The Fourmat: the creative brief in four points.

These days, when I write a creative brief, it only has four points. 4. Quatro. 四。That’s it. But I wasn’t always so succinct. As I worked on more clients in more categories, these were the points that proved pivotal over and over.

Why share this? Because I want to spend my time on the contents of creative briefs, not the format. Unfortunately, too many briefs trip over themselves. The “fourmat” dispenses with all that template tediousness.

I fully realize that by treading into what belongs on a creative brief (and what doesn’t) I’m opening a can of worms. So here’s the challenge: change my mind.

1. WHY

This is the first question people ask when a misguided brainstorm goes off the rails. So it should be the first thing we answer on the brief: WHY do clients need us? WHY is not an assignment; it’s a problem. But this isn’t a societal issue or human problem … yet. WHY is a business problem. “Tim, why wouldn’t you just call this ‘the objective?’” Well I’m glad you asked … because then everyone would just write “raise awareness”—which isn’t an objective or a problem. We need to ask, “Why does the brand need to raise awareness?” Let me be even clearer: WHY should be about $$$. We have got to start our strategies by following the money. Because that’s the path that leads to problems clients will pay to solve. “WHY do clients need us” is the real business problem our ideas must address. What’s stopping your client’s business from growing?

2. WHO

“Tim, seriously? We thought you were going to surprise us.” Spoiler alert: the “fourmat” is s i m p l e. Why over-engineer it? “Who is our audience?” is the next question people ask in chaotic brainstorms (right after “why the hell are we here?”). We have to resist the urge to copy-paste everything we know about the audience. I know, I know … we’re sitting on mounds of research about the audience’s household composition, musical preferences, favorite toothbrush, etc., which no one ever reads. Trust me, I get it. But WHO isn’t the time or place for all that. Right now, we simply need to answer, “WHO do we need to help us solve this problem?” (“The problem” being the answer to WHY). In other words, do we need new customers—or more business from superfans? Are our client’s customers the real decision makers—or is there someone else we must influence first? The answer to WHO points us to the source of growth necessary for solving the business problem. You'd be surprised how often the answer to WHO turns out to be different than we initially thought the audience would be.

3. WOW

Wow is what you want people to say when they get to this part of the brief. Yep, it’s the Insight—a term fraught with confusion. But for the purpose of the Fourmat, it’s simple: WOW is the answer to a very specific question. This question will be different for every assignment. And you won’t know exactly what it is until the WHY and WHO come into focus. But it usually goes something like this: what does the problem (WHY) mean to these people (WHO)? If the problem is not selling enough gizmos, it might be: what would it take to make these people buy this product? Or, if the problem is mistrust, it might be: what would make these people trust this brand? Boiling it down to a specific question, a question that helps us understand how to solve the problem, demystifies the Insight. It forces us to confront what we don’t know and provides specific direction for research. Because WOW is something we don’t know, yet. If clients knew the answer, there wouldn’t be a WHY. This is the single most important thing strategists do, and I believe it’s the single most valuable thing agencies can provide to their clients. Because WOW changes how a client sees their problem. It can result in any number of ideas. It can indirectly change the fate of an entire campaign … or company. But you can’t answer WOW without understanding WHY and WHO.?

4. HOW

Last but not least, the humble HOW: How can our ideas solve the problem—in a way that benefits the client? This is the Strategy. Given what we know about WHY, WHO and WOW, it should be easy, right? But HOW needs to be specific because the WOW can open up different possibilities. For example, if we need to sell more electric cars to people who are worried about range, we could just give them a bigger battery. But what if our vehicle doesn’t offer a bigger battery? That' a weak spot for the brand. So, instead, what if we showed people that most the places they go aren’t very far away anyway? The decision comes down to a brand truth: which solution is most advantageous for the brand? The Fourmat doesn’t have a “Brand Truth” section because it doesn’t need one: HOW is fundamentally a choice about which brand truth to emphasize. There are many helpful structures to articulate the HOW: Get/To/By, From/To, etc. I like to try out different structures to see which teases out the strategy best. But the holy grail is a single-minded proposition. And by “single-minded” I mean NO conjunctions (“and”). It’s five words, or less! This is very hard to do, especially when there’s not a lot of time. But remember, it doesn’t need to be pretty or clever—it’s NOT a tagline, and shouldn’t be mistaken for one. For example, if the HOW is telling people that they actually don’t need more range from their electric vehicle, it might be “More than enough.” That’s specific strategic direction: this not that. And it moves us toward a Big Idea. Because “More than enough” isn't just about battery life; it’s about life. It’s about contentment. Wow.

What do you think?

1, 2, 3, 4.?

WHY, WHO, WOW, HOW.?

Or you could call it Issue, Individual, Insight, Imperative. Or Problem, People, Perspective, Proposition. (Because: alliteration). The Fourmat isn’t about the format of a brief but the contents.

Our Creative Strategy team at 万卓环球 is going simply with Problem, People, Insight, Strategy. The Fourmat is allowing us to focus our thought power on the points that are most important. As a result, we’re writing more. And we’re thinking more—more about strategy and less about brief.

So, what do you think?

Credit

I have to give a lot of credit for this Fourmat to the people I’ve worked with over the years. A few names in particular stand out:

Joseph Frydl for always insisting on “objectifying the challenge.”

Jay Picard for making sure every time the word “insight” appears, it means something.

Melle Hock for reminding me that a good strategy can turn a weaknesses into strength.

Judy John for laying down the gauntlet: five words or less!

And Lee Maicon for challenging me to see just how sufficient a simple four-point brief template could be.

The Fourmat’s closet relative is the "OIIC" format used once upon a time by Saatchi & Saatchi, which totally holds up and is worth referencing.

Finally, I’ve learned so much about writing briefs from the people that read them, my creative partners over the years, “work wives” (and husbands): Beth (Webster) Pedersen , Omari J. Miller , Evan Benedetto and Ning Ma , my actual wife.