Why Make a Creative Brief?
Marketing videos have become an essential tool for promoting products and services, building brand awareness, and engaging audiences. There are many considerations when starting a creative project, with lots of ideas coming from many stakeholders in the project, the details can get overwhelming quickly.
That’s where a creative brief comes in, it’s a document that outlines the creative project. It helps keep everyone on the same page and achieve the goals of the organization.
A creative brief can benefit a variety of creative professionals involved in the creation of a marketing video, including:
Copywriters
Art Directors
Graphic Designers
Animators
Creative Directors
Photographers
Web, UI and UX designers
For today we’ll focus on creative briefs for video production.
PURPOSE OF A CREATIVE BRIEF
It helps establish clear objectives and goals for the marketing video, which serves as a roadmap for the entire production process.
A creative brief can also be a great tool to get the green light from the higher ups in your company. Sometimes it’s hard to explain the need for, and desired achievements, of a project to higher level decision makers.
It also outlines the key messages and themes the video should convey, ensuring that the video stays focused on its intended purpose. As well as defining the target audience for the video, providing a clear understanding of who the video is intended for.
BENEFITS OF A WELL-WRITTEN CREATIVE BRIEF
A well-written creative brief has numerous benefits, including improving collaboration between team members, streamlining the creative process, ensuring consistency with brand guidelines, and fostering creativity within constraints. It promotes collaboration by establishing clear objectives and expectations for all team members involved in the production of the marketing video.
It also fosters creativity by providing constraints, such as budget and timeline, which can inspire innovative and cost-effective solutions and reduce the need for revisions and rework.
So, what goes into a creative brief? Below we’ve listed the things we include in our briefs.
COMPONENTS OF AN EFFECTIVE CREATIVE BRIEF
Project name:
Pretty basic, we’ll get creative later.
Project team:
Who’s on the project? What are their roles?
Due dates:
It’s usually helpful to work backwards, start with the final due date, then leave appropriate time to finish each stage.
Budgets:
Consider your video producer, locations, wardrobe, hair and makeup. If you’re unsure we can provide a range for you.
Company profile:
Background on the firm or client. Be sure to describe what you do and who you serve.
Positioning:
How is your organization positioned in the marketplace? How is it different from its competitors?
The problem:
If you are addressing a specific challenge, what is it?
Target audience(s):
Who would you like to see this video, who are they as individuals and what do they care about.
Strategy:
The big picture you are trying to achieve. Can you give the creative team a high level strategy so we can get creative.
Goals / objectives:
What is the piece trying to achieve? Try to choose SMART goals.
Key messages:
What are the 1-3 most important messages you want to communicate?
Call to action:
What’s the next step you want viewers to take?
Design considerations:
Are there any brand guidelines, colors, graphic elements, etc. that should be included in the design process? Is there anything that should be avoided?
Key competitors:
List 2–6 important competitors. Include their websites so we can check them out.
Distribution:
Where will people be watching these videos, how will they be embedded, will there be an accompanying webpage? Also consider if people will be watching this on mobile devices?
A creative brief is a crucial tool for ensuring the success of a marketing video. It provides clear objectives, defines the target audience, outlines key messages and themes, promotes brand consistency, streamlines the creative process, fosters creativity, and benefits a variety of creative professionals.
By taking the time to write a well-crafted creative brief, you can help ensure that your marketing video is effective, memorable, and on-brand. So, why wait? Start writing your creative brief today and take the first step towards creating a successful marketing video!
We have something for you!
Download our free creative brief template.
