Understand the requirements of working to a brief
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There are several different ways a client can communicate a brief to a media firm, including through a contractual agreement, negotiated discussion, formal briefing, informal discussion, commission, tender, cooperative effort between multiple firms, or competition between firms. The brief should clearly outline the objective, information about the client, existing research, desired results, target audience, budget, timeline, and structure of the brief (whether formal, informal, etc.). This particular brief has a tender structure, clearly outlining the required end products - three films of varying lengths capturing the history of Bexley College and prominently featuring the college's branding. Resources from the college's media department are available, but the brief cannot be negotiated due to its clear requirements and inclusion
Understand the requirements of working to a brief
- 1. Understand the requirements of working to a brief There are at least 5 different ways in which a brief can be communicated from the client: Contractual: the brief might be set out in a contract, which is a written agreement which explains the responsibilities that the media firm and client may both have, and how they might share in the financial success.This is a good format because the contract can be very detailed to avoid any misunderstanding, but it’s also quite inflexible so not so good where the project might change as it progresses Negotiated: This is when two parties have different ideas from each other but they both have to come to a decision by compromising and making sure that both the parties are happy by the decision. In this way the brief is gradually developed by discussion.This is good because client will get what he or she wants, but because the media firm is not competing against others the client doesn’t know if they are getting a good price. Formal: This might be when the client has some very clear ideas about what they want to achieve so they invite the firm to a formal briefing meeting to tell them, or they write to them describing the brief in detail and asking for a proposal.This is pretty much the same advantage and disadvantage as above. Informal: This might be the client ringing up to tell the media company his requirements rather than writing to them formally or sending a contract.This may be good for speed of the project, but if the brief is not written down there could be some misunderstandings later Commission: Occasionally, because you may have a really good reputation for certain types of work, the client will just come to your form only, and commission (pay) you to do something in a certain way.The client will get just what they want, and the project can carry on quickly if other proposals have not been invited.
- 2. Tender: Quite often, clients will ask media firms to compete against other media firms for the work. They might pick a handful of firms that have a good reputation from that sort of work to put on the tender list. They would probably indicate generally what they want, and then leave it to the media firms to make their proposals of how they will do the job and what it will cost. This is a good way of making sure the client gets what they want at the right price, but it takes some time to organize the process. Cooperative brief: This may be a project which involves more than one media firm talking to another in order to agree the brief, or perhaps more than one client talking with more than one media firm. All of the parties will need to cooperate closely to agree the brief.This is a good way of sharing a complicated job between different firms, but it will be even more important to make sure there is a written agreement so that everyone knows exactly what they are supposed to be doing. Competition brief: Like a tender, the media firm will be in competition, however the main difference is possibly that the brief might be a little less detailed, and it may be possible for many firms to enter the competition rather than just a few.This may produce some really great ideas, but it might be difficult to decide between all of the media firms that have put forward their ideas and this could slow the project down. All briefs should try and communicate the following as clearly as possible: The general idea or objective Some information about the client, which tells you what they have done before and what their business is trying to do. Any information or research which the client has already picked up. What result does the client want? Who is the target audience?
- 3. How much does the client want to spend? how long has the team got to do the job?
- 4. What is the structure of the brief? Is it formal, informal, commission, competition, negotiated or tender? After reading through the brief and considering the content and the way it was presented to the client I decided that it had a tender structure. The way the brief is written is formal and friendly but informative, outlining what they require in great detail. Summarize the end product that is required for the brief and the demands that this will bring. E.G. Budget, time, resources etc. Bexley Collegewants to capture the history of Bexley College in a ten, three and one minute film’s. Bexley Colleges Media Department is at my disposal for equipment. The Bexley College brand should be shown throughout or finish with a visual or audio sign off of ‘Bexley College. “Inspiration for your future”. Can the brief be negotiated? If so how and in which areas? Is it just the end product or can other areas of the brief be negotiated? No. The brief is very clear in what the company wants and they’re also allowing the client to use the most of their creativity, the only thing there that is required is the promotional strapline ‘Bexley College. Inspiration for your future’ and the brand logo. As this is a tender brief and is aimed at more than one client it wouldn’t be appropriate to negotiate terms of the brief as this what they expect from everyone however if the brief was presented in a more formal or contractual manner than it would be appropriate to negotiate as the contact between the company and client would be more intimate with meetings and phone calls as there would less people taking part.