The Perfect Brief

Clarke Duddy & Adam Peters fill in the blanks

Setting a project up for success

The perfect creative brief can set the tone for how a project is likely to run. Here at Whitenoise, we’ve found that when a brief includes the right level of detail and clarity, projects tend to run more smoothly. Expectations are clearer, timelines are easier to manage, and there is far less chance of scope creep or unnecessary revisions. All of this leads to a better experience for both our clients, and Whitenoise as their creative partner.

On the other hand, when a brief is missing key information and clarity, it can create challenges for everyone involved. Deadlines can become harder to meet, the approach to the work may shift mid-project, and both sides can find themselves spending more time clarifying things rather than moving the project forward. All this leads to a less than perfect experience for our clients and our team.

At Whitenoise, we receive a variety of different briefs every day, and while they vary from client to project type, every one of them usually falls into one of two buckets.

The first is typically a brief that is well structured, clearly explains the deliverables and gets straight to the point. It respects the time of everyone involved and after a quick call with the client, it sets a clear direction for the work ahead.

The second usually arrives with equally good intentions, but contains conflicting information, unclear objectives and too little detail or too much detail in the wrong places. These creative briefs often require a bit more time to unpack with the client before the project can really begin, and regular monitoring throughout to keep focus, clarity and momentum.

Thankfully, at Whitenoise we find that most briefs sit somewhere between those two extremes. And in a climate where organisations are trying to achieve more with their budgets - the quality of the creative brief has never mattered more.

Creativity needs context

One of the most common assumptions about working with a creative agency is that in absence of clarity, “the agency will think of it for us” and in many ways, that’s true. Creative thinking and problem solving are exactly why creative agencies like Whitenoise exist, but for that thinking to be effective, it needs the right context so that ideas and approach are channelled appropriately.

We need to understand the organisation behind the brief. We need to know who the audience is, what challenges our client is trying to solve, the level of success experienced with previous projects and activities and learning gained, if there are any internal constraints and who internal stakeholders and approvals sit with and most importantly - what success looks like. Without this context, creativity becomes guesswork…and guesswork can be costly for everyone involved.

When we receive what we would consider a strong creative brief, it enables our team to start thinking strategically straight away. It provides the knowledge required to solve the challenge efficiently and it allows us to make informed decisions about the tone and creative direction.

We mentioned too little AND too much detail earlier. Why is that a problem? Interestingly, briefs often fall short at both ends of this spectrum. Sometimes they contain pages of detail for something relatively straightforward, overcomplicating what should be a simple and cost effective task. Other times they’re so light on information that we need to spend additional time clarifying the basics before we can even provide an accurate quote. Both situations can create friction so finding a balance is key.

In most cases, short and focused work best, allowing us to ask the pertinent questions we know will impact approach and cost. At Whitenoise, we believe that a strong written brief should establish the direction, outline any constraints, highlight deliverables and confirm key deadlines. From there, we usually schedule a kick-off meeting that allows us to explore the brief in more detail with our client before the work begins

The commercial reality

A weaker brief doesn’t just slow things down, it can affect the overall value of a project for both parties. When information is missing, scope can shift during the project. Additional amends may appear because we’re working from draft content. New stakeholders with different perspectives might join the conversation late in the process resulting in a pivot and extended delivery timelines. The result? Whitenoise will invest more time and resources into the project than initially anticipated to make sure the client gets the best possible outcome, and for our clients, it can mean more rounds of feedback and longer delivery times. We have robust processes for handling creative briefs, alongside client service agreements outlining scope of deliverables, process, amends and delivery timelines - all of which allow us to anticipate or afford a little scope creep, or address it quickly and communicate with our clients so we can negotiate the necessary additional budget.

Budget transparency also plays an important role here. When we understand the total available budget for the project, we can shape the ambition of the project to suit it. We can recommend the most effective creative solution within those guardrails. Without that context, we are often estimating the scale of what might be required. Sometimes that means we are pricing conservatively and missing out on opportunities that could drive better project delivery and impact, and other times it can even lead to misjudging expectations entirely and proposing an unrealistic solution.

We find that many organisations understandably want to encourage competitive pricing by not revealing their budgets upfront. However, in practice, transparency often leads to more efficient conversations, the ability to better judge value for money across proposals and lead to more realistic solution.

The real impact of an unclear brief

At Whitenoise, when a brief arrives and certain aspects are unclear, the process is usually quite predictable. Our team reads through it carefully, identifies areas that may need clarification, and then we go straight back to the client with questions. Sometimes, all that is needed is a quick call to refine the details before we can provide a quote or begin planning the work.

If a brief goes into the studio before these points are clarified, our designers may find themselves working with incomplete information. The content may still be in draft format, the intended audience may not be clearly defined, or the objectives are still evolving.

It’s a bit like asking a chef to prepare a meal before the ingredients have been decided.

Naturally, this can affect the flow of the project. Our team at Whitenoise are motivated by solving problems creatively and creating work that genuinely helps our clients achieve their goals, so when the brief isn’t locked in before creative work begins, projects can end up going through more revisions than necessary.

What the strongest briefs include

A clear deadline. When we have this, it allows us to provide the client with key milestones such as first, second and third draft dates, how long they have to review each draft and when the final content is required by.

Approved content. While we can begin with draft content at the concepting stages, it’s critical that we receive final content before we proceed beyond concepting. Content that is still being written or approved can slow down the entire process and add unnecessary pressure to both sides.

A clearly defined target audience also makes a significant difference. The more precisely we understand who the work is intended for, the more effective the creative solution is likely to be.

Brand guidelines. Where available, brand guidelines and an official brand toolkit can help ensure consistency and reduce amends.

Lastly, knowing what a client doesn’t want to see can often be even more helpful than knowing what they do like and want. Extreme opinions are valuable and ideal guidance includes simple “love it”/”hate it” references.

"Short, focused briefs often deliver the best results."

Clarke Duddy

A shared responsibility

Creating a strong brief is rarely a one-sided process. In reality, it tends to involve a bit of collaboration. We understand that the clients we work with may not know exactly what information we need at the start of a creative project. It’s our responsibility as their creative partner to ask the right questions and help refine the brief where needed.

At Whitenoise, when we receive a brief from one of our clients, our perspective is that it is a starting point and the foundation for the entire project. We then work with the client to ask the questions they haven’t answered, and work with them to develop a more comprehensive final brief.

Armed with the experience and guardrails detailed above, we begin almost all of our creative projects with a robust creative brief, enabling both the client and Whitenoise to focus on what really matters, producing world enhancing work.

In the end, a well-crafted brief doesn’t just help us do better work - it helps our clients get better results - and when both sides start with clarity, the entire creative process becomes a lot more enjoyable for everyone involved.

This article was written by Clarke Duddy, Managing Director, and Adam Peters, Studio Production Manager, at Whitenoise, drawing on their combined experience of managing and delivering creative projects for global organisations across a wide range of sectors. We hope it’s been a useful insight into how a strong creative brief can set projects up for success.

If you have thoughts or feedback on the blog, we’d love to hear from you - and if you’re planning a creative project and would like to explore how Whitenoise can help bring it to life, feel free to get in touch with the team at info@whitenoisestudios.com