How to Brief a Marketing Agency
A new client recently emailed us a brief here at Mano Design. It was very brief brief indeed. All it said was, “Can you write me some copy for a postcard?” Resisting the urge to write, “Dear Customers. Having a wonderful time – wish you were here. Love, The Client,” we asked him for a more detailed brief and explained why it was necessary.
Why Write a Brief?
Even with something as simple as a small piece of copy, a proper brief will save you time and money.
The agency will also have a better chance of getting the work right first time, so you get the quality of work you expect.
Plus, it gives you something to measure the agency’s work against; i.e. how well they responded to and met the brief.
What is a Brief?
A brief (sometimes called a ‘creative brief) tells the agency what objective you are seeking to achieve. It answers the ‘where are we now’ and ‘where do we want to get to’ questions.
Ideally, the brief should be a written one. It focuses attention and provides the foundation for your marketing campaign. The brief should be agreed by both you and the agency before work begins and it can to some extent form a sort of contract.
The length of the brief does not matter as much as ensuring that it contains key information and objectives. Tell the agency what the business problem is, what you wish to achieve and how you will evaluate success.
What Exactly Do you Put in a Brief?
The format of a brief depends on the task. A website creative brief will need to contain different information from one for a brand-building press ad campaign for example. However, below are some basic guidelines:
1. Project information
Include your company name, contact details, project name and project manager, brand or product/service name, agency name and date.
2. Background (where are we now)
Here, give background information on your company and your industry. Tell the agency about your product/service (including key attributes and benefits) together with the issues it is facing. Include information on past marketing communications campaigns and their results. Provide details of competitor activity.
3. Objectives (where do we want to be?)
Explain what you want to achieve, e.g. increase sales, improve awareness, raise response levels, etc. Try to make your objectives specific and measurable.
4. Strategy (how do we get there?)
Give details of what you want the agency to do for you, e.g. a direct mail campaign, a website, a brochure, etc. Explain how what you are asking the agency to do fits in with your overall marketing strategy.
5. Audience (who are we talking to)
Your objective is to get a response from your audience. Tell the agency who your target audience is. Define your audience(s) as accurately as possible and share any insights you have about them with the agency.
6. Evaluation (what success will look like)
How will you measure success? When will it be measured? Who will measure it?
7. Practicalities
Mandatories:
Is there anything that must be included; for example – offer terms and conditions? Are there any corporate identity guidelines? What legal constraints are there?
Timings:
What are the deadlines? What are the media booking dates (if applicable)? By when do you want to see creative concepts? Does the project have to tie in with dates of other campaigns?
Budget:
Specifying a budget up front will help to avoid reworking of solutions. If you are reluctant to do this, then suggest three budgets and ask the agency which they would recommend and why. Alternatively, ask the agency to recommend a budget.
8. Approvals (who signs off work)
This should be the same person who signs off the brief before you give it to the agency.
The time spent preparing a brief will pay off in the long term. The agency needs a starting point and to know where it is you wish to go. Your brief should inspire them and enable them to do their best work for you.
Copyright © 2004, Chris Smith
About The Author
Chris Smith is a partner in Mano Design ( http://www.mano-design.com ) – a Vancouver Design and Marketing agency.
US Justice Department Only Serves Dishonest Competitors in Business
It is unfortunate as a business person to learn that you cannot trust the Justice Department of the United States of America. What an incredible letdown it is as a business person to watch how they actually operate. Here is how it works; a small business person in an innovative company moving fast in the marketplace due to a strong founder with an entrepreneurial background starts to take business away from a competitor.
The larger business and competitor is watching their customer base slightly dwindle due to the new innovative market participant. Because the larger business has been in business longer they are able to have a little more political clout and have developed friends along the way. Perhaps they have friends who are Senators or Congressman; they make a phone call and the Senator or Congressman puts in a call to a regulatory Federal agency to check into the business of the new innovative company.
Once the regulatory body starts to investigate the new company they immediately send out press releases that they are investigating this company. The new company is considered to be fraudulent merely by the fact that they are being investigated, whether are not they did anything wrong. Often the dishonesty of business and politics mix in what one could only describe the very problem that Adam Smith had warned us about.
By having the smaller company investigated, the larger company does not have to innovate to keep up with the new market participant and may also continue as usual without innovating in the marketplace to compete with the changing market. This makes the old industry or business model even less competitive and stodgy. Eventually as this goes on there will be a market entrant that also has political clout and the larger company which could have innovative along the way to keep up with the changes in the marketplace will fall to the new competition.
The old company never had to fall in the first place if it had worked hard to compete in innovate along with the market changes. So in essence the dishonesty between senators and congressmen along with businessmen ends up costing real Americans their jobs due to layoffs. This has happened in so many industries that there is no need to even give examples. What is truly unfortunate is that in our nation we stand for capitalism and free enterprise and free markets. But the dishonesty and lack of integrity of our politicians and the United States of America Justice Department causes conflict with these free markets and ideals.
If there was truly a level playing field in the marketplace then these older companies would adapt as needed to compete. But instead they put up barriers to entry for new innovative companies and rather than by the Company out with their cash flow or rise up and compete and streamline their business activities they choose to cheat. Is this what America stands for? Personally, having been in business for 27 years and dealt with this situation many times I have something to say to those larger older companies. You gentlemen are weak, inferior and afraid to compete in the marketplace. You talk a good game about how great your company is but in reality you are pathetic.
It’s obvious to me so many of today’s corporations are in efficient, the bureaucratic and cannot perform up to the expectations on the consumer or customer and constantly misrepresent themselves at every level. It is unfortunate that our government allows them to do this and even helps them to be more in efficient. Of course any time government gets involved of course there is inefficient, as they cannot do anything right either. What a bunch of wimps.
There is no way that a modern-day corporation can impress me after what I have seen in the marketplace. The utter incompetence of some of the largest companies that we know about are nothing more than smoke and mirrors and only exist because the government protects them from real entrepreneurs who can perform day in and day out. I am completely disgusted with the dishonesty of the United States Justice Department and all the little regulatory agencies, which are under their umbrella. I am equally disgusted by the little Harvard MBAs, which graduate each year and cannot even get out of their own way. If they didn’t have the government covering their butt they would fall on their face.
Personally, I have been a guest speaker at many MBA programs at top colleges and universities around the country and I am always amazed at the ridiculous questions that business students ask and I wonder how well they perform in the marketplace on their own? Well, the fact is that they can’t and their MBA certificate is only used so that they can put it on their r