Look at this as less of a checklist and more as a guide to the kind of information that should be included:
I. Responsible for the campaign strategy, which requires you to specify objectives. Make sure the objectives outlined (i.e., the goals the campaign sets out to accomplish and how they respond to the key issues noted in the situation analysis).
II. Identify your consumer target (research director helps write)
• Who is your identified consumer target(s)? Delve into who is buying the product to think about how you might increase consumption. Also consider if there are untapped or underdeveloped markets, groups that are not currently targeted but warrant attention. Be sure to come up with a “name” for your primary and secondary target audiences. Also consider there be both consumer and business-to-business targets (e.g., retail chains, grocery store managers? What key insights does your agency know about your target consumer? How can you describe the target audience beyond demographics? Be sure to cover these aspects:
o Demographics (list your information sources)
o Values/attitudes (list your information sources)
o Behaviors (list your information sources)
III. Campaign Messaging (creative director helps write)
• What is the competitive advantage of your product?
• What is its unique selling proposition (USP)?
• What is its current and desired brand personality?
• How will the product be differentiated from the competition?
• What is the brand’s current position and what is the desired position?
• How will your product be branded? What is your branding strategy?
• What emotions or values do you want to link to the brand?
IV. Timing, Scope and Duration — how will the campaign play out? (media director helps write)
• When will the campaign start and end? What times of the year will receive extra emphasis?
• What days of the week will have more emphasis?
• Will the campaign focus on a certain time of day?
• Will the campaign be more prominent in a certain region or group of cities?
• Will you emphasize certain campaign elements over others?
V. What creative concept do you want to own if the campaign is successful? What is your “Big Idea”?
Creative brief (creative director helps to co-write creative brief)
• What are the three key issues that this campaign must address?
• What do we expect our target to do, feel or understand as a result of this advertising?
• What is the key insight that we have into our consumers?
• What is the strategic “one thing” we need to communicate?
• What tone will the campaign take?
VI. This should all culminate in a Creative Brief, wrapping up with answers to these questions — each answers should be no more than one line and not use “and” to connect multiple things. The more simply you can answer these questions, the more effective your campaign will be. This will be the blueprint for you moving forward and will shape your creative brief.
• Who are you talking to (who is the “who”)?
• What is your main message?
• What is the key word?
• Why should they care?
• Why should they believe you?
• How should they feel?
• What do you want them to do after seeing the campaign?
There are other forms of writing a creative brief; use whichever one works best for your campaign.