The document discusses moving away from traditional brief formats focused on a single point towards a more strategic approach centered around participation, connections, and co-creation. It argues briefs should provide cultural and consumer insights, the brand's role, and a direction for how the brand can participate in people's lives rather than just copy points. The goal is to make planning more challenging and knowledge more enduring.

1. Stand Up - Sit Down
Stand up-Sit down
1. Does your agency have a strategic brief format?
2. Is your agency in the process of rethinking your brief format?
3. Do you still believe in briefs?

2. Our impetus for change.

3. • The “single most important point”
can support a 30 second TV spot or
a print ad.
• It is largely about copy. Not
strategy.
• It can’t support a website, e-
commerce, a social network, a
mobile application, a live event -
the list goes on.

4. • It’s not enough to feed the team.
• By the way, the team is feeding on
information too.

9. Bringing Perspective to the Brief

10. We drive into the future using
only our rearview mirror.
Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the
result of trying to do today's job with
yesterday's tools and yesterday's concepts.
Marshall McLuhan

11. Remediation:
new media
technologies
refashion
prior media

12. Belt & Suspenders
Made us magical
Changed behavior
The Photographer’s
The Subject’s

13. Evolution of Consumer Learning

14. Intersection & Connection
Lives & Customs
Unmet Needs
Product
Facts
This is not
a single most
important thought.

15. It’s not about a point.
It’s about a plan.

16. Participation
Connections
Engagement
Co-Creation

17. Participation
To take part in or share
Being related to a larger
whole

18. Participation
Working toward achieving a substantial
goal that is larger than any one
assignment or execution.

19. Do I really want to
participate with
everything?
Even toilet paper?

20. Do you always want to participate?
Low/High Reward - enjoyment from brand
decision making
Low/High Risk - what’s at stake in making
brand choices
How does advertising really work in the Digital Age? Foley, Greene, Cultra/Leo Burnett

21. Routine - involve little conscious
consideration
Burden - uninteresting, but with
substantial risk
Passion - hobbies, laden with
meaning and emotion
Entertainment - rewarding, involve
little risk
How does advertising really work in the Digital Age? Foley, Greene, Cultra/Leo Burnett

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Entertainment
How does advertising really work in the Digital Age? Foley, Greene, Cultra/Leo Burnett
The category types reveal unique patterns of decision-making, as well as a central challenge and a
central opportunity for advertising. They also reveal different digital opportunities.
Routine
These products involve little conscious consideration and great inertia because these are relatively
uninteresting products and the risk posed by a wrong decision is minimal. Behavior in the
purchase funnel is almost robotic. Routine’s central challenge is inertia. Category leaders can
leverage this to advantage, but other brands need Blue Ocean strategies to break the loyal habits of

23. Participating, in theory . . .

25. Participating to behavior change

26. In D.C. area, fees for shopping bags, parking pinch consumer
By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Starting Friday, consumers in the District will shell out more for disposable shopping bags, and in a few weeks, they'll pay
more to park on the city's streets -- all part of a year-long trend around the Washington region to generate fees to help close
budget gaps and pay for programs.
City OKs 20-cent fee on plastic, paper bags
Council also outlaws foam food and drink containers
By KATHY MULADY
P-I REPORTER
July 28, 2008
Move over, baseball caps and T-shirts.
Logo-emblazoned cloth grocery bags could soon become the most popular company freebie in the Puget Sound region.
Seattle became on Monday one of the first major American cities to discourage the use of paper and plastic shopping bags by requiring
grocery, drug and convenience stores to charge 20 cents per bag. In a related action, the City Council also banned plastic foam food
and drink containers.
Both laws will go into effect Jan. 1.
People can avoid the fees by bringing their own reusable bags when they shop.

29. Technology can enhance an experience
and also change a perception.

30. Remediating the Brief
Decide what should be
kept and what should be
lost.
Develop a foundational
philosophy.
Make the planning job
more challenging.
Make the knowledge
collected evergreen.

31. Foundational philosophy
Triangulation

32. Something about People
Something about
Culture at Large
Something
about the
Brand

33. What People Do
The Cultural
Backdrop
The Brand
Context

34. The Brand Context

35. The Brand Context
What is the brand known for?
What position does it own in its
category?
When was this brand at its best and how
did it behave?
What problems does it face or what
opportunities can it take advantage of?
What does this brand need to do?

36. People and Culture

37. People and Culture
What are people doing in their lives?
Think of them beyond “users” or “non-
users”.
What do they want or need to do it
better?
What are their emotional drivers?
What significant events or issues make
up the cultural backdrop for our
efforts?

38. What gets lost
The single most important point

39. What is Better
The Strategic Direction
How we will participate in people’s lives and
get them to participate with us.
The behaviors and attitudes we’d like to see.
Where we will meet up with them.
What will give us momentum.
The kind of public conversation we want to
provoke and where it will happen.

40. Make the planning job
more challenging

41. Monitoring Progress
What could go right with this effort? What
could go wrong?
How might the competition respond?
What do we want to learn and how will we use
it?
How will we measure our efforts?
What’s next?

43. Your Assignment:
Create an integrated campaign for Audi focused on
Millennial consumers
Deliverables:
Interested in a social networking application

44. VCU Brandcenter – Participation Plan
The Brand Context
(What is this brand known for? What position does it own in its category? What problems does it face or what
opportunities can it take advantage of? What does this brand need to do?)
Audi has been the inconspicuous luxury import. Respected but little known beyond maybe “great
design”. Despite impressive credentials in the European racing and driving world, Audi has a smaller
following in the US. Audi wants to take on, and take its rightful place in the US, among the “big 3”
imports: Mercedes Benz, BMW and Lexus. Audi needs to establish its cars, drivers and brand on its
own terms rather than in comparison to the other guys, which is how the brand has been defined to
date. Audi needs to harness the power of what differentiates it, like TDI technology, in a way that the
car shopper can understand.
Our Objective for this Effort
(What do we want to accomplish with this effort? What goal do we have? Be as specific as possible.)
Cement Audi as the performance import that the new generation of luxury car buyers aspire to own.
Get a better than fair share of the Millenial audience as they trade up from the car they can afford to the
car they’ve earned.

45. The Cultural Context (Think about the users and potential users of this product or service, and the current
cultural backdrop that this effort will play out against. Consider the following questions: What are people doing in their
lives? What do they want or need to do it better? What are their emotional drivers?)
Times are hard for the car industry. Soaring gas prices, government bailouts, environmental zealots.
Luxury imports have been able to maintain a lower profile because combined they don’t represent the
largest segment of the US auto market. The US remains a car-culture nation and there continues to be
a market for people who enjoy the design, detail and “drive” of a European car.
Millenials are coming of age with a greater design aesthetic than previous generations. Whether
affordable design via Target, Project Runway high fashion or tech sleekness by Apple this generation
flaunts design as a birth rite. They have enjoyed, until recently, economic prosperity and it is not
outlandish to think they will quickly move up to owning an expensive car, preferably an import. Their
luxury role models are also in flux. Mercedes and Lexus are considered “Dad cars”. BMW’s are great,
but they come with that bling @#%hole stigma. Surprisingly, Prius is now considered by many in this
target to be an aspirational car.
Shopping for cars has been dramatically changed by the Internet and there is every reason to
believe that Millenials will lean hard on this medium to help them make this important purchase.
While having a new car is a thrill, dealing with comparison shopping, visiting dealerships and bargaining
is still seen as a pain in the ass. Millenials expect the internet will make them smarter, better prepared
and get them taken seriously by dealers. Ironically, no car brand has really looked to harness the
Internet in unique and proprietary ways to make an impact on their business.

46. The Strategic Direction (Consider the following while formulating the plan: How do we participate in
peoples’ lives or get them to participate with us? What behavior and attitude would we like to see? Where do we meet
up with them? What will give this strategy momentum? What do we want the public conversation to be? Where will this
conversation take place?)
- Be useful beyond just getting me to the test drive. Make me a better driver.
- Be ready when I show up. Acknowledge me. If I’ve done my homework, why should the dealership
send me back to square one?
- Give performance a more worthwhile point-of-view that trumps the price tag. Give me more to talk
about when I tell your story.
The Strategic Direction in one simple sentence: Own the better way to get to
the better car.
Measurement (What could go right with this effort? What could go wrong? How will our competition respond?
What do we want to learn and how will we use it? How will we measure it? What might come next?)

47. Pause

48. Building a Strategic Ecosystem

50. The Dream
An ecosystem of information
and insight.

52. Business
Cultural
Context
Users

53. Business Competitive Culture Users
Key competitors LIVE* LIVE*
Share
Sales Insight Consumer
Sales
Panels
Share Implications
Lines of business
Tracking
Spending Data
Distribution
Claims Simmons
Products
Packaging Insight
Packaging
Distribution Implications
Pricing
Advertising
Category
style
strategy
Success/Failure
media

54. Non-Users Connection What ifs?
LIVE*
Consumer
Panels
Tracking
Data
Simmons
Insight
Implications
General Lifestyle
Top movies
Top albums

55. Demo the tool

56. In-class
Assignment
- Count off by 5s
- Discuss how you “do” briefs today
- Think about everything you’ve seen
and heard while at Brandcenter this
week
- How will you think and act
differently about briefs next week?

58. How to find us:
On Twitter
@CaleyCantrell
@mavnet
Via e-mail
cscantrell@vcu.edu
msavnet@vcu.edu
Other
cantrell.tumbler.com