Creative Brief Blog

Find a single consumer insight.

The trick here is to look at buying behavior, or more specifically, discover one significant reason why consumers buy ... or why they don't buy.

Example: Many people in the affluent 50+ market are reluctant to buy our high-end HD TV because they believe the technology is complex, difficult to setup and to hard to master.

Example: The majority of Asian women buy the same cooking oil their mothers used, simply grabbing a familiar bottle off the shelf.

Where do you get consumer insights? The client may know intuitively, or may have conducted research. Or may be willing to do so.

AdCracker creative manager has a seminar on creative briefs that covers several ways to identify consumer insights. And I have a tool that tells me where to look. To get it, Google or go to > Consumer Involvement Theory.

> How To Write A Creative Brief

> Sample "Classic" Creative Brief 2011

> Creative Brief Templates & Samples

Include customer quotes in the brief.

Yes, that means you will have to ask real buyers what they like about the service. Why they bought the product in the first place. How it compares to competing offerings. And what words they would use to express a recommendation.

I learned the value of this trick at Rapp-Collins, now Rapp Worldwide, where I would sometimes walk out on the sidewalk, video camera in hand, and snag interviews from people passing by.

Clients love to see real customers talk about their products, or even their product category. The creative team loves to hear real customers use real language to describe how they really feel - or don't feel - about investment services, premium ice cream, and snacks for their pet pooch.

Those wonderful glimpses of reality frequently find their way into the ads.

Write a tell all.

A common problem is that many briefs are ambiguous, lacking specific details, or incomplete. To avoid these mistakes, keep in mind that the brief should tell everyone on the creative team everything they will need to make the ad or campaign.

Ideally, the brief should be so complete that the writer and art director can deliver the project without going back to the brief writer for clarification.

A "Client Services Checklist" can help:

[ ] Do we have sufficient reference sources: previous ads, brochures, competitor ads, books, videos or Web sites?

[ ] Do we have contact info/ links for people, research or resources that can help the creative team?

[ ] Do we represent the client’s issues, concerns, wishes?

[ ] Is it clear what must be in the communication and what might be in the communication? Mandatories versus preferences?

[ ] Do we have a complete package of information for the creative team?

How Not To Write An Objective

You may have heard that insurance giant Aflac is looking for a voice to quack the company name on TV. Here's part of the creative objective as written by the Aflac marketing team:

"In this role - as the voice of the Aflac duck - you will create innovative ways to use one word to convey that, without Aflac, no insurance coverage is complete. You will translate complex messages into a single word that tells people, "Aflac is the insurance company that they can count on in their time of need."

Seriously? One word to convey all that?

Imagine trying to quack the word "Aflac" in a way that an audience will interpret as, "You can count on Aflac in your time of need."

Oh, and by the way, it has to work in both English and Spanish.

Forget it. Waste of time.

The Aflac creative brief demonstrates a common problem:

Many creative briefs fail to articulate the creative objective in a way that the creative team can translate into effective advertising.

Content marked R is reserved for AdCracker customers. You can get it instantly (well, in a minute or two) via online access at the > AdStore.