When a creative brief writer forgets empathy.
I am a fan of the Columbia University linguist John McWhorter. I came to know about him seven or eight years ago when I discovered the online debate website called Intelligence Squared (intelligencesquaredus.org). He was a regular debater. Sometimes he took the “pro” side, sometimes the “con” side, but always he offered cogent, thoughtful arguments. […]
Creative briefs are never optional. Brand zealots need them most of all.
When I teach my creative brief workshops for the ANA (ana.net), I often use the terms Brand Advocate or Brand Guardian to describe the marketers I meet. I think either one is an apt descriptor of the people responsible for nurturing the products under the brand umbrella for which they work. Sometimes I see nods […]
The one meeting that should always be “standing room only.”
This meeting should raise expectations. This meeting should crackle with electricity. This meeting should always be standing room only. I speak of a regular gathering in both ad agencies and on the client side. A meeting that typically produces yawns and low attendance. Exactly the opposite of what a healthy, thriving brand should inspire. Which […]
Six questions creatives must ask about a creative brief before the briefing.
Wait, you don’t see the brief until the project kicks off? You look through the document for the first time as you listen to the briefing? Whoa. That’s a problem. You’re a creative. You have to make magic from the words on this page (let’s hope it’s only one page, maybe half a second page). […]
Why it’s so hard to keep things simple.
I noticed this propensity for the complicated when I started teaching college composition and literature. My students, for reasons not clear to me, wrote paragraph-length sentences to express their ideas. Perhaps they wanted to impress me.
They seemed to fear short sentences. Their lengthy sentences most often ended up in the ditch, having arrived there for lack of control and clarity.
Covid taught us humility. Jeep wasn’t listening.
David Ogilvy reminded us, “Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating.” Jeep, in its latest television spot promoting an upcoming electric version of the Wrangler 4xe, created a fascinating message, but forgot to tell the truth. In fact, truth is as far away as the image of the “pale blue dot” of the Earth […]
Creatives have never not relied on data.
I read with amusement a debate that creatives’ “intuition” and their “gut instinct” are more important than data in the creative process. This is a false argument. Creatives need to remember an ancient truth. Ideas do not arrive in a vacuum. You cannot create something from nothing. Twas ever thus. As a creative director and […]
Creative Brief Secret Sauce: Take a break
An Old School idea that remains timeless: How to come up with an idea. It’s as relevant to creative brief writers as it is to any creative person.
Every brief should be written in first-person singular.
Turn the creative brief into a letter from your customer to the brand. The results are startling.
Writing a creative brief requires collaboration. So how do we define “collaboration”?
Think about it: What do you mean when you say “The creative brief is a collaborative document”? What do you mean by “collaborate”? How do you define that word? If you do the following, are you collaborating? — You write a draft of the creative brief and then circulate it to key stakeholders for […]
