A creative brief has one job. It gives the people making the work enough to make something good, and nothing that gets in their way. I've written a lot of them over fifteen years in agencies, and the ones that worked almost always fit on a single page.
This guide goes through the eleven sections I use, in order. For each one there's what it's for, the mistake I see most, and the line from a real-looking example: a made up coffee roaster that wants to grow its subscription. You can see that whole brief here, with comments and an approval on it.
Two or three sentences on what the client sells, what has changed, and why we're being asked now. The creative team needs context, not a company history.
The usual mistake is pasting in everything from the kickoff deck. If a sentence wouldn't change what the team makes, cut it.
Push harder: what changed for the client in the last six months?
One sentence the team can work from. If you can't get it to one sentence, you probably have more than one problem, and the brief will try to solve all of them badly.
Watch out for "low awareness". It's usually a symptom. Ask what happens because people don't know about the brand, and write that down instead.
Push harder: is this the problem, or a symptom of it?
This is the section most briefs skip, and I think it's the most useful one. What happens to the brand in a year if nothing changes? If the honest answer is "not much", that's worth knowing before anyone spends money.
Push harder: who wins if the brand stays exactly where it is?
Describe real people the way a friend would describe them. What they're trying to do, and what gets in the way. An age range and a household income are a media plan, not an audience a creative team can write for.
Push harder: what were they doing five minutes before they saw this?
The honest current belief about the brand or the category, written in their words and in quotes. It's often unflattering, and that's the point. A polished version here usually means nobody has actually asked.
Push harder: what would they say if we weren't in the room?
The belief after the work lands. Keep it a short step from the line above. Nobody goes from suspicious to loving a brand in one campaign, and a brief that asks for that sets the work up to fail.
Push harder: is that a step they could take after one campaign?
The single most important thing, as a plain sentence. It isn't a tagline, and writing it like one takes the job away from the creative team. If there's an "and" in the middle, there might be two things.
Push harder: could you say it out loud in one breath?
Two or three proof points, strongest first. Product facts beat claims. "Premium quality" is an adjective. "You can skip a delivery in two taps" is something a person can check.
Push harder: which of these could you prove in a meeting?
Logo, legal, offers, and anything the client won't move on. Keep the list short and honest. A long list of mandatories is often a list of preferences, and it ends up writing the brief for the team.
Push harder: is anything here a preference pretending to be a rule?
What we're making, by channel and format, with counts. "Social" and "six 15 second cuts" are very different jobs, and the difference shows up in the budget and the timeline.
Push harder: is anything here being made because it was made last time?
Kickoff, internal review, client review and launch, with real dates. Rough dates are fine. "TBD" usually means the review gets squeezed at the end.
Push harder: how much time is there between feedback and the next round?
Read it once as the creative team would. If they'd have to come back and ask what you meant, fix that line. Then check it still fits on one page.
If you want to write yours with these eleven questions, The One-Page Brief is free and there's no sign-up. It has a pressure test that catches most of the mistakes above, and you send the brief as a link so people can comment on each section and approve it in the same place.
Written by Cody Simmonds. I also write The Rationale, a weekly note for agency strategists.