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Are you working for a non-profit or purpose-driven organization and tasked with writing a creative brief? Whether it's a brand revamp, a multi-channel communication campaign, or a series of videos to document your efforts, you need to start with a clear and well-structured brief. In this 8-step guide, we'll walk you through the essential elements of a creative brief and show you how to avoid miscommunication and inconveniences with your agency. And to make things even easier, we're offering a sample brief that you can download and customize to fit your project's needs. Let's build a solid foundation for your next creative endeavor!

Skip the guide and DOWNLOAD the sample brief now 👇

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First things first

1. When should you write a brief?

Let’s say the organization or company you work for tasked you with the launch of a new, broad, multi-channel communication campaign. Or with a complete revamp of their brand, along with a website redesign. Or with producing a short series of videos to document their efforts on the field. This is an important investment in terms of money and resources, with short and long-term repercussions - an effort that in this case will be outsourced to a third-party provider: a creative or communication agency.

To select the best-suited provider, the first step is to write a clear and well-structured brief, also called a Call for Proposals (CfP).

If you already know who your provider will be, for example, if you have an ongoing partnership with a certain agency, a brief is still extremely useful to set the ground. You can skip the “Selection criteria” and “Proposal submission” sections of this guide, but the rest of the information is still completely valid.

2. Ok, but what is a brief?

A brief is a short document (usually no longer than a few pages) that highlights the key details of the project you’re about to realize, often written by the project manager or by the project owner.

3. Why writing a good brief matters?

A well-written brief avoids inconveniences and drawbacks, making sure you and the creative agency start on the same page. If we think of the project as a building, the creative brief represents its foundations: if they’re sound and well-built, the whole structure will be solid and safe.

The most time-consuming and detrimental issues with the development of any creative project are usually due to a lack of understanding or miscommunication between the client and the agency. A good brief minimizes these risks, helping both parties to set their priorities straight, precisely stating who the project is aimed at and the context it will fit into.

4. How is a brief structured?

Now that we’ve understood what a brief is and what its objectives are, let’s dive into the anatomy of a brief. The document you will deliver to the potential agencies needs to be specific, precise and comprehensible. Starting with a Table of Contents can truly help you keep in check all the necessary aspects of the project: once you set the frame of your brief you can start writing it.

Let’s take a look at the main sections a creative brief should outline.

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The anatomy of a brief

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1. Summary

This section is the “About me” of the project. Use a few sentences to introduce yourself and state what you need or are looking for. You can be as casual or professional as it needs to be, but remember that if you want the best agencies to participate in your Call for Proposals, you must sell yourself and the project as interesting and enticing.

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2. About us

While you certainly know your company or organization quite well, we can’t say the same for the agencies who will participate in your Call for Proposals. It’s a good idea to start with a bit of background information on yourself to set the context of the project.

What is your recent history? What kind of work do you usually do? What are your current goals? How do they relate to the project in question?

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3. Goals and scope

What is the goal of the project you are planning? This is the first question you have to ask yourself, as this will be the drive for the whole process. Establishing a clear objective is crucial to the effectiveness of the whole operation, and will ensure the creative agency fully understands the project beyond the mere deliverables.

The goal should be specific, understandable and realistic. It can also include sub-goals and secondary objectives, necessary to achieve the main one. If possible, you can explicitly establish the KPIs your organization or company expects to reach with the project. These are numerical indicators that measure the efficacy and relevance of the actions implemented throughout the process.

 Now that you set up clear objectives for the project, it’s time to tackle the other elements of the brief.

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4. Services to be provided

You may already have a pretty good idea of what you need: make sure the agency knows it as well in as much detail as possible.

For example, do you need a rebranding? Where will you be using the new brand? Online only or on printed media as well? Is a website redesign needed with the rebranding? Do you need brand adaptations for your company's social network profiles as well? 

Or, do you need videos to sponsor an ongoing campaign? How many, and how long should they be? What medium or style (live-action, animated…)? Where will they be used (Twitter, YouTube, at a live event…)? What about languages and subtitles?

Try to be as specific as you can, but don’t shy away from stating that you will want the agency to suggest some specifics based on their expertise. For example, you may know that you need a social media campaign, but you don’t know how long it should last: write this in the brief as well.

You can also specify which professional figures you’d like to have involved, and what resources you can allocate as the client.

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5. Target and stakeholders

This is an often overlooked detail, but a good agency will need to know who the intended audience of your project is, as in some cases different audiences require different solutions. The most straightforward way to fill out this section of the brief is to list a series of characteristics the target audience has: from general demographics like age, gender, occupation and nationality to more personal habits and traits like preferences, needs, problems, aspirations and so on. Try not to get too broad. Always remember that a message can’t possibly address everyone: the more extensive and general your audience gets, the more onerous, speculative and challenging the communication operation becomes.

This said, the target audience is usually further defined during the project itself with the selected agency.

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6. Timeline

If you have experience with similar projects, this section is where you can list the different phases and expected durations. No need to be too precise: broad periods are enough to allow the agency to evaluate its resources and availability.

If you don’t have that information, it’s enough to specify a final deadline. Make sure you also specify if it’s a hard deadline (for example if you need a website to be launched one week before the start of a major international conference), or a soft deadline (for example if you would like the website to be online in 6 months, but stretching it to 7 months wouldn’t be a big issue).

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7. Budget and selection criteria

While it’s tempting to think that not disclosing a budget will grant you lower fees, the reality is that more often than not it results in time wasted and frustrations for both parties. Consider this a self-selection tool. Agency prices can vary immensely based on many factors, and you want the best job your budget can afford. Agencies that are too small and inexperienced will not participate if the budget is a lot bigger than what they are used to. Bigger agencies will self-exclude if the budget is too small for their size. You will be left with just the right size!

You can either specify a range, or a maximum budget.

In this section, it’s also a good idea to state what your selection criteria will be. For example, some organizations put a lot of importance on the budget, choosing the cheapest offer that still looks reliable. Others will put more emphasis on the creative offer, and others yet on the portfolio.

In the public sector it’s not uncommon to have a maximum score (usually out of 100) given to each category, for example:

• The budget is worth up to 30 points
• The creative proposal is worth up to 50 points
• The portfolio is worth up to 20 points

8. Proposal submission

Finally, list the steps necessary to submit the proposal, and what required documents the agency should send along. This can be as simple as sending a PDF to your email address, or as complex as gathering multiple documents, from CVs of the team to signed letters of integrity.

Always specify the deadline by which you need to receive the proposals.

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Until we meet again

For obvious reasons, this guide can’t be all-encompassing. There are as many unique briefs as there are projects, and every organization has its own way of writing one. Some attach a list of examples of how the final product should look and feel, others have very strict needs related to the process pipeline, and others must reach exact KPIs and goals to account for the resources spent. 

Just remember: make it yours, make it complete, but keep it brief.

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Download our sample brief

Still not completely sure of what your brief should look like? We have prepared a sample brief for you to take inspiration from. While we edited a few identifying details, this brief takes heavy inspiration from a real-life project we’ve worked on.