For this entry, we had to give Bassett & Partner’s video Briefly a watch.
There were four quotes that stuck out to me through watching this short film. They range from simple explanations of what a creative brief truly is, to the levels of understanding that you need to have in order to be successful with the brief and with the ensuing project.
1. “A brief is nothing more than an open statement of ambition for a brand.”
-John Boiler
This was the first introduction, just minutes into the video, explaining a broader idea behind all of the presenters’ views on creative briefs: they shouldn’t just be an explanation of an intention behind a campaign. Similarly, it’s not just to create a series of advertisements. Rather, it’s an overarching, ambitious statement on what a brand should be, could be, would be, can be.
2. “The best briefs I’ve ever worked on have always been the most audacious and seemingly impossible.”
-John Boiler
This ties in with the last quote from Boiler, but it again reinforces the idea that a creative brief doesn’t have to lay out a clear-cut problem that can be addressed with a clear-cut solution. The brief should be an accurate depiction of a brand or a company or a problem, but it doesn’t have to be overly grounded, the problem doesn’t have to be downplayed, and it doesn’t have to be a small problem. Sometimes, the more audacious or seemingly impossible the material is that is contained within the brief, the bigger spark it can give to the creative team.
3. “Those ideas would not have come about without a brief that had limitations and an invitation.”
-David Rockwell (~15:30)
I feel as if this quote from Rockwell again builds on Boiler’s point in the last selected quote, but also keeps it a bit in check with reality: briefs should be ambitious, challenging, and audacious, but it can (and probably should, in some scenarios) have limitations. This quote arises with Rockwell’s explanation of how his team tackled The Cosmopolitan account in Las Vegas. This was a hotel that was already partially built, so the creativity had to be developed around the pre-existing limitations. Ambition and boldness is important in the briefing process, but so is reality. It is with the recognition of the real limitations behind The Cosmopolitan that Rockwell’s team was able to suggest its innovative ideas surrounding the technological, “changing” entrance of pillars, and blowing open the first three floors in the building to change visual perceptions within the hotel. The limitations presented an exciting void in the project that could be filled with creativity.
4. “We have this habit today of thinking information is knowledge…it’s not. Just because you can Google it, doesn’t mean you have context for anything.”
-John C. Jay (16:14)
This quote really stuck out to me and has left me pondering just how well I do what John C. Jay says is important: keeping up with culture. This cultural know-how is not limited to simply keeping up to date with headlines, but rather understanding, following, and researching culture. During the creative process, you should be able to connect culture to the project, not only to enhance it but to add context. The context is important, and this is not something that can simply be learned by Googling a topic but rather by immersing oneself.
I feel as if, when you first learn about a business process of any type, it seems quite structured, rigid, and previously defined. A business report is a business report. A memo is a memo. A creative brief is a creative brief. It’s not until you listen to truly experienced individuals speak about their experiences with drafting and working with briefs that you can understand the world of opportunity that is available. Although every project must begin with a brief, as the video states, the way in which a brief can and should be approached can vary greatly. The creative process behind developing a brief can be almost, if not equally, as important as the creative process that will follow it. Creative briefs can be ambitious. They can also work well when injected with some limitations, as certain limitations can add an interesting creative problem to the project. At the end of the day, the creative brief must give a creative team a very accurate depiction of a brand, or company, or project, with the right information, as well as the right amount of freedom or ambition or audacity in order to keep the creative team interested – or else the creative team might just reject it. And that’s okay – because the last thing you want is a creative team uninterested in the project they’re doing for you.
“If the brief isn’t true, stop working on it…stop.”
-John C. Jay
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