An Argument For Better Briefs

If you ask any chef what matters the most when a restaurant is getting ready for a busy service, it’s the prep work. In the food industry, it even has a cool name: mis en place, which is French for “putting in place.” It means doing all the pre-work you’ll need–chopping herbs, peeling garlic, parboiling fries–hours before service begins, so as soon as the rattle and hum of a dinner rush starts, the team can focus on making the greatest food possible.

So what the hell does mis en place have to do with advertising? Well, for creative agencies, the prep-work–the mis en place–is a well-crafted creative brief. A solid brief puts in place the necessary strategies, insights, and guardrails before the real action–the campaign work, identity work, etc.–gets cooking. 

Big Burning Questions

A few months ago, we started to ask our clients “Big Burning Questions” a couple of times a quarter. These are simple but big-picture questions we wanted to run by our clients as brand-side marketers and thought leaders. 

For the most recent edition, we asked this group what are the key factors that help generate great creative work. Not surprisingly, the responses are kinda cool.

Top factors for “most responsible for good creative”. Ranked from most important (1) to least important (4).

1. Creative Talent–the team creating the work (1.55)
2. Clear client direction (2.45)
3. A key insight (2.55)
4. Client tolerance for something fresh/daring (3.18)

The focus on creative talent makes sense–a strong creative team can, in many cases, solve almost any problem. But assuming you have that talent in place (and luckily at Tailfin, we like to think we do), we were thrilled to hear that the 2nd and 3rd highest-ranked factors are components of a strong creative brief. 

Even with the best talent in place, strong client direction and meaningful insights give everyone–client, creative, and account teams–something tangible to sink their teeth into. 

In that same survey, we also asked about the top factors for “evaluating good creative”, from most important (1) through least important (6). It shaked out like this:

1. Scores high in user preference/engagement testing (1.55)
2. Clear message and call to action (1.64)
3. Is fresh/different (2.00)
4. Clearly, demonstrably on brief (3.18)
5. Garners collective consensus from client team (3.91)
6. Feels award-worthy (5.18)

Here’s where things get interesting. “On brief” is down at 4th when it comes to evaluating good work, but we just concluded you need strong brief components to create good work. While we can’t argue with factors 1 through 3 (data to back ideas, clear message, breakthrough) if the creative doesn’t connect back to the insights and direction…why did we bother? 

It’s easy to forget the brief when you see creative work–it’s a subjective exercise, and most of us react like we expect our audience to react, with emotions first. But the beauty of a good brief is that it provides an objective lens to temper an emotional, subjective reaction. That doesn’t mean a brief always results in great work but it’s not something you should just ignore once the creative team starts creating.

So, what do we do with this?

For clients

Step 1: Find agencies that do great work. If a good creative team is the most important thing in making great work, find agencies who have creative teams who do great work. Take a look at their portfolio, and look for inventive solutions in crowded industries. It’s a solid indicator of strong creative chops.

Step 2: Push for a solid strategy. Just because you have a great idea team, don’t get lazy on the strategy side. Don’t be afraid to push the agency to generate a well-informed, smart, and original strategy. A good rule is if a strategy doesn’t involve some real sacrifice–if it doesn’t make you choose a path and doesn’t make you slightly uncomfortable, the creative outputs likely won’t have the same level of breakthrough connectivity.

Step 3: Elevate your effort to provide upfront direction. We all recognize clear upfront direction is important, but it can also be a bit of a slog. Sometimes it’s easier to just “throw it over the fence” and let your agency figure things out. And great agencies will keep coming back until they get what they need; but, all that time spent digging, setting up another meeting, and then running you through questions you may have skipped on an input brief is probably costing you money. Tighten the direction as much as you can from the get-go–it’ll save everyone time (and money).

For Agencies

Step 1: Find people who are willing to do great work. Hire talented people and let them cook. Great creatives are great at ideating and then creating, so give them the capacity, time, and resources to do it.

Step 2: Push the strategy, and keep coming back to it. Much like the client, don’t be afraid to push on a strategy and keep coming back to it. Use it in internal “red hat” reviews, and remind everyone of the guardrails you agreed to at the outset.

Step 3: Have uncomfortable conversations (internally and with clients). The beauty of a brief is that it’s generally objective. Sure, there’s a level of interpretation, but if your brief is crystal clear, it’s easier to have hard conversations about creative, feedback, and everything in between because you have a document you’ve all agreed is your map.

A lot of people in advertising like to complain about, well, lots of things. And many times they like to complain about clients and their tendency to settle for what’s safe. We’ve all heard “they’re not daring enough,” “they just don’t get it,” or “they’re not thinking big enough.” 

But the best agency/client teams can take the simplest of assignments and turn it into something amazing. And that usually starts with a great brief; it’s the key element to generate excitement, to set tone, and (most importantly) to get everyone on the same page before the team gets cooking. So get your mis en place, people – it is the best route to creating something truly spectacular. 

On a related note, I think we may need to go binge season 3 of The Bear right about now…