All marketing campaigns are planned, or at least should be, with a clear goal in mind. Whether that goal is to increase brand recognition, boost sales, or generate excitement for a new product or offer, there is inevitably a milestone that companies look to reach through their advertising efforts.
Creative development should not be taken lightly. The key to making your creative impactful starts long before a headline is developed or a look and feel is conceptualized. Nailing the creative brief is a necessary initial step in the process and is crucial to the development and outcome of the overall effort.
Responsibility for a solid creative brief lies in the hands of both the client and the creative agency. While the client should take the lead on providing all necessary information and direction, the creative team should in turn push back when they don’t have all of the details and probe for additional insight to ensure that they have a complete understanding of the client’s goals. A misunderstanding at this initial stage can result not only in concepts that are off-track, but also in the loss of valuable time, and in a business where timing is everything, this is generally not an acceptable price to pay. In order to pave a smooth path for all parties involved, several key elements should be discussed when a project is initiated.
Clients should not hold back about distinctly communicating the objective of the campaign and should be as specific as possible — saying, for example, that the goal is to acquire new customers or beat an existing control.
The call to action should be just that – actionable. Providing information on what has and has not worked in the past will help to avoid pitfalls and allow for progress to be made upon proven techniques. Creative requirements such as necessary legal copy, logos and brand guidelines should of course be included in the brief. However, these requirements should not be so restrictive that the creative team does not have the flexibility to do what they do best — create.
