How to Write a Creative Brief in 11 Simple Steps [Examples + Template]
By bcoleman@hubspot.com (Basha Coleman)
The first step in any successful project is drawing up a game plan with a clear objective. It’s one of the reasons marketers love creative briefs.
A creative brief acts as a roadmap that takes a project from ideation to completion. It ensures the scope, timeline, key stakeholders, and purpose of the project are communicated clearly. The creative brief is the single source of truth for everyone working on a project. If questions come up or tasks become unclear, the creative brief will steer things in the right direction.
If you’re just starting out in a creative role, taking on your first gig as a designer or consultant, or you simply want to get better at writing creative briefs, this article has everything you need to know to write the most effective creative briefs.
Whether you’re a consultant pitching a creative brief to a client, or a project manager presenting a brief to your team, start by speaking with the project stakeholders. These discussions will help you understand the company’s mission, project goals, and challenges your team faces. Then, you’ll have enough information to write a compelling brief that focuses on what’s really important to your company or client.
The idea of a creative brief sounds simple, but it can be hard to wrap a lot of important details into just a few pages. Therefore, a creative brief is typically made of eight sections that can fit on one to two pages.
Creative briefs are pretty standard documents within just about every marketing, advertising, or design team. But the format of every company’s creative brief might vary slightly to suit the needs of the project or client. Below is a simple outline that will be the foundation of your creative brief. It includes the most important steps in the creative process and information that’ll be relevant to stakeholders involved in the project.
Once you’re fully informed and ready to write, use the following steps to draft yours. To make it even easier, I’ve included a fill-in-the-blank template in the last step.
Follow Along with HubSpot’s Free Creative Brief Templates
1. Decide on a name for the project.
The first step in developing a creative brief is deciding on a project name. This might sound simple, but it’s one of the most critical components of a creative brief. If you’re building a campaign around a brand new product or service, the campaign name will be the first time many members of your team will be introduced to it. Referring to the campaign (and therefore product or service) by the correct name prevents the game of telephone from happening. Without a specific and clear campaign name, people will make up their own terminology which can alter the intent of the campaign.
To create a project or campaign name for your creative brief, keep it creative and brief. A few words or a short …read more
Source:: HubSpot Blog
