Why Brief Confusion Is Costing You Better Work

When clients and agencies argue about whether work is "on brief," they're often talking about completely different documents. What are they and how do you avoid this confusion?

There’s a growing problem in marketing: when people say, “is this on brief?” it’s not always clear which brief they’re referring to. 

Ask different people in the industry what “the brief” means to them, and you’ll probably get completely different answers. Marketers will refer to the document that the brand sends to an agency. Creatives will refer to the brief created by the agency and written by the strategy team. 

This lack of shared language causes more confusion than you might think. If marketers and agencies aren’t aligned on which brief is being talked about, how can you agree on whether the work is “on brief”?

The two-brief reality
This is a document that marketing teams write to commission work from an agency. Think of it as the contract between the client and the agency on what needs to be done. It should summarise all the strategic decisions a marketing team has made on a specific project.
 
1. The Marketing Brief (Client-to-Agency)
This is a document that marketing teams write to commission work from an agency. Think of it as the contract between the client and the agency on what needs to be done. It should summarise all the strategic decisions a marketing team has made on a specific project. A marketing brief usually includes: 

• - Background and reason for the brief
  - Objectives
  - Target audience 
  - Message and proof points
  - Budget and timeline 
  - Required deliverables
  - Mandatories
  - Brand guidelines

Who writes it: The marketing team
Who receives it: The agency account/strategy team
Its purpose: To define the desired outcomes, determine the scope and set direction for the agency.  

2. The Creative Brief (Agency-Internal)
This is a document that creative agencies create internally for creatives after receiving the marketing brief from their client (external or in-house). It's a summary and translation of the marketing brief, serving as a springboard for creatives. A strong creative brief includes:

- Objective describing what success looks like from an attitudinal perspective
- Problem or issue to overcome
- An insight
- Single most important thing to communicate
- Tone of voice

Who writes it: The agency strategist/planner or account management
Who receives it: The agency creative team
Its purpose: To inspire breakthrough creative work that solves the problem

Why this distinction matters
Understanding this two-brief sequence fundamentally changes how teams evaluate work:

In the feedback session, when someone says, "This isn't on brief," they need to specify: Is the creative off-strategy (doesn't answer the business problem), or is it just different from how they imagined it? The first is a legitimate concern. The second might be exactly what the agency was hired for.

When commissioning work, marketers need to set their agency up for success. If the brief is incomplete or doesn’t make clear strategic choices, all the decision-making is left to the agency. This is risky, as it turns the creative process into a guessing game for the agency on what the right solution is for the brief. 

On the other hand, if the brief is very prescriptive, for example by putting the tagline from a previous campaign as the key message, there’s no room for the agency to add thinking. It’s more a directive than a brief, prescribing the agency what to do.

Common brief variations
Various names are used for briefs across the globe, adding to the confusion. Here are some other terms you might hear.

Agency Brief
This term has become problematic because people use it in two opposite ways: some mean the marketing brief sent to agencies, others mean the agency's internal creative brief. Best to avoid using this term – it creates more confusion than clarity.

Campaign Brief
This borrows from military language, meaning a ‘planned series of coordinated actions to win a defined objective’. A campaign brief is an overarching strategic document for coordinated activity across multiple channels. This typically sits at the marketing brief level. Adding to the confusion is that Campaign Brief is also a popular trade publication focused on agencies.  

Creative Agency Brief and Ad Agency Brief
Generally refers to the marketing brief when it's being sent specifically to a creative-focused agency (as opposed to media, PR or production agencies). Still functions as the upstream, client-authored document. It is not usually used by agencies internally to brief their own creatives. 

Comms Brief 
Short for "communications brief," this brief is about how communications will work (roles for channels, sequencing, context, constraints). The term emerged as marketing expanded beyond traditional advertising into PR, social, content and integrated communications. Usually created by a media team, it defines how and where the message will appear. It focuses on channel strategy, touchpoints and timing ensuring the creative idea connects with the right people in the right place.

Making "on brief" actually mean something
For your next project, try this:

1. 1. Establish upfront which brief will be used to evaluate ideas. Too often, marketers and agencies each use their own brief, which creates confusion. 
   
2. 2. Marketers and agencies should agree on the reasons why an idea is on or off brief. 
3. 3. Creative thinking worlds in weird and wonderful ways. Sometimes agencies share an idea that’s off brief. When that happens, don’t dismiss the idea instantly. Instead, ask yourself if the idea is a better way to realise the objectives.  
   
4. 4. When someone in the room says "this isn't on brief," they should be able to point to the specific brief element that's being missed and explain why it matters.

Better briefs mean better work. But first, everyone needs to agree on which brief they're actually talking about.

Matt Davies is the co-founder of BetterBriefs, an advisory and training business that helps marketers write better briefs and deliver more impactful ideas. A highly awarded former agency strategist, having worked at Clemenger BBDO, Design Bridge, Arnold Worldwide, AJF Partnership, as well as running his own agency. 

Together with co-founder Pieter-Paul von Weiler, he wrote the BetterBriefs Project and The Best Way for a Client to Brief an Agency, a practical guide for marketers to improve the quality of briefs, co-authored by Mark Ritson and published in partnership with the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA). Matt (together with Pieter-Paul) also led the BetterIdeas Project, a global study exposing the poor state of the creative evaluation process. The study aims to improve the creative decision-making and evaluation practices and was launched in partnership with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and the IPA.