Creative Brief: [Project Name]

The purpose of writing a Creative Brief is to clarify your thinking upfront and to force
you to make decisions at the beginning of the marketing project so that the marketing
or advertising agency can start working on it with a complete picture of what you
want. This process allows the design and production process to happen efficiently
and therefore less expensively. People who don’t take the time to write a creative
brief frequently end up making many changes to the requirements of the project
during the project and this causes rework and ultimately leads to missed deadlines,
higher costs and frustrated designers and agencies. A Creative Brief should be so
complete that if you handed it over to the agency and disappeared for the duration of
the project, the end result should be pretty close to what you wanted.

Project Project name

Client Client company name
Date November 1, 2022
Contact Contact name at the client

email
phone

Project Description
Briefly describe the project in one or 5-sentence paragraph. (objective of the project/campaign &
target market briefly age, gender, class)

Background
Briefly describe any background to this project that would be helpful to the agency. Why are you
doing this project? Is it part of or connected to anything else?
i.e this is a new product launch for our company but there are 2 competitors in market; or we have
had this product for years and have just decided to invest in marketing it better. (position with
regards to competitors in the market & history of the company)
What is going on in the market? Mention important trends. What are competitors doing?

Deliverables
What are the end deliverables? What will the agency actually provide you? (IMC tools that you want
to use)
i.e a printed brochure, a functioning website, a radio ad, a poster etc.

Requirements
List the requirements of the end deliverables. What are the key requirements? (Breakdown of the IMC
tools, seconds, size, etc)
i.e. quantity, sizes, weights, commercial length, video formats, audio formats, other file formats etc.
Mandatory Elements
List the mandatory elements. Be careful here not to put too many items as you will tie the hands of
your agency as far as the concepts or designs go. (Logo, slogan, etc.)
Ideally, you want to give them freedom to be as creative as possible. Potential mandatory items
might include: a logo, a tagline, a website URL. By putting items on this list you are saying “Don’t
show us any creative that does not have these things on it.”

Advertising Communication Strategy

To the target audience
It is important to include this section below because good agencies need this information in order to
produce creative material that is “on strategy” for your brand. The inputs to the development of the
Communication Strategy are generally research data and analysis using established marketing
frameworks.

WHO do you want to reach?

Term Definition Segment Description

Primary This is the main subset of the total population

Target (directly that you want to target.
want to target)

Secondary They should be people who are relatively easy to

Target target in clusters of some kind.
(possible
segments to
buy)

WHAT will you say to them?

Term Definition Example

Unique Selling This carefully chosen sentence or phrase must ThermaSilk helps you get the
Proposition define what compelling benefit you will offer to look you want and the
(Campaign your user or consumer. It must be short and to protection your hair needs.
Message) the point.

Reason To This carefully chosen sentence or phrase must Thermasilk contains patented
Believe (RTB) define why your consumer or user should believe silk protein formulas which
that you can deliver your benefit. RTBs can be protect your hair against the
rational or emotional. damage that blow dryers,
Rational or emotional (influencers, professionals, curling or flat irons can bring
etc) and work with heat to give you
intense conditioning.

Brand If your brand were a person what key words Beautiful, flirty and
Character about their character would you want to aspirational.
emphasize? (Eg. Fun or serious? Inspiring or
chummy?) 3-4 words

Features These are positive attributes of your product or  Comes in 200ml, 750ml and
service that ultimately create or deliver the 1L sizes.
benefit described above.  Comes in 4 versions:
Normal, Dry, Oily,
 Permed/Color Treated.
 Widely available at retailers
across Canada.

HOW will you communicate it? (min 4)

Tool Description

TV Ad  What is the storyboard?

 Which Channels will be considered for broadcasting?
 What is the ad duration?
 What is the appeal to be used?
 What is the main objective of this tool?

Print Ads  Where would it be placed?

(Banners/Billboard/
posters)  How many Billboards/posters/Banners will be required?
 How long will it be used?
 What is the main objective of this tool?

EVENT / PROMO  Where will it be launched?

PIECES
 When will it be launched?
 Why will it be launched?
 What is the main objective of this tool?
 Free samples/Giveaways will be used?

Social Media  Which platforms will be used?

 Why these platforms will be used?
 What is the frequency of posting will be considered? (3-5 posts/week)
 What is the main theme/appeal of the posts?

Other Tools

Design Strategy (campaign theme & brand manual)

If you have an existing Design Strategy or Design Theme that must be followed, you should clarify
that here. Design Strategy is sometime referred to as Brand Guidelines or a Mood Board.
It specifies which fonts, colors and design theme have been chosen for this brand.
A Design Theme is a metaphor that defines the aesthetic direction of the Brand. It is an
inspirational, not a literal execution.
For example, the design theme of ING Direct is “orange citrus fresh”. The design theme of FIDO is
“as trustworthy and unique as your dog”.
The design theme of the Gillette Venus shaving line is “sea glass.”
Priority of Communication (main visual element in the ad)
When a person looks at a piece of advertising, their eye often goes to certain elements first which
cause them to draw conclusions about whether or not the item is relevant. In this list you specify the
order of priority for the headlines or visuals as a guide to help the designer.

Desired Response
What do you want the viewer of this ad to do? Just know about you? Call and sign up? Refer a friend?
Feel something? What is the call to action (CTA)?

Talent Objectives
If applicable, what guidelines can you give the agency on the kind of talent (models/actors) you want
in any photos or video elements? Do you want only certain ages, races or styles of people? Are you
looking to show diversity and of what: age, race, style? If yes, then communicate it here.

Budget (1 million)
What is the budget for this project?

Approvals
Signatures below indicate that the Creative Brief is approved and the agency may begin work.

Project Manager Signature Date Final Approver Signature Date

END