In an earlier post, I asked and answered the question, “How do you know when you’ve written an inspired creative brief?”
I have another thought on this subject.
As a direct-response creative director and copywriter, I believe in testing the creative I produce. Test and learn is a de facto strategy.
So it stands to reason that the ideal test of a creative brief, inspired or otherwise, is to, you know, test it.
How?
Simple.
Try this if you dare:
Put two creative teams to work on the same project. One with a creative brief. One without.
Okay, I can already hear some of you snickering.
“Yeah, most of the time what passes as a creative brief is really no brief at all. That’s no test.”
I can also hear the senior creatives laughing.
“We end up saving the suits’ butts because the briefs they give us aren’t worth the paper they’re written on, so we just figure it out.”
Fair enough. I’ve been in that exact situation many times.
So here’s the catch:
Try this test using junior creatives. The ones who haven’t endured poorly written or mediocre briefs. The ones who haven’t cut their teeth on tough assignments.
Give one team no brief, just a few minutes of oral instructions.
Give the other team a well-written creative brief.
Then see what happens.
Even intrepid juniors without a brief will figure things out. They may even surprise you.
But why put anyone through that hassle when a creative brief can do the heavy lifting for them.
By the way, that wasn’t a question.
