Continuing on our streak of inspiration from Ted Hope and the SF Film Society’s Artist-to-Entrepreneur spirit, we want to share our marketing know-how with other indie makers and entrepreneurs. Here's a guide for writing a creative brief. (What’s a creative brief? It’s the thing that Peggy Olson and Don Draper sometimes refer to in Mad Men, that helps them do their magic!) As example, we've included the creative brief we wrote for the dream website we want for the Big Flip. Go to our website: http//BigFlipDocumentary.com to find out more!

1. First the basics—what does a creative brief look like? (You know, the
“brief” that Peggy Olson and Don Draper sometimes refer to in Mad Men?)
Different agencies, sometimes different account planners, have slightly
different approaches to writing a brief. But here's a list of the key topics
that are typically covered in a brief.
❖ What is the assignment? What are we asking the creatives to do?
❖ Why are we doing it? What's the problem we're trying to solve?
❖ Who are we talking to? What is the most relevant thing we know about
their lives, hopes, dreams or fears?
❖ What do they think/do now about the category/brand/product?
❖ What do we want them to think/do after seeing the creative work?
❖ THE SINGLE MAIN IDEA: What is the one thing we can say to get
them to think/do that?
❖ Why should they believe it? What are the proof points?
❖ What is the brand personality, its tone of voice?
THE ART AND CRAFT OF WRITING A CREATIVE BRIEF—IZZY CHAN
Page 1 of 5

2. Here are some general guidelines on what makes a good creative brief.
❖ It turns the prosaic into the interesting. It sheds the marketing
jargon and shifts into common English. It talks about business issues in
the context of real-life situations. It respects people as human beings
with real lives and needs—and doesn't just exploit them as purchasing
and consuming machines.
❖ It is clear, simple, and brief. I'm old-fashioned here—all the key
elements should fit on one page. Think of the "real estate" that the
typical creative output allows for—30 second TV, an online banner, a
billboard on a freeway, an uncluttered and easy-to-navigate-around
microsite, a magazine ad, etc. If the creatives got to get the story out
within that limited "real estate," you better be able to get your story
down to one-page!
❖ It hangs together tightly, with all the pieces flowing from one to
the other smoothly, inevitably, logically. In other words, don't just
cut-and-paste from different parts of input documents and research
reports, and call it a creative brief. A good creative brief should fit like a
custom-tailored suit. Only the most relevant pieces of information
should be in there. They should all fit together into a compelling, air-
tight argument. If any one part needs to be revised—to accommodate
important new information on the business, because a client has a
different perspective on the desired effect, discussions with creatives
have inspired you to frame the audience insight differently—everything
else should be carefully scrutinized, revised or re-written to fit properly.
THE ART AND CRAFT OF WRITING A CREATIVE BRIEF—IZZY CHAN
Page 2 of 5

3. As for the Single Main Idea (the Big Idea, the selling point, the value
proposition—different planners may have different names for this core part
of the strategy), here are two key things to aim for.
❖ It is focused without being overly prescriptive. This is more an art
than a science. Creatives are a great help in finding that line. The
BARATA exercise in the previous section is another tool to gauge
whether your SMI is creatively "fertile" and not too narrow.
❖ It is the "evidence" that will cause the desired effect. In other
words, it's what you say to get people to believe/do what you want
them to. But it shouldn't be confused with the effect. For example, if you
want people to think you're innocent, you don't just say you're innocent
—you say you were not at the scene of the crime but at a party and you
have a picture to prove it. If you want people to think you're cool, you
don't say you're cool—you show pictures of you at the Playboy
mansion, or talk about going backstage at the Madonna concert. You
get the picture.
As an example, following is a creative brief I wrote for Tyler Young of Young
Nomad Brands to help me redesign the website for a documentary project
I’m developing—the Big Flip.
THE ART AND CRAFT OF WRITING A CREATIVE BRIEF—IZZY CHAN
Page 3 of 5

4. BIG FLIP WEBSITE REDESIGN—MAY 17, 2013—V2
WHAT ARE WE DOING?
Create an official website for The Big Flip that can evolve and grow with the project as it develops.
WHAT IS THE KEY ROLE OF THE WEBSITE?
Be the engine and heart that drives the project forward. More than just a collection of pretty pictures
and information bits, the website needs to be a dynamic and functional engine for fundraising, casting,
and galvanizing a community of supporters for the project.
Keywords: Dynamic. Flexible. Functional. Action-oriented.
WHO ARE WE TALKING TO?
1) Women of influence. Career-driven professionals who pay attention to “women in leadership” topics.
Includes (but not exclusive to) breadwinner wives.
2) Stay-at-home dads.
3) Working parents (moms & dads).
4) Creative professionals (filmmakers, designers, photographers, etc.) supportive of indie filmmaking.
WHAT ARE THE KEY PAGES AND PAGE ELEMENTS? (TABS/SUB-TABS?)
1. Tab 1: Home page
• Prominent “sign-up” and “follow” buttons (newsletter, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr)
• Rotating “feature” space where we can easily switch content to showcase what we need to (e.g.
support our Indiegogo campaign, casting call for specific date & time, new video or blog post to
showcase, etc.)
• Visual showcase area (for video or photo slideshow)
• Gallery of families profiled (check out “Girl Rising/Girls” homepage section for example)
2. Tab 2: About
(i) Sub-tab: Issue: why we’re doing this
(ii) Sub-tab: Creative team: team photos, bios & links
(iii) Sub-tab: Approach: why film + magazine
3. Tab 3: Gallery
(i) Sub-tab: Videos (showcase Vimeo video collection)
(ii) Sub-tab: Thought pieces/articles (like this one and like this one)
(iii) Sub-tab: Families profiled (just a different way to organize and access videos & thought-pieces,
based on families)
4. Tab 4: Take action
• Join mailing list
• Tell a friend (social media share options: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+)
• Donate (link to crowdfunding campaign)
• Contact
5. Tab 5: Blog (new blog within Wordpress platform with better conversation options? or stick with
Tumblr as blog?)
6. Special thanks
• Shout out to people who’ve helped us along the way
• Creative space to thank funders visually/creatively in real time
WHAT IS THE BRAND PERSONALITY/TONE OF VOICE?
Spirited, courageous, hopeful, loving, passionate
EXECUTIONAL CONSIDERATION
- Easy social media share functionality for all content! LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+
THE ART AND CRAFT OF WRITING A CREATIVE BRIEF—IZZY CHAN
Page 4 of 5

5. If you want dive deeper into the art of brief writing, here are two more
places to venture.
❖ The Perfect Creative Brief is a wonderful post from Russell Davies—a
legendary account planner in the world of advertising. The long list of
responses is a good look into how different planners approach this.
❖ How to Plan Advertising is a very practical and classic book from the
Account Planning Group on the discipline of planning. It’s got some
very exhaustive chapters on brief writing and briefing—the examples
are getting old, however. For a beginning planner, it's a super helpful
guide book. But it does look scarily dry, and unattractively like a
textbook. As a planning nerd, I'll ‘fess up that I've had it for years and
actually like it. Be warned, however, that I once had a junior planner
pick it up and go "Ugh! That looks painfully boring!"
ABOUT THE BIG FLIP
On another note, “The Big Flip” is a documentary film and photo-book
about the rise of breadwinner wives, and the unexpected challenges it
creates in families. We’ve just finished some test shoots, where we went
out to meet and profile potential families to feature in the documentary.
Come check out the videos and stories we’ve collected at:
BigFlipDocumentary.com
THE ART AND CRAFT OF WRITING A CREATIVE BRIEF—IZZY CHAN
Page 5 of 5