Cooperation with an advertising agency - how to create an effective creative brief?

Sometimes little is enough to make an advertising campaign a hit. Successful marketing will bring in customers, and the more customers, the higher the profits - so it's worth learning about its tools.

A creative brief is a plan, a guide, a source of inspiration, a document containing a set of information necessary when creating an advertising campaign. It is the basic form of exchange between the client and the agency. It contains the advertising audience, market analysis, budget and ideas for implementation. A good advertising brief is an investment that more than pays for itself.

What do you gain?

A coherent , simple and inspiring creative brief brings many diverse benefits to both the agency and the client. Effective communication enables you to achieve your business and marketing goals. Such a guide saves time, effort and money, which you will put only in effective activities. By providing a framework budget for the advertising campaign, the advertising agency is able to propose options better suited to the capabilities and expectations of the brand. The brief serves not only the agency, but also you. By answering individual questions, by taking the time to analyze all the positives and negatives of your brand, you can organize everything you want to say about it.

What does a creative brief consist of?

General view

When analyzing the underlying data, you need to answer the questions:

• What is currently happening in the market and in the industry?
• How does the company compare to its competitors?
• What is my client's situation?
• What adversities will you face?

At the beginning of the process of creating an advertising brief, it is necessary to present the project, identify possible problems and plan further activities.

Definition of objectives

It is important to define precisely the expected effect that the campaign will have on the customer. It is necessary to design what the recipient will think, feel and do after coming into contact with the advertisement. The main goals of marketing communications are to shape the image and increase profits. It is important to define ways to measure the goals, or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), in order to account for the effects of the campaign. KPI tools include opinion surveys, satisfaction surveys, customer journey research, eyetracking and the number of newsletter signups.

Target audience

Marketing activity always has to target specific groups and has to meet their needs and expectations. Thus, by visualizing a portrait of the market participant, it answers the questions:

• Who is he?
• What kind of environment is he in?
• How to reach him?
• What else do I need to know about him?

More important than gender, age or location information is worldview and lifestyle. Pay attention to socio-demographic, psychological and group-specific aspects. When advertising a bank deposit or a car model, use different stylistic means, forms, graphic messages for a group of older people than for young people. In such a situation you are segmenting the market - divide the target group into appropriate subgroups, to which specific communications will be directed.

Strengths

Take a close look at the product or service, find the special features. Using a SWOT analysis, determine what the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the offering are. Analysis of the organization's internal and external environment, as well as project analysis, are important tools for strategic analysis. The campaign will focus on capitalizing on opportunities and highlighting strengths. In this part you can use both real advantages and those belonging to the emotional sphere, scored in order of importance to the consumer.

Expectations

What data will confirm that the money was well invested? By what will you know that the campaign was successful? Determine what the minimum financial result will be, which will be satisfactory, and what benefits you will ultimately achieve at the end of the project.

Schedule

Specifically define the time frame within which the agency can move. Time is the biggest bane of our market. There is always not enough of it! However, you need to include it in your schedule and give the agency the opportunity to become well acquainted with the subject and provide you with projects that meet your expectations.

Every entrepreneur should think about how they can realize the potential of an advertising brief. Therefore, it is not worth waiting and letting others get ahead. Beat your rivals.