A brief is not a briefing

Marketers invest a lot of time perfecting the brief. However, too often, how the brief is delivered in the briefing gets reduced to an email or a quick run-through of the deck.

And that’s a missed opportunity. While a brief sets direction, a briefing creates genuine understanding and belief. It’s the difference between reading about a problem and really feeling it. And when it comes to inspiring great creative thinking, feelings matter. 

In this article, we share some tips and real briefing stories from BetterBriefs student to get you as excited as we are about reviving the lost art of briefings. But first, let’s get on the same page about a few things. 

A brief is not the same as a brief(ing) 
The brief is the document. 
The briefing is the way how the brief is delivered.
The brief explains what the task is; the briefing makes your agency care about it.
It’s your chance to humanise the brief and ensure it makes it to the top of your agency’s ‘I can’t wait to work on this’ pile. 

Why better briefings matter
A briefing is a marketer’s opportunity to shape the creative process before it begins. Emailing your brief absolutely ticks a box, but it misses the chance to engage. Creativity feeds on context and emotion; it needs to feel the problem before it can solve it. 

“A few years ago, I was involved in a creative briefing for a cold sore product, where my role was to vividly bring the target audience to life. Only 10% of the population suffers from cold sores, meaning most people (including the agency team) had no idea how emotionally taxing they can be. To bridge that gap, we gave key members of the creative team a simulated cold sore to wear on their lip for five full days.

By the end of that week, that cold-sore-wearing creative didn’t just understand the brief. They felt it! They experienced the self-consciousness, the discomfort, and the sense that others were looking at the blemish rather than them. The result was work that reflected genuine empathy and humanity, not clinical marketing language.

How to make your next briefing better
The briefing is your chance to build excitement around your brief. By rethinking the HOW, WHO, WHERE and WHEN of your next briefing, you can create a moment that ensures your brief lands with your agency, leaving them energised, ignited, and eager to go.
Here are three questions to ask yourself when designing your next briefing meeting, plus more real stories from marketers to get your creative juices flowing.

1. ‘ How’ can I best bring the brief to life?
If your first thought was ‘by email, of course’, think again. For maximum impact, the briefing should be a meeting, ideally in person, face-to-face. This format allows for a natural flow of conversation, and you get the added benefit of watching your agency’s reactions in real-time.

“We ran a briefing for Budweiser in the lead-up to the biggest marketing event of them all, the Super Bowl. We put the brief on the back of a coaster to ensure the brief was small, focused and to the point, and rather than just email the brief over, we created a briefing experience at a cool speakeasy in Manhattan. And of course, we had the actual beer to inspire the creative team! The briefing was so different that it really engaged our creative partners to come back with their best work possible."

2.  ‘Who’ could help bring the brief to life?
The right person in the room can provide a fresh perspective, unlocking empathy and understanding.

“One briefing that stands out was for high-end Canon DSLR cameras, when the challenge was all about increasing market share. To inspire us, the client brought in a National Geographic professional photographer. He spoke for an hour about his work, how he approaches the art of photography, and why this particular brand of camera meant so much to him.
It was incredibly powerful. At the time, smartphones were gaining serious ground on traditional cameras, so hearing directly from someone whose livelihood depended on his gear really landed. He made us realise these cameras weren’t just pieces of equipment,  they were tools capable of delivering so much more than any smartphone could. We talked about this experience for a long time afterwards, and the inspiration across the European teams was clear.”

3.  ‘Where’ and ‘when’ is the best place and time?
The right briefing location can unlock new sensory experiences for your agency, helping them understand your brief sooner. There’s nothing wrong with hosting a briefing meeting in the office. But it can pay to think outside the boardroom. Be choosy about the timeslot, too. A 9am start might be great for you, but will it work for your agency team?

“When I was on the agency side, our client, a major tequila brand, insisted we go to their distillery in the agave region of Mexico before we could start any work for them. We toured the facilities, met with the experts crafting the tequila, and got a true sense of what it took to deliver on the high standards this tequila brand had set for itself. It was an inspirational way to deeply understand the brand, and it inspired all of our creative efforts after that experience. Every time we developed a brief, executed a campaign, shot photography, worked with influencers, implemented events, the purpose of the brand wasn’t just words that we had to remember – we experienced the brand’s purpose through our senses: literally seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting the brand. We didn’t just become the agency supporting a brand, we became part of the brand, even personal advocates for the brand outside of our work. When we get closer to the product, the people behind the product, and what fuels the brand’s purpose, we can be better and more effective marketers. No doubt, this was an expense. Some might have seen it as an all-expense-paid trip to the heart of Mexico, and a waste of money. But I can confirm the ROI was there, and it made a huge difference for the client and how we supported them.”

• • 1. Invest time and effort in the brief document and the briefing meeting - both play an important role in helping an agency understand the job that needs to be done.
  • 2. Make the briefing meeting an experience, not an afterthought. Remember, a good briefing should inspire and ignite your agency’s thinking. 
  • 3. Don’t let small briefing budgets hold you back. Find simple ways to bring the right mix of HOW, WHO, WHERE and WHEN into play. 
  • 4. Ensure your briefing experience is relevant to the brand and the job that needs to be done. The goal isn’t to impress your agency, but to get them excited about your brief.

A great briefing isn’t about impressing an agency or making people walk around with cold sores for the fun of it (though we do see the appeal in this).  It’s about helping them care enough to prioritise your brief, and get to better creative. 

Getting excited yet? We hope so. There are a couple more stories of briefings ready for you in our resources section.