3 Major Keys to a Successful Creative Brief

I work with creative teams a lot. No. A LOT.?

You know, I might be one of those people who would never learn how to draw but I’m a sucker for art. I spend more hours in the Hermitage, Prado, and Pompidou than on dates with real guys. I take inspiration from art. For example, I totally advised my art team to use Picasso’s works as references for this 3D game we’re working on right now!

So, saying that, in all the years of my work in #marketing in the #gamesindustry I’ve been always working a lot with designers, artists, 3D generalists, video makers, copywriters, and editors. We’ve created literally hundreds of landing and promo pages, social media banners, trailers, and store page banners. For example, during my time at VK, I conducted a lot of A/B tests with graphic materials, and they led to an average 30% increase in CR.

Today I want to share my opinion on briefs for art specialists. I see 3 major keys to a successful #creativebrief:?

1. be data-driven
2. be creative
3. be descriptive

1. Use data as the foundation for your decisions.

For example, use the information from marketing research on a project:?

• What does our target audience prefer??
• What do our competitors do? How good are they at this?
• What are the current market trends? How have they changed so far?

Dig into the numbers and statistics. Compare. Check the results.

Remember, if everyone does bad ads, it doesn’t mean they work and it is the best way to reach your campaign’s KPI.

Also, don’t forget that it is extremely useful to dive into your TA’s preferences and stay focused on the numbers. If you prefer Billie Eilish, but most of your TA is in love with Doja Cat, you’d better go with Doja Cat, unless you have some ideas about niche advertising.

2. Ignite the power of creativity!?

I can go on about how helpful interest in art can be in other posts, but for now, I’ll focus on creative mechanics that can be helpful for anybody. Check out my favorite approaches, combine them, or add something else that works for you.

• Associations and dissociations. What always goes together and what never does? It’s simple: think about what is associated with your subject, and then think about something absolutely opposite, putting your subject (a hero, game genre, mechanic, etc.) in a dramatically different context or environment. There are a few other techniques based on dissociations, or combining incompatible things. Try all of them to make your vision broader and see beyond a project’s conditions.
• Wild. Let your fantasy totally burst out in all directions, with no limitations, and go as wild as possible! Ninjas saving cats from trees? Perfect! Victoria’s Secret style show with fantasy angels? Sold! You can filter later and soften all the edges, adjust the budget, etc. after you’ve already invented something new.?

3.? Work on full, detailed descriptions.?

Here, I see 2 options. You can let your #team be 1) more creative; 2) less creative. It depends heavily on your team and on the task itself. But that is a topic for a separate post ;)?

So here are some basic recommendations for compelling any brief:

1)? ? Use short and clear phrasing to exclude any mess or misunderstanding, be quick with any changes, and have your team briefly read it ASAP so they understand what’s needed.

2)? ? Add as many details as you need to place the picture that you already have in your imagination into another person’s mind. Of course, if you have this picture. For this, sometimes it’s better to tell your team about the target audience of a campaign, campaign goals, channels of ad distribution, etc. I see that sometimes managers can skip this, confident that it’s better not to overwhelm an artist with details. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always work well. It’s just the topic for another post haha! But enough with intrigue.

3)? ? Make sure that every task assignee understands the specific words you use.?Don’t think this just goes for foreign languages! Sometimes it can be hard to understand a person who speaks literally the same language… but means totally different things. So just make sure that you all agree on what turquoise is and how you see ‘a business vibe’ in your company.

4)? ? Attach visual references to illustrate and support your words.

BONUS advice! Never forget to discuss technical requirements with your team. Never miss this step!!! Otherwise, you will get a horizontal banner instead of a vertical one, and .jpg instead of .png.

Below, you can find part of a game character description I created, some references, work in progress, and the result.

Game character description

(fragment)

Avatar 3: male, 30-35, average investor.?

Has a beard, goes to the gym regularly, and wears trendy clothes. Has enough money for the ‘high life’, a millionaire who likes to show off. Travels to resorts with his friends from the same circles and discusses business with them a lot. Follows celebrities and influencers who share his luxurious lifestyle on social media. Wants to diversify investment risks, since he already made mistakes and lost some of his investments.

What would you add to this list? :) You’re welcome to share — I would be happy to do a second revision of this post!