In Short:
This article explains what marketing briefs can learn from luggage tags: how to communicate complex information clearly in very little space.
* Every element on a luggage tag has a specific purpose.
* Good briefs do the same by prioritising only the information needed to make the right decisions.
* The best briefs are selective, single-minded and clear enough to point everyone in the same direction.
When there’s no time and very little space to communicate, clarity is everything.
Baggage handling at major airports is a complex operation. Millions of bags, passengers, flights and destinations all need to connect perfectly, every day. The humble luggage tag plays an important role in making that happen. It’s a simple sticker with a mighty job.
I was flying to London via Singapore the other day, and my transfer time between flights was a tight 50 minutes. Yet somehow, my bag made it.
Why?
Because the luggage tag doesn’t try to communicate everything. It doesn’t tell baggage handlers every single destination I’ve been. It doesn’t provide ten possible destinations. It communicates a handful of critical decisions clearly. Look more closely at the tag, and every element is doing a specific job.
- My name connects the bag to the passenger travelling with it.
- The large three-letter code, LHR, makes its final destination unmistakable, London Heathrow.
- SQ identifies the carrier, Singapore Airlines, while 248 and 318 identify the incoming and onward flights.
- The number 3 in SIN 3 indicates that the bag must transfer through Singapore Changi’s Terminal 3.
- The date ensures it reaches the correct flights on the correct day.
- “Bags: 1/24KG” records the number and weight of the bags checked in.
- “HOT” alerts handlers to the tight connection, while “PRIO J” marks it for priority handling for business class.
- And the barcode turns all that information into machine-readable instructions the airport’s baggage system can track.
And that’s exactly what good marketing briefs do. They aren’t comprehensive; they’re selective. Like a luggage tag, a brief succeeds not because of how much information it contains, but because of how clearly it points everyone in the right direction. But because of how clearly it points everyone in the right direction.
What can marketing briefs learn from luggage tags?
Luggage tags communicate a small number of critical instructions clearly and quickly. Good marketing briefs do the same: they prioritise the essentials and point everyone in the right direction.
Should a marketing brief include all available information?
No. It should include only the information that helps the agency understand the challenge, make the right decisions and develop effective ideas.
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.