E100: Our 100th episode! Woo-hoo!
Airs January 11, 2023 We can hardly believe it, but Henry and I have reached 100 episodes of The Brief Bros. Almost two years of weekly jawing about creative briefs and chatting up guests. Plus the occasional creative review. Today, Henry and I share our thoughts about what we’ve accomplished in the past couple years […]
Who decides when a creative brief is “inspiring”?
Allow me to share with you a recurring sentiment I hear during my creative brief workshops when I show marketers and account people examples of well-written creative briefs. I hear this comment often enough to have made note of it even if I don’t hear it at every training. When I present one of these […]
E99: What to think about before you write a brief.
Airs January 4, 2023 What should newbie and veteran brief writers alike consider before they put fingers to keyboard or pen to paper? I put this question to Henry and he gave us some valuable thought-starters. A creative brief is a thinking document, not a mindless form to fill out. Join us on this episode […]
The State of the Creative Brief.
Rather than make predictions for 2023, I choose to draw some conclusions about the status of the creative brief in our industry. I was a practicing copywriter and creative director in legacy ad agencies for 26 years. I started writing about and teaching creative briefs in 2004, so I’m about to enter my 19th year […]
E98: Final Creative Review for 2022
Airs December 28, 2022 Henry and I review two new spots for our final Creative Review of 2022. The first spot is for the latest Covid booster by Pfizer Biontech by Fierce Pharma Marketing. Spot number two is by Luck Generals, whose work we’ve reviewed before. This one is a new Christmas spot for Amazon. […]
Remember your audience.
When you do as much creative-brief training for brands big and small as I have in the past 17 years, you see trends. I could provide a hefty list of the trends I’ve observed, but today I’ll focus on one. Audience. Not the audience for the product, but the audience for the creative brief. The […]
E97: A conversation with Matt Ryan, senior strategist at Popcorn
Airs December 21, 2022 Matt Ryan’s official title is Sr. Director of Communication Plans, which is a fancy way of describing his role as the top strategist for Universal Resort Orlando’s in-house ad agency, Popcorn. Henry and I had a chance to talk in depth with Matt about the laudable process Popcorn developed to foster […]
Are you trustworthy? It’s a must for a creative brief writer.
(Originally published February 9, 2015) I used to say that before you can write a single word on a creative brief, you need a strategy. It’s time to amend that. There’s an important precept that straddles the two: trust. Strategy must be in place before the brief can be written. But before you can begin […]
E96: Another conversation with Cameron Day, author of Spittin’ Chiclets.
Airs December 14, 2022 He’s back! Our friend Cameron Day, author of The Advertising Survival Guide—Stage One: Launch and Ascent: Chew With Your Mind Open, and our guest about 10 months ago, returns for another wide-ranging and fun conversation. This time, Henry Gomez and I welcome Cam back to talk about his new book, The […]
How deconstructing any ad can help you polish your brief-writing skills.
December 9, 2022 (Published originally in June 2012) When was the last time you even saw the word, “deconstruct”? Unless you were an English major in college you likely never came across it at all. There’s nothing mysterious or complicated about the process. Deconstruct simply means to take something apart and analyze the pieces. In […]
