Marketing - Client Brief
THE CLIENT BRIEF
A best practice guide to briefing communications agencies
Joint industry guidelines for young marketing professionals in working effectively with agencies
FOREWORD
“FORGET, JUST FOR A MINUTE,
THAT YOU ARE BRIEFING AN AGENCY.
INSTEAD, PRETEND YOU ARE
STANDING ON THE BANK OF A RIVER
ABOUT TO BUILD A BRIDGE.”
Around you are architects, builders, all sorts of different experts that you have hired to help you.
They might all come from different specialist companies, they might all come from a single one-stop-bridge-shop. It really doesn’t matter.
All that matters is that you build the best and most effective bridge you can.
So what brief should you give them in order to get that perfect bridge?
How about where it should start from?
Where are you standing right now?
Where is ‘point A’? They need to know that.
That’s not up for debate.
And what about where it should finish?
Where’s ‘point B’? The destination. If I were the architect, that’s the bit of information
I’d want made pretty clear.
Finally, what about how to build the bridge itself?
Probably not.
Maybe you’d give them some ideas on what the bridge might look like, what vehicles will need to cross it, what size boats will need to go underneath it, how high the hand-rails should be, etc, etc.
But you’re not going to tell them how to build the bridge. That’s their job. You’re going to sit back and wait to see the drawings.
It’s the same with briefing agencies. They need to know where you are now. And they need to know where you want to get to. What will success look like?
And how will it be measured?
CHRIS HERD
IPA Value of Advertising Committee
If every agency involved in your campaign shares that same information, aren’t they likely to work better together to achieve the desired result?
So when you’re writing an agency brief, think
“Where am I now?” and “Where do I need to get to?”. Make it crystal clear. And you’ll find that most
A best practice guide to briefing communications agencies
Joint industry guidelines for young marketing professionals in working effectively with agencies
FOREWORD
“FORGET, JUST FOR A MINUTE,
THAT YOU ARE BRIEFING AN AGENCY.
INSTEAD, PRETEND YOU ARE
STANDING ON THE BANK OF A RIVER
ABOUT TO BUILD A BRIDGE.”
Around you are architects, builders, all sorts of different experts that you have hired to help you.
They might all come from different specialist companies, they might all come from a single one-stop-bridge-shop. It really doesn’t matter.
All that matters is that you build the best and most effective bridge you can.
So what brief should you give them in order to get that perfect bridge?
How about where it should start from?
Where are you standing right now?
Where is ‘point A’? They need to know that.
That’s not up for debate.
And what about where it should finish?
Where’s ‘point B’? The destination. If I were the architect, that’s the bit of information
I’d want made pretty clear.
Finally, what about how to build the bridge itself?
Probably not.
Maybe you’d give them some ideas on what the bridge might look like, what vehicles will need to cross it, what size boats will need to go underneath it, how high the hand-rails should be, etc, etc.
But you’re not going to tell them how to build the bridge. That’s their job. You’re going to sit back and wait to see the drawings.
It’s the same with briefing agencies. They need to know where you are now. And they need to know where you want to get to. What will success look like?
And how will it be measured?
CHRIS HERD
IPA Value of Advertising Committee
If every agency involved in your campaign shares that same information, aren’t they likely to work better together to achieve the desired result?
So when you’re writing an agency brief, think
“Where am I now?” and “Where do I need to get to?”. Make it crystal clear. And you’ll find that most