There?s one thing the average account executive dreads more than dealing with creative people: dealing with creative briefs. The usual reaction to a creative brief is ?what rubbish is this!? and the final work more often than not has no relation to the written brief. Yet, the importance of the creative brief has been drilled into the average account-handling guy several times throughout his career. Thankfully, in large agencies the responsibility lies with the account planning group ? albeit for major projects. Personally speaking, the creative brief has been the one document where most of the training is focused on.
While every agency group has attempted to take cognizance of the changing environment, the creative brief format hasn?t changed fundamentally over the years. Most ask for a description of the problem, target audience for the communication, proposition, the support, tone of voice and so on. With such briefs, the word brief becomes a misnomer. While the creative team seeks clarity, focus, and inspiration, the briefs tend to meander all over the place and simply serve the purpose of initiating a job.
Attempts have been made to change the creative brief from a ?brief for an ad? to a ?brief for an idea?: to simplify the task at hand for the creative team and hopefully inspire them to think of media neutral ideas. At DraftFCB, we have simplified the brief to just three questions. It starts with a focus on data ? not just mind-numbing data but that one jaw-dropping number that can have an impact on the business strategy for the brand. In fact, this very ability of these numbers to impact business was the subject of an article by Bill Taylor (co-founder of Fast Company and co-author of Mavericks at Work) at Harvard Business Review blogs. He cites some interesting numbers that were part of the DraftFCB case studies: 80% of people age 45+ consider changing careers; only 6% actually do. We?re in front of whiteboards four hours a day, but only use them for four minutes.
It?s not just about finding a number to focus on: its about finding that one jaw-dropping number and giving it a twist in a manner that will have a huge impact on the business.
The rise of the digital medium should have an impact on the creative brief too. Gareth Kay, director of digital strategy at Goodby Silverstein & Partners has made a wonderful case for a ?brief in the post digital era?. He argues that the pre-digital era was about saying things to people while the post-digital era is about doing things for them. He also suggests that the new brief be tweaked to focus on the best approach to solving a problem and how to get people to talk about this idea. How wonderfully true! Mark Ritson, an associate professor of marketing and brand consultant wrote a thought-provoking?article in Marketing Week, wherein he commented: ?I can appreciate why 2 million people follow Google on Twitter and what those consumers get in return. But most brands don?t have the newsworthiness, broad appeal or dynamism to have any chance of making Twitter work for them?.
Take the case of the recent Old Spice personalized video responses to brand mentions on social media?that?s a product of new thinking, new brief. While the Old Spice brand commercial was a YouTube hit and won a Grand Prix at the Cannes festival, the client, agency team (comprising social media experts, tech folks, creative and film producers) came up with this mammoth idea of thanking folks in the digital world with personalized videos. So, mentions of @OldSpice on Twitter evoked a response in the form of a video featuring the shirtless Isaiah Mustafa. Celebrities and even ordinary folk were picked up for such responses and a total of 183 videos made in just over a day. Such a collaboration of talent in double quick time to create great content is truly commendable. Now, can such an activity emanate from a traditional stimulus-response brief?
Sure, in the Indian context getting the right brief out for a TV commercial is and will be the focus for a long time. But with the rise of internet (130 million users according to Morgan Stanley?s Internet Trends Report, April 2010), likely penetration of 3G and broadband and popularity of social networks among opinion makers, more and more brands will look beyond traditional media for brand communication. Will the ?what?s the one thing we want to say?? question still work or should it take into account the two-way nature and conversations and lack of control of new media? In other words, should the new creative brief be engineered to evoke ?newsworthy? content from creative?
The writer is vice-president ? Bangalore of DraftFCB Ulka. The views expressed here are personal