The Universal Creative Brief

Here at The Ad Contrarian global headquarters, we know that our friends in agencies have a big problem: How do you write a creative brief that sounds original, yet says exactly the same thing as every other brief? Not an easy task!

Consequently, we have developed a universal creative brief that can work in any situation. All you have to do is fill in the brand's name and, bingo, your brief is done and you're ready to get back to your important Facebook obligations.

                                         UNIVERSAL CREATIVE BRIEF

Client: (_________)

Job No. XB-9901

Date: April 27, 2015

Situation:

(___________) is a beloved challenger brand. In order to maintain its relevance, we must engage the millennial target in a way that creates a cognitive and emotional connection between the brand and the target. 

Key Insight:

Our millennial target is turned-off by advertising. They do not react to linear brand messages or product claims. In order to impact this consumer positively, the keys are authenticity and transparency. 

Assignment:

We need to create a new communication platform for (_________). This should not be seen by the target as “advertising.” In fact, we should resist the urge to create material that delivers one-way messaging. Instead, we should encourage our target to engage and co-create with us in a way that provides a framework for unified brand-target alignment.

Objectives:

1. Transition ­­­­from a "functional" brand to an "emotional" brand.
2. Create a purpose-driven movement with the brand at the center. 

3. Motivate an ongoing conversation between our brand and our millennial target.

4. Socialize our transparency initiative for full stakeholder buy-in.

5. Utilize data-driven insights across the brand portfolio. 

Strategy:

Primary: Institute a multi-channel solution that leverages owned, earned, and bought media assets.

Secondary: Communicate the brand essence across the brand ecosystem.

Desired Outcomes:

1. Target will view us as an authentically relevant brand that is aligned with millennial social constructs and beliefs.

2. Target will understand and appreciate our transparency initiative and assign positive meaning to the brand. 

Mandatories:
1. Our iconic Dancing Rabbits must appear in every piece of communication.
2. Please use the stacked logo as the client believes it has more impact than the horizontal logo.
3. “Quality And Value” remain at the core of our value proposition and should be prominent in all materials. Client did not think the underscore on "and" was impactful enough in our last round.
4. Client wants to test use of QR Codes in all visual media. Believes most brands make a big mistake by making the QR Code too small. (Let's not make this mistake!)

5. Stay away from words like "production", "factory", "children", "fatalities" as these may evoke negative cognitive links to our ongoing Philippines problem.

6. Everything needs to work seamlessly with our “Summer Season of Savings” sales event. This is our biggest sales driver of the year. This event needs to ROCK!