The Marketing Brief: Dying Art or Resilient Foundation?
One thing consistently reinforced to me as I learned the marketing trade was the importance of the brief. This one page document serves as a roadmap - a short but detailed source of truth that lays out what you want to accomplish and how you plan to do it. Whether collaborating with an in-house crew or external agency partners, a single minded brief aligns stakeholders, streamlines workflow, avoids rework and provides the freedom to find the most creative and effective solution to your business challenge. I say business challenge because a brief is not isolated to a marketing campaign, and can also be applied to wider business strategy.
In recent years it's felt like less of a thing - maybe even an afterthought or not done at all. Admittedly, the companies I’ve worked with in that time have been smaller than my banking days, but so were the companies I worked with early in my career - and they were all huge proponents of the brief. Peers at brands with the biggest budgets have also commented on a reduced emphasis on the brief.
So this month I wanted to explore the journey of the marketing brief, what might be influencing its role in modern business and how I think it can be returned to its rightful place as marketing’s foundational document.
Rise to prominence and varied quality
The creative brief gained prominence alongside the rise of planning in the 1960s. Strategic Planners became an extension of market research departments, aiming to represent the voice of the consumer and match this with the client's objectives. This helped fuel customer based, insight led marketing and what we call the USP/SMP (unique selling point or single minded proposition) today.
In the decades that followed, the brief served as the cornerstone of marketing, although the quality that was served up began to vary significantly as its use became more widespread. A 2021 survey of 1,700 marketers and agency staff from more than 70 countries suggested over a third of marketing budgets were wasted due to poor briefs, while just 5% of agencies believed the briefs they receive provide clear strategic direction (compared to 78% of the marketers writing them).
Decline and modern challenges
While the quality of briefs being served up has varied, there’s always been a consensus around its importance. For example, that same survey indicated over 90% of marketers and agencies agreed the brief was the most valuable tool in creating good work.
However, I wonder what that statistic would be now, some three years later in a world where performance marketing, internal media teams, and tools like Canva have increasingly reshaped the creative landscape.
Having spent recent years in early to mid stage start ups I can speak from experience that in some cases the brief is not used at all, let alone constructed poorly. It’s not just constrained to small companies though. Briefs were only loosely used at another company with a $100m turnover. Some of the factors that may be contributing to this include:
A reliance on real-time data and micro testing to drive highly optimized decision-making
Elements of media buying, creative, and content moving in-house and a view that internal briefs aren't needed
Agile methodologies, preference for digital communication tools, and digital templates have bypassed the perceived need for a structured brief
Heightened accountability and ROI-driven marketing place pressure to prioritize tactics that promise immediate results over strategic planning
An emergence of smaller agencies (often without planners) that take a highly pragmatic, cost-effective approach
A shift towards a more diverse landscape with a greater number of people employed by smaller companies that have immature processes and more immediate revenue pressures
Resurrect or Retire?
Is there still a role for the marketing brief in today's landscape? And if so, in what format? For me, the fundamentals of marketing haven't changed and never will:
We’ll always need to provide a reason to buy a brand
We’ll always work with multiple stakeholders to execute
The marketing brief articulates the first thing and ensures everyone is on the same page for the second. Providing clarity and direction remains paramount and I believe companies of all sizes would benefit from a refocus on this. Ways the brief can be elevated again might include:
Allocate time and treat it as an investment: At Commbank, our CMO used to have us line up outside his office once a week for ‘brief approvals’. He drilled into us that getting that one page document right was our most important job. “Can you put Westpac in this sentence? If you can, it's not defendable.”
Collaborative approach: Involve stakeholders from marketing, sales, product development, and senior leadership from the outset to enrich the brief and ensure alignment across departments. Ensure external partners are briefed in a formal session rather than over email
Be insight led: Ensure data informs the brief, including evidence as an appendix for full context
Integrate into existing processes: Embed the brief process into existing workflows and technologies so it becomes another logical step
Provide formal training: Offer formal training sessions or workshops on effective brief writing techniques
Establish clear approval processes: Implement clear approval processes to ensure briefs meet quality standards before finalization
Celebrate successes: Recognize and celebrate successful briefs and campaigns to reinforce their importance and motivate teams to excel in their briefing efforts
Elements of a Great Brief
An article about the marketing brief is not complete without reinforcing the elements of a great one. While there are variations, most successful briefs cover the same elements and are succinct enough to fit on one page (I’m sorry I didn't have time to write you a short letter). So I’ll sign off by sharing the brief template I use at Paul & Co and welcome any suggested improvements.
Context & insight: Share some background information on the company, including what it offers, its awareness levels, market share and current Cost Per Lead (CPL) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) - where relevant. Include any recent changes and the main challenges and objectives. Any additional information about competitors, the general industry and previous learnings would also be helpful (please attach documents)
Brief purpose/objectives: Tell us what you are trying to achieve from this exercise including measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives of the campaign. E.g ‘we need an end to end marketing plan’ or ‘a lead gen plan’ or ‘we need to fix our churn problem’ or ‘we need to sell $xm widgets within 6 months’ or ‘we need to embed a more data driven, customer centric culture within our business’ etc
Ideal customer profile(s) - ICP: Describe the ideal customer(s). For B2B this is usually their industry, number of employees, turnover and job title (and location). For B2C this can be demographics, income/wealth, psychographics and location. For both B2B and B2C please share typical customer spend levels and as much information about their known pain points and likely reasons why the company offering will resonate with them. Where multiple ICPs exist, please list them separately
Single minded customer value proposition - CVP: This is your current ‘elevator pitch’. Do your best to articulate the benefit the product or service offers the ICP in no more than one sentence
What words do you want to own in this industry?: When the ICP thinks about the company’s industry, what three words would you like them to associate with your brand? E.g. Easy to use, Best value, Trustworthy etc
Reasons to believe: Why should the ICP believe your single minded proposition and what makes these unique? List the reasons (usually features and benefits) below
Required deliverables: Tell us what assets you are expecting to have at the end of this engagement, particularly if you are after strategy only or both strategy and execution. E.g. confirmed ICP and CVP and/or Go to Market Plan and/or brand style guide and/or a Website and/or Sales Collateral/Pitch Deck etc. It’s okay if you don’t know. Just say, ‘please let us know what you recommend’
Budget: Where possible, please outline the available budget
Timing: Let us know when you need (a) a response to your brief and (b) the actual deliverables completed. For phased approaches, please provide multiple dates as best you can
Final things: Specify any desired communication tone and style and include brand guidelines. Also highlight any legal/compliance requirements including disclaimers, copyright, and industry regulations
