Who is your creative brief?
I know what you’re thinking: You forgot the preposition “for” at the end of your headline. Am I right? Yup, that’s what I thought. But you’re wrong. I wrote the headline exactly the way I wanted it: Who is your creative brief? Can you guess why? Here’s my answer: The creative brief is the voice […]
The perfect test of your creative brief
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 […]
Communication professionals are lousy communicators
I’ve heard this complaint for my entire advertising career. Anyone in the communications business tends to be tone deaf when it comes to being his or her own best advocate. It shows. Even in the age of instant communications and social media, we (and it’s a big group that fits into this we) just suck […]
Build a better box.
When I began my career as a copywriter, I viewed rules the way other creatives viewed rules: with disdain. I wanted nothing to interfere with the creative process. Nothing to stand between me and a big idea. You know, the whole “live free or die” thing. It’s a philosophy the young and inexperienced find especially […]
What account planners don’t want you to know about the creative brief.
Bless your hearts, account planners. You’ve changed advertising for the better. But let’s be honest: Even though you gave us the tools to make creative more effective by means of insights into the consumer’s minds and hearts, you suffer from some kind of -itis that compels you to fiddle with the very thing that gave […]
How do you know when you’ve written an inspired creative brief?
Since I began writing this blog, I’ve focused on as many of the elements I can think of that go into writing an inspired creative brief. But I’ve discovered that, to my chagrin, I haven’t answered perhaps the most critical question facing any brief writer: “How do I know my brief will inspire the creatives?” […]
How do you initiate changes in the way your creative brief gets written?
Change is easy to talk about, harder to actually do. If part of your job includes writing creative briefs, and you’re not satisfied with how you’ve been trained to write them. Or you just think it’s time to step up the overall quality of the way briefs are written where you work, it’s natural to […]
How does the creative brief reflect changes in our industry?
When thought leaders—and here I refer specifically to account planners, fellow practitioners and pundits who blog, address conferences and write articles—talk about what new directions advertising is taking, they tend to speak about how consumers connect to brands. That’s hardly a revelation. For example, one of the more recognized thought leaders in our industry is […]
The act of listening
I’ve heard many definitions of a creative brief: It’s a contract between a client and its advertising agency, or between an advertiser and its creative team. It’s a road map. It’s a guide. They’re all good definitions. But I think I heard an even better definition spoken by someone who knows more about the subject […]
Welcome to Creative Brief: The Blog
TIGHTBRIEF is now Creative Brief: The Blog. If you’ve been receiving a weekly email from TIGHTBRIEF, please take a moment to sign up for the same convenient service here. Or rather over there, on the right. It just made sense to migrate a blog on the creative brief to my website on the same subject. […]
