Creative brief template
What a creative brief has to decide before it can say anything about tone, and why "premium but approachable" means nobody chose.
A creative brief is the document that turns a business problem into a design problem, and it fails in one of two ways. Either it is a page of business context with no decision in it, or it is a page of adjectives with no constraint in it. "Premium but approachable" appears in more creative briefs than any other phrase, and it appears because nobody has chosen. The designer reads it, picks one, and the first review round is spent discovering which one the client meant.
Say what it is before saying what it should feel like
Every creative brief needs the deliverable stated in physical terms before a single word about tone. A film is a set of placements with durations. A site is a set of templates. A pack is a container with a quantity. Until that is written, everything that follows is decoration on an unknown object. The brief templates on this site start there, and they derive the specifications that follow from it, because the person briefing rarely knows them and should not have to.
One audience, in one line
A creative brief that lists four audiences has none. Name one person: their job, their situation, what they already believe. One hundred and forty characters is enough, and the cap is deliberate, because a longer field fills with market language and stops describing a person.
One objective
The verb is the hardest part. Buy, book, sign up, get in touch, understand, trust. Most briefs dodge it with "raise awareness", which is not something a person does. If the objective cannot be written as an action one person takes, the work cannot be judged against it, and the review will be a matter of taste.
Direction by recognition, not description
People are poor at describing what they want and good at recognising it. Five things you like and two you would not want, each with one reason attached, communicate more than a paragraph of adjectives, and they communicate it without the word "premium". The tone that comes out of those picks can be stated in three axes, and when the picks contradict each other the brief should say so rather than average them.
Constraints are the brief
What must appear. What already exists. What must not be got wrong. These are the lines a designer reads first, and they are the lines most creative briefs leave out because they feel obvious to the person writing them. The mandatory legal line, the logo lock-up that cannot change, the product that must never be shown on a desk: put them in, and put the most important one in a box at the top.
Budget, dates, approvals
Not because they are creative, but because they decide what is creative. A budget band decides which of four productions is on the table. A date decides whether the technique is even possible. The number of approvers, with a named tiebreak, predicts the number of revision rounds better than anything else in the document.
Which brief to use
This site does not have a generic creative brief, on purpose. It has a motion brief, a website brief, and a print and packaging brief, because the questions that matter are different in each, and a template that fits all three fits none. Pick the one that matches the deliverable.
The questions in the motion brief, and what goes wrong without them
- ScopeWhat are you making?Without it the designer prices the smallest reading of the job and everything after is a change request.
- ScopeWhere will it play?Each placement is its own deliverable with its own ratio, duration and sound rules. Three placements briefed as one film is a threefold deliverable count nobody priced.
- ScopeWhich cut is the hero?only when it appliesA 9:16 hero re-framed to 16:9 is a different film from the reverse, and the difference is usually a shoot decision.
- CraftHow is it made?Live action and 3D can differ four times over in cost. Left open, the designer quotes for the cheapest reading.
- CraftWhat does this need?only when it appliesA shoot day implies a producer; talent implies casting; a location implies permits. Unnamed, these arrive as extras.
- CraftWhat kind of 3D?only when it appliesPhotoreal 3D built from scratch is a different budget from stylised work on existing models.
- CraftSoundA voice means a script someone has to write. Licensed music means a territory and a term someone has to negotiate.
- LookPick what you likePeople are unreliable at describing taste and reliable at recognising it. Five picks say more than a paragraph of adjectives.
- LookYour picks pull two ways. Which is closer?only when it appliesWhen the references contradict each other, the designer has to pick a side. Better that you do.
- LookWhat exists, and what must appear?Every unticked asset is a line in the estimate. Skipping this produces the phrase 'we assumed you had that'.
- LookWho is this for?A film for existing customers and a film for people who have never heard of you are different films.
- PracticalitiesBudget rangeA band is a signal about which kind of job is on the table, not a commitment. Without one the designer guesses.
- PracticalitiesWhen does it go live?A date only means something next to the minimum production window. If they do not fit, better to know now.
- PracticalitiesWho signs it off?The number of approvers, with a named tiebreak, predicts revision rounds better than anything else in the brief.
- PracticalitiesThe one thing that must not be got wrongEvery project has one. It is rarely written down because it feels obvious to the person who knows it.