There’s an art and science to successfully briefing your creative team. We want the facts—who, what, where, when, why, etc.—but we also want to feel inspired and equipped to do exceptional work.
A great brief can be the difference between dull creative and traffic-stopping, heart-thumping work that moves the needle. It should be digestible (or “brief,” if you will), focused, and fluff-less. Too much information can lead to diluted, scattered results. Too little information risks straying away from your goals. The right balance leaves us feeling informed, inspired, and empowered to nail the task at hand.
At LoSasso, we use a unique framework to get to the heart of each creative assignment. Then, we share the output with the creative team during briefing. This framework guides our process and has consistently delivered outstanding results for countless clients, inspiring award-winning creative campaigns and platforms for both B2B and B2C marketers.
Read on for a high-level look at our SiMPL briefing process.
Situation - The primary challenge
First things first: we want to know what business challenge we’re trying to solve. What have the clients asked for? Is this service/product/brand a category leader or a challenger? What are the opportunities at hand? Barriers to purchase? These are just a few examples of the types of questions that your Situation should answer. The kind of information that you supply here will vary based on the client and assignment. A great place to start? Your BIG Impact Plan.
Insight - Beliefs, behaviors and motivations
This section is all about your target audience. Demographics are fine, but going deeper is much better. Often, this requires additional research, whether you’re holding interviews with key stakeholders, launching a brand tracker or doing your own recon. But it’s worth it, because this is where you’ll find the good stuff. The things that make your audience tick. What they believe, how they behave, what motivates them. Mining for these valuable nuggets and sharing them with your creative team will result in more inspired—and resonant—ideas.
Magnify - The one thing
The place where your Situation and insight overlap is your sweet spot—the ONE BIG IDEA you want to Magnify for the creative team. Keep it short and sweet—one sentence. Seriously. If you find yourself with two or more sentences, go back to your insight and try to narrow in on the single-most-important truth. Choose your words thoughtfully, understanding that the creative team will use this statement as our guiding light throughout the creative process.
Promise - Reasons to believe
Once you’ve articulated the ONE BIG IDEA, it’s time to back it up with proof points. This is where all the nitty gritty details come in—why should your audience believe you? What does your service/product/brand Promise to deliver to your target audience? How is this different from competitors? How will it make their life better and their job easier? Focus on benefits over features where you can.
Leads to - Measurable call-to-action
Last but certainly not least, you need to identify the desired action. What should your creative assets/output encourage the customer to do? Make it specific, make it measurable.
Good: Drive awareness.
Better: Increase traffic to our product’s website.
Best: Increase traffic to our product’s website by 5%.
Good: Get more leads.
Better: Increase quote requests.
Best: Increase quote requests by 3%.
Good: Sign on new customers.
Better: Convert more leads into customers.
Best: Gain 4 new customers by the end of the year.
At LoSasso, we are seasoned SiMPL brief pros. We’ve perfected our process—who’s involved when, what questions to ask and how to get to that core differentiator. If you're ready to take your creative to the next level, we're ready to help you make it SiMPL.
