The document discusses various techniques for creating effective creative briefs and planning documents. It suggests that briefs should be concise yet inspiring, focusing on the key objective, strategy, and tone. Briefings should instruct the team, inspire them with the big picture, and provide checks to guide the work. Editing documents down to the essential elements and using concrete language helps ensure the core message comes through.

1. Obsessions of the ad men Planning & Creative Briefs

2. 6 seconds Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience: shows preconscious brain activity patterns occurring 6-10 seconds before the conscious experience of making a decision

3. 6 seconds YES!!

4. 6 seconds I am compelled to concur

5. Ah, Neuroscience New rationales for irrationality Still no scientific method to guarantee love, talent or commonsense We knew it, but couldn’t prove it

6. It does help us fight back, though

7. Oops % cases showing very large effects on a range of business metrics, from sales to profit Source: Binet, Field, 2009; analysis of 880 UK case studies in IPA dataBANK (Largest ever meta-analysis) Quantitatively pre-tested Not Quantitatively pre-tested

8. “ Too many people use research as a drunk uses a lamp-post – for support, rather than illumination” - David Ogilvy Why? 1) Snake Oil for the Gutless

9. Why? 2) Seems that what got measured, didn’t matter

10. But it does help to have a plan Econometric modelling used No econometric modelling % cases showing very large effects on a range of business metrics, from sales to profit Source: Binet, Field, 2009; analysis of 880 UK case studies in IPA dataBANK (Largest ever meta-analysis)

11. Who the hell’s going to do that? Or, who’s going to talk to the people who do that? Econometrics. Ugh.

12. Creative agency solution to 80s research depts On creativity’s side, who could speak research Researcher’s job: spot problems, reduce risk Planner’s: spot opportunities, defend originality Championing, proving effectiveness of ‘Relevant Distinctiveness’ vs. USP-formula advertising Planning history

13. Different kinds of research culture UK vs. US differences 1980s UK: Qualitative psychologists (off doing groups in terraced houses) 1980s US: Quant business gurus (selling calibrated processes for ROI)

14. The opiate of the businesspeople Today’s biggest enemy: the delusion of control

15. In agencies of smartass yuppy graduates In clients who’d forgotten how to be confused and uninterested Get us to fall in love with the consumer/user Then: Voice of the Consumer

16. Not a trendspotter (leveraging fads) Responsibility to cultures Earning participation in their mediums Finding & earning a brand’s place in its culture Karma as business-sense: give, to get Now: Voice of the Culture

17. Includes consumer empathy & insight Overlaps with media & technology Broader implications of UGC Participants enforce tribal rules Brand can set the tone - or nudge it Now: Voice of the Culture

18. Detective Ambassador Story police Basic roles

19. Fragmentation, lateral leaps & tangents make it even harder to stay on story Story MUST be King

20. Strength, confidence, speed to adjust “ No military strategy ever survives first contact with the enemy” Miles Vorkosigan Flexibility is decisiveness

21. Job 1 – find the most interesting right answer Job 2 – be an idea’s truest friend Hard to sell to Then fight to the death for it As should we all Summing up so far

22. Not the same Advertising Briefs & Briefings

23. Let’s all sit down and read my tax return together

24. This is a briefing

25. “ As a creative, I’m more like an assassin: point me at the right target, give me what I need and let me go” Advertising ECD Movies do it better

26. Why are briefs boring?

27. They try to do too much

28. The Briefing: Task Definition Inspiration Quality control 2 different jobs The Written Brief: Task Definition Inspiration Quality control

29. Even if it’s not an advertising brief, it should be both creative and brief: Objective: inspire them to dig Strategy: make it memorable - an earworm The brief is your ad to the team

30. “ No one remembers the brief. But often people recall the briefing.” Alan Cooper, How to Plan Advertising 1 Don’t phone it in

31. “ The best briefings are so good that you can’t wait for the planner to leave your office so you can get started.” Your Goal

32. “By the time I’ve got the written brief approved, there’s no time to stage a briefing” Clients don’t care about the briefing Clients do care about the brief Too much, sometimes Why so hard?

33. Cruel & painful After a long, clever process Demands decision-making Research can do that later! It’s not the ‘studio suits’ forcing you to cut Every choice you make could be wrong Takes real skill in client relationships Editing is murder

34. Handy as startpoints & story guides Beware of painting by numbers Draft roughly, go away, come back with an axe Read Hemingway (or Gaiman) just beforehand Cut words until the sentence doesn’t make sense Use forms, but don’t fill them in

35. Pick some strong executions Quickly bash out reverse briefs for them Objective Target (mindset, occasion... who it’s not aimed at) Message (or intended creative expression etc) Tone & Personality (the 80% that’s body language) Surprisingly easy to write good, pithy ones Use later to compare with bloated bags of jargon Tip: practice with clients

36. Write the quick-start sheet: super-easy to do the basic job right Present like a stirring movie general... Instruct - Inspire - Check

37. Here’s the big picture and the ground ahead… Which means our heroes’ job is …. Watching out for traps here, here, and here…. And using these special tools… You’ll know you’ve made it when this happens… And then it’s home for beers all round Instruct - Inspire - Check

38. Again, make it easy: to solve, to picture Work on the right nugget Concrete is easier than abstract/conceptual ‘ red & dangerous’, vs. ‘for kids who know their way around’ Find the bit people love – where’s the heat? Instruct - Inspire - Check

39. Search & destroy distractions Lovely turns of phrase, ideas & images that could stick instead Talk to colleagues about it; don’t sell it, watch them use it Instruct - Inspire - Check

40. Flashforward to buying the work You have one of 4 reactions: Instruct – Inspire - Check It’s on brief and you love it It’s off brief and you hate it It’s on brief and you hate it It’s off brief and you love it

41. Instruct – Inspire - Check Does your own response matter? Is it intuition or shock of the new? How can you help make it better? If your brief is clear at a glance, these 2 are easy(ish) These are trickier Does it inspire a better brief? Or do you all have to let it go? It’s on brief and you love it It’s off brief and you hate it It’s on brief and you hate it It’s off brief and you love it

42. Hard conversations need trust, confidence, an open mind – and a clear sense of direction

43. Thank you very much