Has it happened to you that more and more campaigns arrive at your agency without any brief at all? Do you feel that your client doesn’t even know what he wants? Do you feel lost in a sea of requests?
Advertising friend, you’re not alone, but it’s not your client.
We are in an increasingly complex industry that surpasses us all and if we want to do a great job, we have to understand that the brief and strategy is not the task of one of the parties but of all, as partners and as a team.
Saying that digital changed everything sounds terribly old-fashioned, but today we are in a highly competitive environment with many points or moments of contact, the ability we have to micro-segment messages to very specific moments and profiles can become overwhelming and the vast majority of brands today do not have the tools necessary to plan and cope with this scenario.
We need to recognize our limits, as brands and agencies, when we accept how far we can go we can look for those partners who complement our work with data, strategy or creativity. Above all, you have to have an enormous capacity to question what you think is dominating your market, to let others surprise you.
With that correct partner that complements us we have to work briefs and strategies very hand in hand. An agency cannot be sitting waiting for the brief and brands have to take advantage of the tools that agencies bring to the table. Let’s do the briefs, let’s decide the media, let’s make a strategy, but let’s do it together. If you are a brand, choose an agency with the necessary data and listening tools but above all, a team that you can trust to be part of a process that goes way beyond creativity. If your agency is not able to work the brief with you it may not be the right one, and if as a creative you still need a very digested brief you may have to rethink your way of work.
Let’s do briefs, then think.