1. A good, creative brief presents a clear picture about your client
A good, creative brief presents a clear picture about your client. It helps you to understand his business, his customers and his goals.
Equally important, it forces your clients to take up position. You get them to think through their goals and expectations. This means you have a reliable commitment – something you can stick to.
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2. 1 | BACKGROUND INFORMATION
What business is your client in?
How does his market work?
How well known is the brand?
Get to know your client! --
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3. 2 | UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION
What distinctions separate it from others?
What does your client offer that is unique?
Why do people buy your client’s product?
The USP tells you what’s special about the product or service of your client.
Go further than the marketing blah-blah and find out why people really buy your client’s product. Is it the price, the unique features or maybe the good reputation? --
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3 | CLEAR OBJECTIVES
Why does your client want to start this project?
What does your client want to achieve?
How do you want to measure the success?
The first step in exceeding your customer’s expectations is to know those expectations.
At the end of the day you want to come away with 1 to 3 sharp objectives. --
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4 | TARGET AUDIENCE
Who are your client’s customers?
What are their characteristics?
What do they believe in?
When you have the objectives ironed out, you need to know who should buy the fish.
To nail this down you should go through demographics and psychographics such as age, income and behavior. Ask about data from market research. Maybe your client has already created personas you could work with. Try to have a chat with some of your client’s customers. The more you know about their clients, the better. --
Creative Brief Template | Filestage |

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5 | MARKET POSITION
What separates your client from their competitors?
What is the position of its major competitors?
How do the competitors stick out?
Now it’s time to look at your client in relation to other organizations in his industry.
Most clients have already prepared a SWOT analysis. It usually provides a good overview about the position. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threads. --
Creative Brief Template | Filestage |

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6 | DELIVERABLES
What are the right tools to reach the objectives?
What products or services will you deliver?
One of your jobs is to consult your client in the best possible way.
Ask yourself if what the client wants is actually the right choice to reach their objectives. If there are better ways, be open about it. If you want a happy client, help them select the tools that bring the best results. --
Creative Brief Template | Filestage |

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7 | TONE OF VOICE
Think of your client’s brand as a personality:
If it were a person, what would they be like?
Try to come up with about 3 strong and distinct values.
So you know what your client expects and what makes him unique. But what is your client’s tone of voice? Try to get a feeling of your client’s tonality and style.
A good way to extract the values is to reference any marketing materials your client is proud of. Do they have a logo, brochures or design guidelines they are fond of?
Try to analyze these materials at different levels. Do any of these marketing materials offer a valuable indicator for the tonality and the taste of your client?
My final piece of advice would be to be honest, keep it simple and don’t overthink your client’s tone of voice. --
Creative Brief Template | Filestage |

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8 | LIKES AND DISLIKES
Put together a mood-board
YouTube videos, Behance examples and Flickr photos
What are the dos and don’ts?
I often recognize that clients have trouble expressing what they like when it comes to things such as design, video or audio. This is particularly the case with clients who don’t work in marketing on an everyday basis.
Having a whitelist and a no-go list gives you clear borders. It marks your corridor and makes it easier to have a starting point. --
Creative Brief Template | Filestage |

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9 | BUDGET
Present different budget options:
Explain the pros and cons of each option.
How the result will differ depending on the investment?
A powerful strategy to find your client’s budget is presenting different budget options. This encourages your client to tell you which budget option is the most realistic. --
Creative Brief Template | Filestage |

11. 10 | TIMELINE AND MILESTONES
What are the deadlines and definite milestones
What are the points of no return?
Sure, the job has to be done fast. But before you finally start, agree on a clear schedule. --
Creative Brief Template | Filestage |

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