The brief is not the idea
A good brief points at a problem. A bad one hides a solution inside it and hopes nobody notices.
Most briefs we receive already contain an answer. "We need a film." "We want to go viral." "Something like that campaign from last year, but for us." It's understandable. A solution feels more useful than a question.
The trouble is that a brief with the answer baked in can only ever produce that answer. And the first answer is rarely the interesting one.
What a brief is for
A brief has one job: to describe a problem so clearly that a good idea becomes possible. Who are we talking to? What do they think now? What do we want them to think instead? What's stopping them?
Four questions. If a brief answers them honestly, it can be half a page long. If it doesn't, forty slides won't save it.
Fall in love with the problem. The idea will turn up when it's ready.
Leave room for surprise
The best work we've been part of started with a brief that was specific about the problem and relaxed about the format. A film brief that became a poster. A launch that became a letter. A campaign that turned out to be a change to the packaging.
None of that happens if the deliverable is decided before the thinking starts.
So, the next time you write one
- Describe the problem in one sentence a friend outside the company would understand.
- Say what success looks like in behaviour, not in views.
- Delete the line that begins with "we were thinking maybe".
Then hand it over and let people surprise you. That's what you're paying them for.
