In 2022, at IPA’s Business Growth Conference, we launched a new best-practice guide titled 'The best way for a client to brief an agency'. Co-authored by Mark Ritson and published in partnership with the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, it's a practical guide to help marketers write better briefs for agencies. Since launch, the guide has been downloaded by over 100,000 marketers.
The purpose of the guide is to create a shared understanding between marketers and agencies as to what good briefs look like. It shows how good briefs save time, protect budgets and improve effectiveness. Full of tips, principles and tools, it is a must-read for every marketer who write briefs.
The project's ambition is to eliminate guesswork in brief writing and replace it with clarity, focus, and results.
Key topics:
- - the importance of strategic clarity;
- - the need for strategy first and briefs second;
- - how to define the need for advertising;
- - how to choose the right objective;
- - how to articulate the target audience
Some great quotes from the guide.
Mark Ritson:
"Badly run brands try to do everything, all the time, to everyone. Better brands are selective and selfish. Their strategies revolve as much around what they will not do, as what they intend to achieve."
"We’ve all seen super-complex strategies that can’t fit into less than fifty pages or two-hour presentations. Each is the result of under-thinking and culminates in a pointless strategy that no one can understand or execute."
BetterBriefs:
"A message is only as strong as the truth that sits behind it."
"A brief is not a contract until the agency accepts it."
Great creative work begins with a great ask. If you brief agencies, this guide is written for you. And if you run an agency, it’s the guide you’ll wish every client brought to the first meeting.
Download the guide here.
Video below:
00.00 - 14.36 UK results of the BetterBriefs Project
14.37 - 25.24 Mark Ritson on the Best Practice Guide