Fundamental Elements for Preparing the Perfect Advertising Creative Brief

Are you a new business owner looking for an ad agency to advertise your product?
Nervous as to what you will be asked in the agency’s advertising creative brief?
Don’t worry; we’ll help you prepare yourself.

The main purpose of an advertising creative brief or a marketing creative brief is to get the maximum output out of the ad agency or the graphic designers with minimum time and effort. But for that the company itself needs to make a few decisions regarding the advertisement that they would like to create so that they are better able to communicate that to the agency. For example, the budget of the project and the impression you would like to leave the customer with?
The aim of a good creative brief in advertising is to ensure that your company and the agency are on the same wavelength to avoid wastage of time and other valuable resources. To do that, the company needs to ensure that they include all relevant information about themselves along with their project objectives and preferences to avoid any conflicts in the future.

Following is a sample creative brief for advertising through which you can prepare yourself before going off to meet an ad agency:

1. Objectives:

What is the objective of your advertisement? Will it be used to increase awareness amongst the audience, to increase sales or simply to generate interest? Decide what your aim for the advertisement is and clearly state that in your creative brief advertising.

2. Target audience:

What are the age, gender, location and preferences of your target audience? Are they teenagers or working professionals? Give an insight on the personalities and behaviors of the people that you are addressing their advertisement to. It is very important for the creative team to have a clear idea as to who the people in the audience are. For example, McDonald’s happy meal is targeted towards the kids and caters to an age group of 5 to 12.

3. Background:

Provide the basic information about the company, the brand and its main competitors here. What have been your past and present advertisement strategies, communication mediums and the market conditions you exist in?

4. Unique Selling Proposition:

What unique feature are you giving your customer that your competitors aren’t? The proposition should be single minded and focused as to what feature gives you a competitive edge over others.

5. How do you want your customers to react after watching the     advertisement?

How do you want your customers to react when they watch the advertisement? Should they be laughing out loud or be feeling emotional? Here, you may mention that what is the message that you want to leave with your customers when they watch the advertisement?

6. Communication Medium:

Here, you will decide on the specific media type that should be used in the advertisements. For example, do you want to use print ads or advertisements on television and radio? These decisions may also depend on the size of the target market.

7. Overall Tone Of The Ad:

How do you want the tone of the advertisement to be? Should it be humorous, light-hearted or serious? 

8. Other Additional Info:

This part should include any specifics of the advertisement that you would like the agency to utilize; that can be specific colors, fonts or designs; the slogan, the tag line etc.

 

9. Other Considerations:

• Budget:

How much can you afford to spend on the advertisement? Here, you need to decide on how much amount will be allocated towards the advertisement expense and do some research as to what the market can offer you within that budget.

Make sure that all the above mentioned points in your creative brief are mentioned clearly and assertively. Also make sure that you just make suggestions in your advertisement creative brief to lead your marketing agency instead of leading them. By considering these simple elements, creative brief branding would not be a difficult task.