How to Write a Better Marketing Brief: 6 Mistakes to Avoid

Great advertising doesn’t start with ideas, it starts with the brief. Yet most briefs fall short. Here are the six briefing traps holding teams back, and how marketers and agencies can finally get aligned.

Most marketers think they’re good at writing briefs. However, when you ask agencies the same question, only one in ten agree that the briefs they receive from their clients are good*. 

To join the top 10% of marketers, you need to understand the biggest brief-writing mistakes – and how to steer clear of them.

Mistake #1: Briefing too early 

Too many briefs are shared with agencies before the strategic thinking is done. A brief should be the summary of the brand’s strategic thinking. However, often the problem to solve isn’t properly defined. Or the audience isn’t fully defined and understood. Or the objectives are still TBC. The hope is that the creative process will “sort it out”.

It rarely does. Briefs that lack a clear strategy leave all the decision making to agencies. Creative teams end up trying to reverse-engineer a strategy rather than bringing one to life. And when the target is unclear, the work inevitably misses the mark.

The Fix
A good brief summarises all the strategic choices a brand has made. So, do the heavy lifting upfront. Define the problem clearly. Be specific about the change in attitude and behaviour you’re trying to create, and the audience you want to reach. Creative work should bring the strategy to life, not write it for you.


Mistake #2: Changing the brief mid-process

Nine in ten marketers admit they change the brief after it has been briefed in, and marketers and agencies both agree that rebriefs happen too often*. Each one wastes time, drains energy and damages trust. They also slow everything down, adding cost and confusion for everyone involved.

The root cause is nearly always internal misalignment. Stakeholders haven’t agreed on priorities before the brief goes out, so the goalposts keep moving.

The Fix 
Treat every brief like a contract. Technically, it is a commercial agreement between a brand and an agency. Treating it as one locks in clarity and protects scope. 
So get agreement before briefing the brief. Put the right people in the room early, and don’t brief until you have internal agreement. Once the brief is set, stick to it. 


Mistake #3: Rewriting by committee

Many briefs are edited beyond recognition before they leave the building. Senior stakeholders add their own objectives, audiences or jargon. The result is a Frankenstein brief – a stitched-together document made up from too many opinions. 

Agencies describe these briefs as “unfocused”, “unclear” and “uninspiring” – and with good reason. Creativity thrives on sharpness, but struggles with mixed messages. There’s a reason why famous ad man David Ogilvy said, “Give me the freedom of a tight brief”. 

The Fix 
One person writes the brief. One person approves it. Everyone else can provide and suggest input, but they don’t rewrite the brief or approve it. It’s better to handle a disappointed colleague than to confuse your agency.


Mistake #4: Lack of clarity in language

The most important thing a brief must do is provide clear direction – but it’s surprising how often that's missing. That gap costs time and money as agencies burn energy decoding what clients really mean instead of solving the problem.

The cause is often internal language creeping in. Marketers often assume agencies “speak their language.” But most don’t. Eight in ten agencies say marketers have a poor or limited understanding of what they need from a brief (source: BetterBriefs project). Acronyms, buzzwords and internal phrases obscure meaning and sap creative energy. Jargon that makes perfect sense inside the business often means little outside it. It is essential to avoid corporate buzzwords, as they are killing your briefs.

The Fix 
Make clarity your measure of quality. Write for the people who will use the brief, not the people who will approve it. Use plain language. Keep it short. The best briefs are the ones that don’t need translation.


Mistake #5: Unclear objectives

Providing a clear picture of success by defining clear objectives is the most important section in the brief to get right. However, it’s also the hardest one. 

Some briefs get overloaded by too many objectives. Others lack objectives altogether. However, the most common flaw in briefs is the absence of clear, measurable outcomes. Vague goals like “drive awareness”, “increase consideration”, or even worse “TBC”, don’t provide agencies with any direction. How much awareness needs to be driven by when? How hard will it be to increase consideration, looking at the lifestage of the category, competitors and the brand’s own performance? 

Without a S.M.A.R.T. defined target, agencies are forced to guess at what success looks like, and ideas risk being evaluated on shifting criteria later. It’s very hard to hit a moving target. 

The Fix 
Be specific. Clearly define the change you seek: what you want people to think, feel or do. And how will that impact your brand financially? How will you demonstrate the return on the investment made in marketing? Clear objectives give agencies a finish line to aim for and make it easier to evaluate work objectively when it’s done.


Mistake #6: Trying to do everything at once

A brief that tries to do everything achieves nothing. Too many objectives, too many audiences, too many “must haves” all dilute impact. Agencies report that most briefs lack focus and single-mindedness. Instead of a springboard for creativity, they become a to-do list.

The Fix 
Be ruthless about prioritisation. What’s the most critical thing the work needs to do? Start there. If you try to solve five problems with one campaign, you’ll probably need to write five briefs.


Raising the bar

The fixes are clear: align internally before briefing externally. Resist the urge to overcomplicate. Use simple language. Set clear objectives and focus on one problem per brief.

By doing this, you can transform your briefs from time-wasters into powerful tools that set your campaigns up for success. Better briefs lead to better work, smoother collaboration, and most importantly, better results. When you get it right from the start, you’re giving creativity the chance to thrive and deliver the impact it was always meant to.

Pieter-Paul von Weiler 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 Publicis Amsterdam, Publicis London, Saatchi & Saatchi and AJF Partnership. Pieter-Paul has served as an Effie judge across Australia and APAC for over a decade.

Together with co-founder Matt Davies, 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). Pieter-Paul (together with Matt) 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.