A talk I gave to young brand managers at the PANA Brand Camp 29 March 2012

1. WRITING GREAT BRIEFS
PANA Brand Camp
29 March 2012

2. As a planner, I
read
write
and rewrite
a lot of briefs

3. Writing a brief is
not simply about
filling up a form

4. Writing a brief is a
creative task.
It is the first step
in the creative process.

5. What factors allow top creatives to
repeatedly produce
brilliant creative
performance?

7. IDEA-FOCUSED COMPANY VISION
(prioritizes great ideas and allows a creative work culture)

8. IDEA-FOCUSED COMPANY VISION
(prioritizes great ideas and allows a creative work culture)
CLIENTS WHO ENCOURAGE GREAT IDEAS
(and are not just open to them)

9. IDEA-FOCUSED COMPANY VISION
(prioritizes great ideas and allows a creative work culture)
CLIENTS WHO ENCOURAGE GREAT IDEAS
(and are not just open to them)
SURPRISING/INSPIRING INFORMATION
(deeper insights about the product, target, competition or brand)

10. IDEA-FOCUSED COMPANY VISION
(prioritizes great ideas and allows a creative work culture)
CLIENTS WHO ENCOURAGE GREAT IDEAS
(and are not just open to them)
SURPRISING/INSPIRING INFORMATION
(deeper insights about the product, target, competition or brand)
A FASCINATING CLIENT BRIEF
(defines the problem in a way that is inspiring and exciting)

11. IDEA-FOCUSED COMPANY VISION
(prioritizes great ideas and allows a creative work culture)
CLIENTS WHO ENCOURAGE GREAT IDEAS
(and are not just open to them)
SURPRISING/INSPIRING INFORMATION
(deeper insights about the product, target, competition or brand)
A FASCINATING CLIENT BRIEF
(defines the problem in a way that is inspiring and exciting)
AN INSPIRING CREATIVE BRIEF
(has a single-minded proposition that is focused and exciting)

12. 3 out of 5
have to do with the quality of the brief

13. The author the the brief
of
is
owner of the problem
Write it in a way that inspires the best solutions

14. Great solutions require
great problems

16. “Please paint the ceiling.”

17. “Please paint the ceiling.”
“Please paint the ceiling using red, green and yellow paint.”

18. “Please paint the ceiling.”
“Please paint the ceiling using red, green and yellow paint.”
“Please paint biblical scenes on the ceiling using some or all of
the following: God, Adam, angels, cupids, devils and saints.”

20. “Please paint our ceiling for the greater glory of God
and as an inspiration and lesson to his people.”

21. Give the agency
the problem you
want to solve,
not the solution you want

22. A brief typically contains:
MARKET AND BRAND SITUATION
THE PROBLEM
OBJECTIVE
TARGET AUDIENCE
WHAT WE WILL COMMUNICATE
REASONS TO BELIEVE
CHANNELS
BRAND ESSENCE AND PERSONALITY
EXECUTIONAL MANDATORIES

23. MARKET AND BRAND SITUATION
This is the background to the brief

24. Context is everything
It puts color and meaning into what the campaign must achieve
Are there category issues affecting the brand? Unilab vs. generics
Are there external factors threatening the brand? e.g. Coke and the economic crisis
Are there internal factors that pose a challenge? e.g. a price increase
Are there new trends that are repositioning you? e.g. herbal medications

26. The background to the brief should be written
to set up the problem that
the campaign needs to solve.

27. THE PROBLEM
Arguably the most important part of the brief

28. There are different levels of problem
Business Eg. Profit margin is too low to sustain share price
Marketing Eg. Price premium unsustainable
Diagnosing
the right Brand Eg. User imagery is wrong
problem is
essential
Communication Eg. No awareness of the product range
Channels Eg. Can’t afford TV
Creative Eg. People don’t understand the advertising

29. How you define the problem
defines the solution

31. Background
Pizza Hut wants to grow its non-pizza business because this helps
attract people to dine in more frequently (which will help grow revenue)
To do this, it will launch a pasta line called Pasta Perfetto
The pasta line was launched (and failed) twice in the past 2 years
Key competitor is a specialist pasta chain called Pastamania!
The Problem as stated in the original brief:
How can we excite people
about the new and improved
Pasta Perfetto line?

32. The Real Problem
Skepticism
Singaporeans refuse to believe that Pizza Hut can make good pasta
because the brand name suggests it’s good at pizza, not pasta

33. The Real Problem
Skepticism
Singaporeans refuse to believe that Pizza Hut can make good pasta
because the brand name suggests it’s good at pizza, not pasta
How do we prove to skeptics that
good pasta can actually come
from a place like Pizza Hut?

34. The Real Problem
Skepticism
Singaporeans refuse to believe that Pizza Hut can make good pasta
because the brand name suggests it’s good at pizza, not pasta
How do we prove to skeptics that
good pasta can actually come
from a place like Pizza Hut?
The Solution
Remove the brand name
from the picture, and let
the product speak for itself

36. Tips in writing a great problem
Describe the problem in
three sentences or less
If possible, reduce the
problem to a challenging
question
State the problem,
don’t prescribe the solution
Market research is useful
for problem definition
Be excited by the problem

37. It is a universal misconception
that a wide, unspecific briefing is
better because it does not limit
creative people

38. THE OBJECTIVE

39. Many briefs start with
a poorly stated objective

40. “Generic objectives”
(not wrong but not specific enough either)
To create awareness
To increase sales and/or increase market share
To steal share from the competition
To grab share from Brand X
To encourage switching
To generate trial
To increase brand loyalty
To strengthen emotional affinity
To increase consumption frequency
To recruit new users

41. Metrics are not necessarily the
same as campaign objectives

42. Campaign objectives are more
actionable if they are stated in terms of
how we want the target to respond
Attitudinal change?
Behavioral change?
Perception change?

43. GOOD
objective?
or BAD
objective?

44. Explain BPI’s new housing loan
product to first-time home
buyers

45. Get moms to cook dishes using
Nestle Cream at least once a
week

46. Remind teens that Coca-Cola is
about happiness

47. Encourage more frequent
break time consumption
of KitKat

48. Convince office workers
who endure headaches to
take Biogesic at the onset
of a headache

49. A useful way of expressing objectives
FROM TO
(it also makes it easier to judge if
the creative work meets the brief)

50. FROM TO
Famous for cakes Famous for cakes
and pastries

52. FROM TO
For celebrating my For celebrating my
child’s 1st and 7th child’s birthday
birthdays only every year

54. FROM TO
The drink for special The drink that goes
meals with the family well with everyday food

56. TARGET AUDIENCE

57. People, not statistics

58. “Classically bad”
Males and Females 18-34 y.o., ABC socio-economic class
CD moms in Metro Manila
Office workers 21-45
Devoted mothers who want to give their kids the best

59. A good target audience description
Demographic description
(important but not defining)
Relevant psychographic profile:
Habits, attitudes, desires, fears, aspirations, motivations
The target in relation to your brand or category

60. Skelan
Arthritis stricken life enthusiasts.
They are 50+ adults from the CD SEC. While they acknowledge
pain, anxiety and incapacity are part of the arthritis
experience, they remain positive and optimistic.
In fact they want to continue being able to fully participate in
life. They’re not ready to stay home and do nothing.

62. WHAT WE WILL COMMUNICATE

63. There are different ways to state what we
want the campaign to communicate
A benefit; rational or emotional
A product feature, characteristic
or attribute
A feeling
A brand belief or philosophy
A mission or advocacy

64. Tips in writing what to communicate
Make it clear and concise; If you
can’t say it in a sentence, you
can’t say it in 30 seconds or less
Has to be true so that it connects
with people
Ideally, differentiated from others
in the category

65. REASONS TO BELIEVE

66. This should support what is being communicated
Not a list of product features that are irrelevant to what is
being communicated but you want to see in the advertising

67. Do not underestimate the power of the product to inspire Creative Ideas.
Provide technical information; Interrogate the product until it confesses.
Examine the product with the eyes of the target audience
Look at the history of the product and the brand
Look for a personal truth in the product

69. CHANNELS

70. Best to not be prescriptive about specific
touchpoints to use unless it is a given
Better if you can provide information on how the
target audience engages with different channels

72. BRAND ESSENCE AND PERSONALITY

73. How a brand behaves it just as important as what it says
Keeping the brand essence and personality in mind
helps ensure consistency, from campaign to campaign

76. EXECUTIONAL MANDATORIES

77. Avoid this if you can.
Stick only to the real non-negotiables, not a laundry list of
things that you will look for in the execution.

78. IN CLOSING

79. TO WRITE GREAT BRIEFS
DO DON’T
Define clearly the problem to Set an objective that the
be solved campaign cannot solve
Put in surprising or Be prescriptive more than
interesting information - inspiring
about the problem, the
brand, the target or channels Overload it with information
Be concise; It’s called a brief
for a reason

80. The brief is a starting point
Allow room for conversation, for debate

81. Demand courageous ideas,
instead of correct ones

82. Don’t fix a mediocre idea.
It’s better to start with a new one.

83. Let’s start problem solving.
@manilapaper