of the most dangerous, effective and profitable combinations in the entire industry.
With that in mind, here are a few unwritten industry rules I recommend breaking to make yourself indispensable to creatives.
NB: the following does not just apply to strategists - it applies to any marketer, any agency leader, in any department who wants to get to better relationships, better briefs and better work.
And yes, that goes for you too creatives - you have to come to the table for any of this to work.
Rule to Break #1
Never talk about creative work unless you’re reviewing their work
The starting point for any successful creative relationship is actually the end point - the work you want to create together. This is rooted in (one of many) beliefs Rob Campbell instilled in me:
The work is the sun.
It’s not your brief, or your deck, or your smarts, or any of your inputs - it’s the output. If you can accept that, you’re already miles ahead of many.
And while agreeing to prioritise the work is an important first step, the next is recognizing that you and any given creative will likely have different definitions of what great work looks like. Too many of us skip the fundamental step of understanding each other’s creative tastes and ambitions—and how they like to work.
In that spirit, ask yourself and creatives…
- What have you worked on that you’re most proud of? Why?
- What briefs and/or conditions led to that work?
- What work from others do you love? Hate? Why?
- What brief *formats and styles of working do you prefer? Find most frustrating?
*There is no shortage of brief formats out there - some examples helpfully gathered here.
The critical thing here is you don’t have to agree with them. You might hate some answers, and love others. You might have radically different tastes. You might think some of their ideas are executions, or vice versa. You might be different in your styles, backgrounds or even levels of neuro-spiciness and how you process information. That’s ok - if anything, it makes things more interesting.
You don’t have to agree with their point of view, but you do need to understand and respect it. And you should expect the same from them.
Because if you don’t reach a shared understanding and ambition for the work, and how you’ll work together to get there, every single brief that comes through the door is going to be an uphill battle.
Rule to Break #2
Never show creatives the client brief
I’ve got no earthly idea where the infantilization of the creative department comes from, or the idea that their delicate brains will explode if they are exposed to a foggy client brief, but shielding them from it often only exacerbates problems later.
So discuss it together - talk about what’s clear, what’s interesting, and what’s not. Identify formal and informal objectives (how does this client want to impress their boss?). Debate the real problem to solve, and possible approaches to it. Acknowledge the time and resource constraints you both have, and what level of brief and working style is realistic within that.
This puts you on the same team from the jump. And by letting them into your own process earlier, you’re increasing the chances that they will do the same later on.
Rule to Break #3
Never start with the brief - start with a deck
I’m going to hold your hand when I say this - PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD don’t start with a deck. Write a ‘hunch brief’ - a gut instinct, one pager in the format you and the creative lead have agreed on. It won’t be right yet, and that’s ok.
Then set out to disprove, improve or inform a richer brief. This is the fun bit - go down rabbit holes, talk to real human beings, make ChatGPT your sparring partner, look laterally or in culture for inspiration, join weirdly niche facebook groups, stalk people in supermarkets, whatever you like. You might have one hour, one week or one month - but make a mess with what you have.
Return to your one pager (still no decks yet!!!) and reduce, refine and enrich it with all the wonderful things you’ve learned. Talk about it with your creative lead and see what resonates, and what doesn’t. Talk about what and how much information would be helpful or unhelpful for creative teams when briefing.
Rule to Break #4
Never leave out anything you’ve learned in the briefing deck
I have never seen a decent briefing deck that needed to be longer than 20 simple slides. Any more than that, and you’ll start to see the creatives’ eyes glaze over. You may have learned a lot of interesting things, but creatives don’t need to know all of them, or at least not all at once.
The most important thing initially is that they understand the challenge that’s in front of them, and feel compelled to solve it. I refer back to Martin Weigel’s Strategy Needs Good Words all the time to help me write strategic narratives for both creatives and clients. Others have written on interesting and creative ways to inspire creatives with non-traditional briefings, and I am a huge fan of these as well. But if you are short on time and resources, the biggest favour you can do for creatives is to reduce information, not add cute flair.
Rule to Break #5
Never bother creatives until the full team review
Many people want to be more involved with creative development, but don’t know how. And too often, we expect that door to be opened without doing anything to build or nurture the trust that it requires.
After briefing creatives, let them sleep on it. Then have an informal check in with your creative lead and/or teams to see if it’s taking them places, if they’re stuck or if they need more clarity and/or inspiration. This allows you to work in parallel with each other, on the same team. You are feeding their process in a way that is useful for them, rather than assuming or trying to dictate what that should look like. It also helps create psychological safety, which is essential when doing the delicate work of crafting ideas. By being vulnerable and open throughout your own process, you open the door for them to do the same, and work more collaboratively as a team.
At the end of the day, creatives don’t want your brief, they want your brain. And that’s why relationships will beat decks every single time.
To be indispensable to creatives, you have to be in the trenches with them. They need to feel like they can trust you with their fragile ideas. Of course, these relationships don’t happen overnight. They need to be nurtured, supported and are not without their challenges.
Because let’s be honest, in this fickle industry, any brief can and probably will get tipped upside down tomorrow anyway. So all this effort is really only worth it if we’re in it together - sharing the problems, not passing them on.
And if we can accept that we are in service to the work, and making it work, then any rules that get in the way of that should be broken. And by breaking them, we can work in a way that is more about partnership, not process. Trust, not templates. Collaboration, not control. Our work, not your work and my brief.
By Rachael Stets
Global Strategy Director
