Creative Briefs for Design Projects

I stare at the video screen in frustration. "Anna, you have a habit of telling two things in your stories. To tell an impactful story, you need to focus on one point. One story, one point," my storytelling coach, Matt, says. Matt is one of the best storytellers in the US. "Look at it this way: You can use the same story but craft it differently to make another point," he says. "That’s the beauty of storytelling." When I started my adventure in storytelling, I wanted my stories to convey multiple points. But I've learned that to tell my story with impact, I had to choose one message. We all have stories to tell, but finding the core message can sometimes feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. If you've ever struggled with pinpointing the main theme of your narrative, you're not alone. Here are three techniques to help you uncover the heart of your story: 1. Begin with the End in Mind. Think about the impact you want your story to have on your audience. What do you want them to take away from it? By envisioning the result, you can work backwards to identify the key message to drive your story forward. Example: if you want your audience to feel inspired by your resilience, your core message might revolve around overcoming adversity. 2. Identify the Turning Points. Look for pivotal moments in your story where a significant change or realization occurred. These turning points often highlight the essence of your narrative and can help you zero in on the core message. Example: If a turning point in your career was realizing your passion for storytelling, your core message might be about the power of following your true calling. 3. Ask Yourself 'Why?' Repeatedly. Continuously asking "why" about different aspects of your story can peel back the layers and reveal the underlying message. This technique, often called the "Five Whys," helps you dig deeper into the reasons behind your experiences and actions. Example: Why did you start your own business? To have more control over your work. Why did you want more control? To pursue your creative ideas freely. Why is pursuing creativity important to you? Because it leads to innovation and fulfilment. Hence, your core message might be about the importance of creative freedom in achieving personal and professional satisfaction. Finding the core message in your story is about understanding the impact you want to create, identifying pivotal moments, and continuously questioning your motives. These techniques will help you craft a compelling narrative that resonates with your audience. P.S. What's the core message of your latest story? Share below, I'd love to hear it. - Hi, I’m Anna Ong. I am the creator and host of What's Your Story Slam, an event similar to stand-up comedy, but instead of jokes, people tell stories. Our events provide a platform for people to connect and inspire each other through storytelling. Keen to learn more? DM me, and let's chat!

"I need to be more creative with my content..." (The biggest myth I hear from business owners.) And this obsession with creativity is killing their results. It basically means chasing shiny ideas while ignoring what actually works. It's like changing your message every day, confusing your audience. Now, I worked with a CEO 3 months ago. And during our session, he complained that his posts weren't getting engagement despite being "super creative." So, I showed him the power of consistency and it changed everything. Here's what I taught him - → Step 1: Define Your Core Message I had him write down his main expertise in one sentence. What problem do you solve? How do you solve it? We crafted his signature approach. Clear. Simple. Repeatable. → Step 2: The 80/20 Rule Next, I explained that 80% of his content should reinforce his core message. Same insights, different angles. Same solutions, fresh examples. Same value, varied formats. → Step 3: Create Your Content Framework We built a simple template he could use weekly. Problem statement. Your unique solution. Real client example. Clear next step. → Step 4: The Consistency Calendar I showed him how to batch similar content types. Mondays: Industry insights. Wednesdays: Case studies. Fridays: Quick tips. → Step 5: Track What Resonates I taught him to double down on posts that performed well. Repurpose them. Expand them. Reference them. Three months later, his engagement tripled. "People finally know what I stand for." Consistency builds recognition. Creativity builds confusion. When you repeat your core message consistently, you become unforgettable. So stop chasing trends. Start reinforcing your expertise. P.S. What's your core message?

Founders often ask me: “How do we stay consistent without repeating ourselves?”   Here’s the secret: You don’t need more content. You need one clear message used in 5 smart ways. 👇   ⟮P.S. - Real example from a recent project⟯:   Core Message → “We help fintech teams launch secure APIs 10x faster - without wasting dev hours on compliance.”   Here’s how we repurposed that across the funnel:   ● Website Hero → “Launch secure fintech APIs 10x faster.” ⟮No fluff. CTA-ready.⟯   ● Founder’s LinkedIn Post → Story post: “How 3 months of compliance nearly killed our API launch.” ⟮Emotional + relatable.⟯   ● Sales One-Pager → Benefit bullets: “Cut integration time by 70%. SOC2-ready out of the box.” ⟮Speaks directly to decision-makers.⟯   ● Email Subject Line → “Save your dev team 100+ hours this quarter?” ⟮Punchy & curiosity-driven.⟯   ● Investor Pitch Slide → “$400K saved annually through faster deployment and reduced risk.” ⟮Data + clarity = greenlight.⟯   It’s the same core idea, but now it works harder across touchpoints - without sounding robotic.   Pro tip: Start with one killer line. Then build formats around it, not the other way around.   Want me to drop the exact repurposing framework I use? 👇 Just say “YES” and I’ll share it in the next post.

𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗳𝘀 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆? 🚨 Every marketer dreams of campaigns that light up the market. But here’s the hard truth: too many creative briefs are the silent killers of great ideas. Why? Because they’re riddled with avoidable flaws that stifle creativity instead of sparking it. If your campaigns aren’t delivering, it’s time to stop blaming the creative and start examining your brief. 🔍 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟱 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗹𝗮𝘄𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗳𝘀: 🎯 The "Laundry List" Objective Problem Stop trying to achieve everything in one go. A sharp, single objective cuts through the noise and gives your team a clear target. 🧐 Audience Insights That Barely Scratch the Surface Your audience isn’t a faceless demographic. Dig deeper into their lives, motivations, and desires—or risk missing the mark entirely. 🛑 Message Overload A creative isn’t a magician. Asking them to convey five messages at once only ensures none will land. Prioritize ruthlessly. 🎨 Mandatory Overload Guidelines are important, but when your brief reads like a rulebook, you’re choking creativity. Less is more. 📝 Tone Words That Mean Nothing “Innovative.” “Exciting.” “Premium.” Sound familiar? These clichés don’t inspire—they confuse. Be vivid. Be real. The Bottom Line: A killer campaign starts with a killer brief. How many of these traps have you fallen into? Be honest. 👇 Want to fix these? Dive into our step-by-step guide on crafting briefs that ignite creativity and get results. Creativity thrives on clarity—let’s fuel it, not stifle it. 🌟 Millions of marketers read our blog to challenge themselves to get a little bit smarter—one article at a time. Read our post on the good and bad of the Creative Brief: 👉 https://lnkd.in/epk9F-cK 🌟 If this sparked something in you, follow me here for daily insights that challenge how you think about marketing. 📌 Follow me on LinkedIn by clicking here: https://lnkd.in/gfXyFCZ8 I’m Graham Robertson, founder of Beloved Brands. My goal isn’t to hand you THE answer but to arm you with the tools to find YOUR answer. 📕 Discover the Beloved Brands playbook, a resource trusted by brand leaders to elevate their skills. Packed with tools on brand analytics, positioning, planning, and execution. 🌍 Find Beloved Brands on Amazon: https://lnkd.in/ep2W_Nh5 💡 Ready to upskill your marketing team? Explore our Beloved Brands Marketing Training programs designed to produce smarter teams and better results. 🔗 Learn more about our Beloved Brands Marketing Training: https://lnkd.in/gHZH7fBA Great campaigns don’t happen by chance. They’re built—starting with the right brief. Let’s build better together.

According to PRWeek UK research, over 65% of #publicrelations agencies rate the quality of briefs that they receive from in house comms teams as either 'very poor', 'poor' or just 'average'. Only 2.2% say they receive an 'excellent' brief. This is clearly a massive challenge and shows how important it it that the whole industry steps up, if we're to ever break out of the chicken and egg cycle that we spend too much time inhabiting. Senior in-house practioners that I speak to are regularly frustrated by the quality of #PR agency reponses and work - typically across their #planning, #strategy and #measurement / #evaluation appoach. Tactics and activty are rarely questioned, and are where the PR agency focusses in response. This research helps explain why - without excellent briefs, the PR agency can be in the dark about how else to respond. The rise of #procurement departments implementing rules where prospective suppliers can't contact the prospective client just makes the matter worse. The PR agency is literally blindfolded. #PRWeek's article, linked in the first comment below, sets out a number of challenges that need addressing. They focus on : Budget Clarity - Some briefs fail to mention any budget, while others provide unrealistic ranges Clear Organisational Objectives - Many briefs lack clear, specific objectives. Without well-defined goals, clearly defined audiences and transparent sharing of benchmark data, agencies will always find it challenging to tailor their strategies effectively. Objectives need to be outcome focussed and SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) Decision-Maker Involvement: A lack of up front attention from decision makers and absence at critical stages can easily lead to misalignment. RFPs and pitch processes are not a chore to be delegated and avoided Procurement and Process Efficiency: Overly complex procurement processes can be burdensome, and frequently result in clients buying based on price, not value Realistic Expectations: Some clients exhibit a lack of understanding of PR's capabilities and can set unrealistic expectations If we want to improve the perception, practice and achievements that can be delivered through PR and Comms programmes, we all need to work together to take responsibility. In house teams need to invest the time to write great briefs and run great RFP processes. They need to provide clearly stated outcome focussed objectives, realistic budgets and be present and engaged throughout the process. In turn, agencies need to focus on strategic planning based on these objectives, great creativity and brilliant tactical execution. With all of this aligned, we can all move on to a world of better #measurement and #evaluation as well. Let's all work together to make frustrated quotes like this from the article be a thing of the past! 😖 “Lack of SMART objectives across all briefs” – Anon 😖

The Real Reason Most Campaigns Fail? The BRIEF. 👉 Let’s stop pretending it’s always the agency’s fault. → It’s not always the creative. → It’s not the media plan. → It’s not the pitch team. 👉 Most campaigns fail because they were set up to fail. And that failure starts with a BAD BRIEF. 👉 What does a bad brief look like? → It’s vague. → It’s written by committee. → It has no business outcome attached. → It’s filled with jargon, but no clarity. → It’s written to tick a box, not solve a problem. 👉 I’ve received briefs that were: → A three-line email → A rushed conference call → A 42-page RFP with zero actual direction → A three-minute thought during a presentation → A “template” copied and pasted across departments 👉 And every time, the question is the same: “Come back with something great.” 👉 Here’s the uncomfortable truth: If the problem isn’t clearly defined, no one can solve it. → Not even the best strategist. → Not even the best creative director. → Not even the best media team. But how do you solve a problem that’s never been clearly defined? Who’s responsible? Both sides. 🟦 Brands need to stop outsourcing confusion. → If you’re not aligned internally, don’t expect clarity externally. → Define the outcome. → Sharpen the ask. → Then brief. 🟧 Agencies need to stop playing along. → Challenge the brief, and ask questions. → If it’s broken, don’t build on it. → Fix it first. 👉 Why does this matter? Because unclear briefs don’t just waste time. The result? → Great agencies are stuck answering the wrong question → Misguided pitches → Frustrated clients → Underperforming work 👉 So what’s the fix? Simple, but not easy. → Better briefs lead to better ideas. → Better ideas lead to better results. → And that starts with the courage to slow down and get clear. 👉 So here’s what I do: ✅ Ask for a formal written brief ✅ Request a meeting to walk through it ✅ Interrogate the assumptions ✅ Clarify the objective ✅ Ask: “Is this the right question or just the one that made it onto paper?” 👉 The truth? Most campaigns don’t fail at the end. They fail at the very beginning. A bad brief.

Breaking Through the Invisible Walls of Creative Partnership TLDR: “Bring creative in to help define the problem, not just the solution.” I often hear internal creative teams say, “We want to be seen as creative partners—not just creative services.” But here’s my hot take: Your creative brief process could be getting in the way of your partnership. While I do believe good briefs are a crucial tool for effective communication and alignment between teams, I also believe that’s where the transactional relationship often begins. In many teams, the brief process creates more walls than bridges—someone submits a brief/request/ticket/job jacket, you go away to do that voodoo that you do so well, and they get something back. Then it continues: 30+ rounds of revisions and reviews right up until go-live. Add in the “we don’t show the work until it’s ready” mentality, and creative starts to feel like an ivory tower—mysterious, isolated, and hard to engage. This kind of “our ask, your task” dynamic drives teams crazy, and the “what we own” debates grind collaboration to a halt. The truth is: If you’re waiting for a brief to get started, you’re already starting too late. By the time someone submits a brief, they’ve already begun shaping a solution to the problem. And often, the brief doesn’t just share context—it prescribes tactics: “We need a campaign. We need a booth. We need a content series.” All solutions to the original problem, putting creative in the position of simply executing those solutions. But what happens if you bring creative leadership in before those solutions are defined? The space between spotting the problem and formalizing a brief is what I call the white space—and it becomes a canvas where great creative partnerships thrive. Now, some creatives genuinely prefer to work within the confines of a brief. Just as some product teams live and die by the PRD, some creatives feel most effective with clearly defined parameters. There’s nothing wrong with that. Scope creep is real. But the leaders who want to be seen as strategic partners thrive in the ambiguity of abstract problems—helping business stakeholders push and pull at the challenge and interrogate the insight well before the brief is created. “The best creative partnerships happen when creatives help define the problem—not just execute a solution.” So if you’re submitting a brief, ask yourself: Am I bringing creative in at the time of the problem, or the time of the solution? And if you’re a creative team hoping to be seen as a strategic partner: Don’t wait for the brief. Step into the white space. Ask the hard questions. Get curious about the business. Real creative partnership doesn’t start with a handoff— It starts with a seat at the table, before the brief ever gets written. We dive into this—and more—on the latest episode of The Focus Lab podcast with my friend Bill Kenney 👋 just in time for The One Club for Creativity’s #CreativeWeek & #ExecutiveCreativeSummit

What I learnt the hard way about writing influencer briefs 👀 No one else cared about them as much as I did. Harsh? Maybe. True? Definitely. Here’s the problem: Brands who send creators (and their agents) never-ending-slide-decks stuffed with brand vision, campaign context, KPIs, tone of voice, and more. It feels thorough, but in reality, the core message often gets buried under text bulk and over-explaining. I’ve been guilty of this myself. Hours spent perfecting every word choice, adding layers of context that felt essential, but overwhelming (and sometimes confusing), for the person on the other end. Even today, I still see briefs like the one in my slideshow circulating (😭). They’re heavy, uninspiring, and often suppress creativity instead of sparking it. Psychology backs this up: 💡 Information overload makes it harder to prioritise what’s important. 💡 Paradox of choice shows us that more options often make decisions harder, not easier. Creators are operating in fast-paced environments, competing for attention. Recruiters are pitching roles in 2-minute Loom videos. If you’re asking for creativity, you need to meet them in the same spirit. Guide on best practices and strategic frameworks, but ensure the core of your brand shines through in a simple, clear-cut way. My recommendation for briefs that actually work: 📲 A short TikTok esque video: deliverables, vibe, do’s/don’ts. 📄 A one-pager/Notion: clear, to the point, starting with overview, deliverables, non-negotiables. 📷 A moodboard: bring the creative direction to life visually 🤝🏼 Make it collaborative: share a Pinterest board, jump on a 15-minute vibe check call. Pressure-test: if your core message and brand can’t fit in 5 slides, it’s probably too much. For complex industries like health or fintech, extra detail is valid, but that makes it even more important to cut jargon and put clear do’s and don’ts front and center. Every brand’s process will differ, but it’s worth asking: is your brief actually doing its job? A brief is the first touchpoint with a creator. It’s your chance to inspire, not bore. 👀 If you’ve ever sent an influencer brief or received one yourself - what are your thoughts on this?

Dave’s Lessons from the Arena | Round 1 Sharks in the Water. Stop Feeding Them Chum. How to kill your idea in 60 Seconds or Less. Jack is sweating in front of the executives as they keep pounding him with questions. “I’m sorry, what exactly does this do?” “I’m confused. What are you actually saying?” “This sounds like a great idea… if I could understand it.” The room is tense. The feedback is harsh. Jack can feel his chest tighten. He knows this idea is exactly what the business needs. “It’s so simple. Why aren’t they getting it?” Jack tries to clarify. He uses bigger words. He shows more slides, each one denser than War and Peace. And…that’s it for Jack. He’s thrown in so much complex chum the sharks already started their attack. Out of the corner of his eye, Jack sees Samantha smiling. Not the “Hang in there, buddy, you’ve got this” kind. It's the “I love watching you squirm and fail, loser” kind. Jack went down faster than a boulder off a cliff. He fed the sharks exactly what they wanted: confusion. His brilliance buried under layers of charts, jargon, and 47 slides of “proof.” Worst part, he let down the ones wanted his idea to win. Why does this happen? We think more detail equals more credibility. It doesn’t. We drown good ideas under the weight of our own words, dense decks, and PhD-level graphs. How to keep it simple: 1) Focus on the one thing - Find your core message. Cut everything else. 2) Speak simply - Plain words win. Jargon kills. 3) When in doubt, take it out - If it doesn’t move the story, it doesn’t stay. 4) Test it with a kid - If a 12 yrs can’t explain it back, it’s not ready. 5) Less text, more visuals - If you can’t show it simply, you don’t understand it fully. There are always sharks in the water. Stop throwing them complexity chum. Simple wins. Complex kills. Please let me know what you think. And if you want to see more "Dave’s Lessons from the Arena". Each round will come straight from what we witness inside The Toughest Opponent Arena; real lessons, real moments, and insights that stick. #LessonsFromTheArena #TheToughestOpponent #MakeItSimple #StoryTelling #ClarityOverComplexity Lee Solomon José R. Betty Spetter Pilar Dostal Shamik Lala Danny Chehade Leah Kincaid Christy Snead Lusine V.

It is time to redefine how we approach creative briefs, and here are my three key insights about writing better ones: 1. Creative briefs shouldn't be about filling out template boxes. I've seen too many briefs where people mechanically complete sections without thinking strategically. The result? Uninspired work that lacks direction. Instead, we need to answer fundamental strategic questions that drive creative excellence. 2. The most effective briefs I've encountered start with "What's the real problem we're solving?" Not the surface-level issue, but the core challenge. Breakthrough campaigns came from briefs that identify an unexpected problem definition. When we dig deeper into the actual problem, we unlock better creative solutions. 3. Briefs focusing on human truth outperform those fixated on product features. Yet I still see countless briefs listing features and USPs without connecting to human behavior or emotion. We need to stop writing briefs like product manuals and start writing them like strategic narratives that inspire great creative work. I'm calling on all strategists and creative directors to rethink how we approach creative briefs. Let's move beyond the template mentality. Ask the tough questions. Challenge assumptions. Push for clarity. Your creatives will thank you, and more importantly, your work will be better for it.