Tip #13 ∞ Writing the Creative Brief ∞

This week, Ad Age Magazine magazine reported that a survey of ad agency executives said that confusing client-written RFPs and Creative Briefs can be the source of one of the biggest mis-communications and time wasters for agency personnel. Read it here .

The comments posted by agency people on this article were also very enlightening. In fact, one blogger, Steven Stark of Stark Raving Blog used the space to promote HIS clever illustration of this very problem: Creative Brief of the Sistine Chapel, from the Pope to Michealangelo.

I thought it was pretty funny. And, in the fun, there is more than a kernel of truth.

Anyway, the point is that if you want to get the most from your ad agency you need to give them very clear sets of goals and directions because advertising is an art, as much as a science. There are many, many, many different ways to interpret and use advertising for the benefit of the client and to achieve client goals: When it comes to creativity, there are no WRONG answers.

The most successful and acclaimed advertising creative work will break every known rule.

Think of the1956 Lemon ad for Volkswagon. Or the 1984 ad for Apple computer: It only ran one time, during the 1984 Super Bowl and didn't even picture a computer at all, yet is one of the most widely acclaimed ads of all time, from the world's recently ranked top brand (Apple). Here's an article about the ad by Ted Friedman who studied the ad as part of his dissertation on the cultural history of the personal computer, if you want to read more about it.

I believe that the Creative Brief, or RFP, should obviously be clear: a kind of road-map for the agency, but I also believe that if the client is already working with an ad agency, then it's OK to let the AE write the brief, after they have done their initial project kick-off meeting (See paragraph #7 in Tip #10 article: The agency process) with the client, as long as the Approval Process is being followed for that Creative Brief document, as discussed in Tip #7.

Once the Creative Brief is written and decided upon, it should become a road-map. If the ultimate destination changes, then the road map should change too: Scope Creep - maybe we'll discuss tomorrow in Tip #14.