In Short:
This article looks at what marketers can learn about writing better briefs from the management style of legendary football manager, Sir Alex Ferguson:
- Strategy must be settled before briefing begins, not discovered through the creative process.
- A good brief defines what to achieve and why, then trusts the agency to figure out how.
- Brief ownership matters: one person writes, one approves and everyone else contributes.
- Internal alignment before the brief goes out is the best defence against costly rebriefs.
The best teams walk into every match having already done the hard thinking. There's a lesson in that for every marketer involved in writing briefs. Sir Alex Ferguson won an astonishing 38 (!) trophies as coach at Manchester United. Most people credit his eye for talent or his tactical genius. But his real skill was simpler: Ferguson was a brilliant briefer.
Create the game plan first
Before every match, Ferguson did the work. He studied the opposition, aligned his coaching staff and gave his players a clear picture of what winning looked like and how to achieve it. He didn’t send them out and hope the match would clarify the strategy.
Sound familiar?
Our research found that 60% of marketers use the creative process to figure out their strategy (the BetterBriefs Project). The brief goes to the agency before the thinking is done, and the hope is that the agency will sort it out.
Ferguson would have been appalled. “Clarity aids success”, he said, and “ambiguity feeds failure.”
When the strategy isn’t clear, the brief can’t be either. Agencies can’t solve a problem that hasn’t been clearly defined.
Focus on the what, not the how
Ferguson told his team what to achieve, not how to achieve it. He didn’t stand on the touchline shouting instructions at every touch. He defined the goal, outlined the approach, then trusted his players to find the solution on the pitch.
A good brief works exactly the same way. It defines a clear problem for communications to solve, the audience to reach and the change in behaviour to create. Then it steps back and lets the agency do what it does best: find the most creative solution.
The moment a brief starts prescribing the execution – “it should feel like...” or “we’re thinking some kind of social-first campaign...” – it stops being a brief and starts defining the solution. Agencies can’t do their best work when “the how” is already decided.
David Ogilvy put it famously: “Give me the freedom of a tight brief.” Ferguson understood this instinctively. His players knew the destination; the route was theirs to find.
Being allowed to find the route matters to agencies. They report being twice as energised when they receive briefs with clear strategic direction (source: BetterBriefs project). Give them that, and all their creative energy goes into finding the best idea instead of working out where they’re supposed to be heading.
Don’t change the game plan without good reason
Ferguson made tactical adjustments at half-time based on what was happening on the pitch, not on shifting priorities from the boardroom, or a stakeholder who’d just decided they wanted a different formation.
Our research found that nine in ten marketers admit to changing the brief after it has been sent to the agency (source: BetterBriefs project). Each rebrief costs time, trust and creative energy. The root cause is nearly always the same: not enough internal alignment before the brief went out.
The goalposts weren’t agreed before the game started.
Ferguson always prepared. He aligned his coaching staff. He committed to the plan. And when he did change it, it was a response to what was happening on the pitch, not to internal politics. The briefing equivalent is straightforward: get your stakeholders aligned before the brief goes out. Agree on the problem, the audience and what success looks like. Then hold the line.
The lesson
Ferguson retired having built one of the most sustained periods of dominance in the history of sport. The principles behind it - clarity, trust, ownership and preparation - are available to every marketer who writes a brief.
Most campaigns don’t struggle because the agency lacks talent. They struggle because there isn’t always clarity on what winning looks like before kick-off. Ferguson would have had no patience for that. Neither should you!
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.