STRATEGY

ROAD MAP FOR THE CREATIVE TEAM

What is it?

What it does

• Summarizes consumer & brand insights from research • Inspires the creative team • Shed yourself • Time to think

What it does

Creative Brief Formats

• Creative briefs vary from agency to agency 1. Insights about the target audience 2. Insights about how the target interacts with brand 3. What you want your target audience to know & feel 4. Key insight (the big idea)

Creative Brief

Creative Brief Formats

1. Insights about the target audience Demographics alone won’t help creative team understand the person(s) they’re trying to reach A lifestyle profile including values, leisure-time activities, attitudes toward work & family, every day stresses is much more helpful Demographic info is the skeleton & the lifestyles & values are the body & soul

Creative Brief Formats

2. Insights about how the target interacts with brand Other brand users? People who’ve never used any brand in your category? People who use a related product that might be persuaded to switch? Position your brand to meet an unfulfilled need? (Curves)

Creative Brief Formats

• Targeting current users to buy more or stay loyal (FedEx)

Creative Brief Formats

3. What you want your target audience to know & feel

“the basic motivations of people never change. That’s why Shakespeare is still relevant. Human history really boils down to the influence of love, sex, greed, fear, hunger & insecurity” D&AD

Think about it.

Creative Brief Formats

• Rational vs. Emotional • The rational is easily copied by competitors • The emotional – less so

Creative Brief Formats

4. Key insight (the big idea)

“Nothing is as powerful as an insight into human nature, what compulsions drive a person, what instincts dominate his action even though his language camouflages what really motivates him/her”. Bill Bernbach

Creative Brief Formats

• McCann-Erickson’s Role-Playing Approach See Scribd Creative Brief for Chipotle's Advertising Campaign

• Who is my target? (are they users, heavy users, nonusers, users of

competitive brands) What is the relationship to other product/service usage?

• Where am I now in the mind of this person? • Where is my competition in the mind of this person? • Where would I like to be in the mind of this person? • What is the consumer promise, the big idea? • What is the supporting evidence? • What is the tone of voice for the advertising?

The Result

The Result

The Results

“You’ve just found out you have cancer. Let’s begin by reducing the size of the lump in your throat.” Neupogen “On your deathbed, will you wish you spent more time with the company controller?” Family Life Magazine “Does your kid have hundred dollar feet and a ten-dollar head?” Bell Helmets

Creative Brief Formats

• The Deutsch Approach • Why are we communicating? What is the assignment? • Who are we talking to? • What’s the problem and opportunity? • What should our communication do? How will it do this? • What is the strategic idea? • How will we support this idea? • What are the mandatories, the must-do’s? • What are the creative considerations? • What are the deliverables? Where will the messages run?

The Results

“Only tattoos last longer.” Doc Martens “When you’re on a liquid diet, snaps on your outfits are pretty handy.” Baby Clothes “Hire a hooker and you’ll do it on the news. Johns appearing on Action News 5.” Shelby County District Attorney’s office “What separates man from the apes? A few bucks admission.” Toronto Zoo “If you can’t get it washed for $3, you’re getting hosed.” Auto•Matic Pride Car Wash

The Results

Creative Brief Formats

Linking Strategy with the Thinking/Feeling & High-Low-importance Scales

The Results

The Results

Creative Brief Checklist

• Does it have potential for relevant & unexpected connections that can build a relationship between your brand & the prospect?

• Did you place your brand at the right point on the thinking/feeling & high-low importance scales?

• Does your brief address one or more human needs? • Did you include emotional benefits as well as rational ones?

Can the product & its advertising support these benefits? • Did you consider what strategies competitors are using as well

as what they may have missed? • Does your brief address the target market in a tone

appropriate to the market?

STRATEGY