How to write a creative brief that gets great work made.

Writing a creative brief looks straightforward. Getting it right is another matter, and the stakes are higher than most marketers realise. The brief guides the entire creative process, from concept to execution.

According to research from BetterBriefs, 80 per cent of marketers think they're good at writing briefs. Only 10 per cent of agencies agree. The cost of that gap keeps growing: the same team's 2025 BetterIdeas study, run with the WFA and IPA, estimates around US$350 billion of annual global ad spend is wasted on poor briefs and misdirected work. As Sir John Hegarty put it, "Writing bad briefs is the most expensive way to write advertising."

To help demystify the craft, we asked seasoned creatives from our global network, people who respond to briefs every day, what makes or breaks one. Here's their advice.

Before you write the brief

A successful creative collaboration demands thoughtful decisions from the outset. Nail these before you start writing.

Where will the content be used?

Listing your deliverables and where each asset will run may seem like a no-brainer, but media plans are complicated, and different formats have a real impact on production.

Jack Murgatroyd, Co-Founder and Director of Hunt House Pictures in Los Angeles, says: "It's always discouraging when a client wants a project to be optimized for both 16:9 and 9:16. These are very different formats and require their own particular framing and approach to shooting. It's not a simple ask to do both." Where both formats matter, indicate which is the priority. If both are priorities, budget for the extra time to shoot both properly.

A few more tips on deliverables:

• Avoid scope creep. Be realistic about the number of assets you need from the start, and only brief for what you'll actually use.
• Adapting big brand campaigns for social is a reasonable starting point, but a platform-first approach usually performs better. On TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, assets need to feel native and follow platform behaviour, so they may need to be produced from scratch.

What's your budget?

Budget shapes everything. Leslie Preyer, Creative Director at Cyclone Creative in Melbourne, says: "The budget is always very important. It helps us be realistic about what's possible from a creative standpoint."

Be realistic about what your budget can deliver. Things that move the number include:

• The length, complexity and number of deliverables
• The number and type of talent and locations required
• How open you are to different creative approaches
• Live action versus animation, and simple versus complex animation styles
• Creating original content versus optimising existing assets
• Specific talent, voiceover or music, which can get more expensive depending on media usage.

What does success look like?

Be clear on your overall objective and the ambition of the activity. Murgatroyd asks: "Are we raising brand awareness? Are we strengthening brand loyalty? Are we converting sales? If there are projects from the past that have done really well, please share those with us and let us know what worked."

Sam Hooper, Managing Partner at Cyclone Creative, recommends framing the objective around the shift in consumer behaviour you're aiming for, rather than the obvious 'more sales, more customers'.

Colin Jones, Creative Director at Goodship Studio in London, adds: "Sometimes the brief provided isn't the best way to achieve the results a client wants." Clarity on the objective irons out those issues early.

Do you require sourcing?

Explaining which elements of a shoot are pre-arranged saves time in briefing and pre-production. Leah McKissock of La Di Da Films explains: "It's helpful to know if the client will be providing the product, location or materials needed or if the production company will need to source these things themselves. We also like to know up-front if there's an expectation that the product will need to be touched up with Visual FX or require special compositing or clean up in post-production."

What to include

Prioritise key information

Think about your information hierarchy, and put the most important information at the top. Andrew McLaughlin, Art Director at Cyclone Creative, says: "In reality, the more information you add in a brief, the less you get. Structure your brief by good to know, and most important. Less relevant information should be pared away to reveal the most relevant."

Ang Geck Geck, a Director in Singapore, agrees: "Sometimes there's too much information and we're not sure what the focus and direction should be. It's helpful if the client can prioritise from the top to least important."

Preyer warns that "overloading the brief with insignificant information about your brand can confuse and dilute your briefs and in the long run, dilute the ideas." Helpful context can always go in attachments.

Brand personality and guidelines

Murgatroyd finds it helpful when clients give a sense of their brand personality: "Are you friendly and approachable? Are you confident and serious? Are you tongue-in-cheek? Even if the tone of this particular project is aimed to be different, knowing the overall tone of your brand will spark ideas."

Be ready to share brand guidelines, decks, style guides and fonts, either in the brief or as soon as the project is green lit. It leads to more tailored responses and a smoother start once creatives are commissioned.

A single-minded proposition

A single-minded proposition conveys one specific idea to your audience, and it's the springboard for ideas. Preyer explains: "It's a human truth, that in the real-world people don't have the head space to process a lot of information and therefore briefs should be single-minded in their approach. What is that one important thing you are trying to tell your customer?"

Jones goes further: "For us the proposition is the most important part of a brief because it serves as the foundation for the entire comms, defining the target audience, guiding the creative concept, differentiating the product or service, and ensuring consistency throughout. By focusing on the proposition, we can create effective creative assets in any channel that leave a trail of breadcrumbs for the viewer back to the same core message."

Consumer insights

Consumer insights give a project purpose and steer it towards resonating with the intended audience. McKissock suggests you "include any information or key insights you have about your customers. Often media agencies or those helping place your ads might have additional insights. Does your audience have interests in self-improvement, comedy TV shows, life hacks, nutrition, sustainability etc.?"

Hooper acknowledges clients won't always have these to hand: "Sometimes there is some work on the agency side to research and distil a consumer insight that gives reason and logic to the proposed creative solution." If you're unsure of the insight you want to tap into, leave space for the creative team to tackle it in their approach.

Creative direction

Thought-starters and existing ideas help establish a direction, and so do the things you know you don't want. Nicita Amy Botha, founder at NAC and Me, says mentioning restrictions "seems counterproductive but when a client says 'no red, no bold text, no illustrations' it really helps create a clearer picture."

Know your audience

Go beyond demographics

Explaining your audience's mindset gets more powerful results than demographics alone. Hooper explains: "The target audience mindset is critical for helping creatives see the problem we're trying to solve through the eyes of the audience. When you describe the life, dreams, desires and aspirations of the audience, we can leap into their world and develop a creative solution that's relevant and connects emotionally."

Relate the audience to the assets

Botha finds clients often copy audience descriptions straight from their brand book: "It is not helpful to know that their target audience is 'Jane who is a pescatarian' when we're making a motion advert for coffee pods. If the client can rework their target audience so that it's more targeted at the type of assets we are creating, that would be helpful. Ie. Selling coffee pods: Jane, eco-friendly, enjoys a good coffee with her book at home. Or Jane, has kids, manic mornings, and needs the easy, good coffee. The above paint a picture of two very different assets."

Be selective

To make the most of your budget, be selective about who you're targeting. Preyer says an unrealistic audience can "lead to the campaign objectives not being met and an idea being so generic and safe, it isn't effective and resonates with no one."

Describe how you want your audience to feel

It sounds simple, but it shapes the final outcome enormously. Murgatroyd says: "Understanding the emotion you're hoping to capture helps us on both a macro and micro level. Are we going after happiness? Love? Awe? Comfort? Rebelliousness? Knowing how we want to make the audience feel will shape everything from our casting to locations to lighting to camera moves to colour correction."

Get your references right

Visual references express your vision and add clarity. A few tips on using them well.

Keep references in line with your budget

Murgatroyd asks: "References are always helpful and definitely help us understand the look and feel you're going for. Please keep references realistic though. Don't show us a $1M campaign if your budget is $50k."

There may be a reason to include a reference outside the project budget, perhaps to highlight a motion design style or tone of voice. If so, say that in the brief. If you're unsure whether a reference fits your budget, ask.

Explain why each reference is there

Botha says: "Whether it be images, videos, or other brand profiles, even if it is one clip from a montage reel, visual references with a simple description, i.e. 'This picture but red' or 'That motion but slower', really helps us create a clear picture. Words can often become murky."

Henrique Souza, Client Manager at LANDOT in Brazil, adds: "We've missed references regarding what clients want with the brief. Having these clear is very important for a good understanding of the client's desires."

Show what you don't like too

Jones highlights that examples of what you don't like, or directions you don't want to go in, can be just as useful as references you love.

Set the process up for success

Be honest if knowledge is lacking

Creatives don't expect you to be a production expert, and our team can fill any gaps. Either way, be upfront about areas you're not fully across. Botha explains: "If a client is looking for a video for Instagram or TikTok and has no understanding of the platform, it can be very restrictive. The lack of knowledge around music rights, Reel and Story length, aspect ratios and safe zones, can cause a lot of back and forth. If the client could stress upfront whether or not they have that understanding, and then be willing to be flexible, that would result in great assets."

Get sign-off before launching your brief

Skipping this wastes a lot of people's time. Jones asks that clients "take the time to share your brief with your line manager, decision maker or the wider business before asking creators to spend multiple stages exploring a wrong direction."

Be realistic with your schedule

Briefs can be turned around on tight time frames, but if you have the space, allow ample time. And if commissioning decisions slip, push the delivery date back too. Murgatroyd says: "Unrealistic deadlines are discouraging from the start of the project and can add stress to both our side and the client's side. The more time we have to produce and complete a project, the better."

Communicate throughout

Pitching on creative projects takes real time and effort, and creatives can't always speak to you before submitting. Answering their questions promptly during the briefing period has a big impact on the quality of submissions. Feedback for creatives who aren't commissioned, especially shortlisted ones, is valuable too. As Ang Geck Geck says: "Even when we were rejected for some of the proposals we did, we appreciated the feedback."

In summary

The work you receive is only as good as the brief you provide. Keep it simple, make the key information easy to find, and be clear on content use, budget, objectives and audience. Then stay open and responsive throughout the process. Better briefs make better content.

If you have a brief in mind you'd like to discuss, our team is here to help.