Briefing agencies: the most important document in marketing

The brief is the document that turns a plan into work. Every agency, freelancer and internal team builds on it, so its faults are copied into everything that follows. The foundations piece on planning frameworks introduces the brief; this piece is the operating manual.

• The evidence says briefs are the weakest link: in the BetterBriefs study, 78% of marketers said their briefs gave clear strategic direction and only 5% of agencies agreed¹.
• The industry guides have said the same for two decades, from The Client Brief to the IPA's 2022 guide written with Mark Ritson^6, 2.
• A client brief states the problem, the objectives, the audience, the money, the time and who decides. The creative brief, written by the agency from it, distils one insight and one proposition.
• The briefing is a conversation, not an email: a meeting, a brief back from the agency, and an agreed final version⁹.
• The debrief closes the loop: results against the brief's objectives, fed into the next plan.

The best-known evidence comes from the BetterBriefs Project, a global study run by two former agency strategists, Matt Davies and Pieter-Paul von Weiler, with the research firm Flood + Partners; it drew responses from more than 1,700 marketers and agency staff in over 70 countries¹. Its headline gap is about perception: 80% of marketers believed they write good briefs, while only 10% of agencies agreed, and 78% of marketers believed their briefs gave clear strategic direction, against 5% of agencies¹. Respondents also estimated that around a third of marketing budgets is wasted through poor briefs and misdirected work¹. That figure is the respondents' own estimate, not a measured cost, and should be quoted as such.

Research from the United States points the same way. In an ANA survey of 914 marketing and agency executives (502 on the marketing side, 412 on the agency side), 82% of agency respondents and 79% of brand respondents ranked "a tight brief with clearly defined objectives" as the most important factor enabling great creative work, and poor briefs lacking focus and clarity were rated the top roadblock¹¹. The same report describes strong briefs as clear but not prescriptive, and free of jargon¹¹.

The practical conclusion: the hour you save by writing a quick brief is paid back many times over in rework, missed launches and work that answers the wrong question.

The trade bodies have published best-practice briefing guides for a long time, and their advice has been remarkably consistent.

• The Client Brief was a joint guide from the agency trade bodies in the Communications Agencies Federation (the IPA, the MCCA and the PRCA) and ISBA, the advertisers' body; its authors estimated, from research among clients and agencies, that up to £13bn of advertising work a year was poorly briefed⁶. A 2006 version is listed by the Association of Canadian Advertisers⁷.
• Briefing an Agency revised it. Decision Marketing reports that it was written by the MAA, the PRCA and the IPA, led by ISBA, drawing on research among 140 of the UK's largest advertisers and agencies, and that "how do I brief for integrated campaigns?" remained one of the most asked questions⁸. The IPA's listing says it covers the principles of any good brief, why a written brief is important but not sufficient, the role of the briefing meeting, and written briefing forms⁹. ISBA keeps a current version for its members¹⁰.
• The best way for a client to brief an agency was launched at the IPA's Business Growth Conference in July 2022, co-authored by BetterBriefs and Mark Ritson in partnership with the IPA^2, 3, 4. Its four sections cover why briefs matter, how marketing strategy should shape them, writing them, and "briefing the brief", the briefing itself^2, 5. Coverage at launch reported a UK follow-up study in which marketers estimated that more than a quarter of their budget was wasted on poor briefs and misdirected work².

The client brief is written by the client, approved by the person who will sign off the work, and sent unchanged to every agency and internal team involved. The agency brief template tool lays out these sections:

1. Background The brand, the market and what has happened recently, in a paragraph, with links to the plan and the research.
2. The problem One problem or opportunity, stated plainly; New Zealand's agency council stresses that strong briefs focus on a single problem¹². Say why communications, rather than price or product, can solve it.
3. Objectives and measures The relevant lines of the objectives tree: business, marketing and communications, with baselines, targets and how each will be measured.
4. Audience Who must change, what they think and do now, and what you know about them (attach the evidence).
5. What we want them to take away The desired response, and the brand's positioning and message house as fixed inputs. Leave the creative solution open: clear, but not prescriptive¹¹.
6. Mandatories Brand assets, legal and regulatory requirements, languages, accessibility, claims that need substantiation.
7. Scope Deliverables, channels and markets in scope, and what is out of scope.
8. Budget The total, what it must cover (media, production, fees) and any reserve. A brief without a budget invites guesswork.
9. Timing Key dates, decision gates and the launch date, working back.
10. Decisions Who approves at each stage, and the criteria the work will be judged against.

A useful test: if two agencies read the brief separately, would they describe the same problem and the same objective? If not, the brief is not finished.

The two are often confused, and the confusion causes rework.

The creative brief is the agency's translation of the client's problem into a single-minded starting point for ideas. The creative brief template tool gives it a standard form; the message house supplies the proposition and the proof points.

The industry guides agree that a written brief is necessary but not sufficient⁹. Run the process in order:

The briefing meeting is where tone, ambition and context come across, and where the agency can ask what the paper does not say. Bring the decision-maker; a briefing given by someone who will not approve the work is a risk.

The brief back (sometimes called a reverse brief) is the agency's restatement of the brief, usually a few days later. It is not a creative presentation: it shows the agency has understood the problem, flags gaps and contradictions, and proposes changes. Agree the final brief only after it.

The debrief happens after the work has run. Compare results with the objectives the brief set, record what worked and what did not, and feed it into the next situation analysis. A debrief also helps the relationship: it tells the agency whether the work did its job, not only whether the client liked it.

When several agencies work on one campaign, the risks multiply: each receives a slightly different brief, or a brief tailored to its own discipline, and the integration is lost before any work starts. Three rules help:

• One brief, one meeting Send every agency the same client brief and brief them together. Discipline-specific detail goes in annexes, not in separate briefs.
• Name the lead Say which agency or internal team owns the core idea and how the others will work from it (see working with agencies and organising for IMC).
• State the channel roles Use the plan's integrated mix to tell each discipline its job, so that agencies do not each try to do everything.

• A task list, not a problem "We need three videos and a social campaign" tells the agency what to make, not what to solve.
• Too many objectives A brief that asks for awareness, consideration, leads and loyalty at once gives the agency no way to choose.
• No budget, or a budget "to be confirmed" The agency guesses, and the first round of work is wasted.
• Mandatories that crowd out the idea Long lists of required messages leave no room for a creative solution.
• Moving goalposts Objectives that change during the work without a re-issued brief.
• Briefing by email only No meeting, no brief back, and the misunderstandings surface at the first presentation.
• Feedback unrelated to the brief Work judged on personal taste rather than on the objectives the brief set.

Worked example (illustrative). A weak brief: "We need a summer social campaign to drive awareness and sales. Budget TBC. ASAP." Rewritten:

• Problem: families in two cities do not think of our juice brand for summer outings; competitors own that occasion.
• Objectives: raise the share of families who name us for outings (survey baseline from last summer), so that summer sales in those cities grow against the previous year.
• Audience: parents of school-age children who shop weekly in large supermarkets.
• Take-away: our brand is the easy, healthy choice to pack for a day out.
• Mandatories: brand colours and logo lock-up, sugar claims cleared by legal, Arabic and English versions.
• Scope and budget: social and in-store, a stated total including production, with a reserve.
• Timing and decisions: creative routes in three weeks, launch on a fixed date; the brand director approves.

Your Monday checklist:

1. Pick the next brief you will send and rewrite it with the ten sections above.
2. Test it on a colleague: can they state the problem and objective in one sentence each?
3. Book a briefing meeting with every agency involved, and the person who will approve the work.
4. Ask for a brief back within a week, then agree and sign the final version.
5. Write the review criteria into the brief, and use them in every feedback session.
6. Diary the debrief before launch.

• The BetterBriefs research¹ and its guide with Mark Ritson^{2, 3, 4, 5}.
• The Client Brief and Briefing an Agency^{6, 7, 8, 9, 10}.
• The ANA's research on briefs and creative work¹¹ and New Zealand's agency council on better briefs¹².
• On IMC Report: writing a marketing plan, working with agencies, and the agency lead and brand manager hubs.