The creative brief is the document that kicks off the creative ideation process. Without a creative brief template, you are entering the process flying blind. Using it, everyone will be more efficient, share similar goals, and work toward a better result.
Let’s explore what should be included in a creative brief and how the right template can be used for many different kinds of film, video and design projects.
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What Is a Creative Brief? Our Creative Brief Definition
Creative briefs are document roadmaps used to outline a strategic approach to your film, video or creative project. They contain key details, including the project scope, purpose, goals, requirements, messaging, and demographics. A creative brief is usually developed during the planning and development phase, and it is often presented to project stakeholders and client team members as the roadmap for the content marketing goals.
When To Use a Creative Brief Template
Beginning any creative project without a plan is a recipe for disaster. In the same way one wouldn't choose a vacation destination without thinking about how to get there, it's important to consider how a creative endeavor will be carried out.
The first step is to determine what should be accomplished. A clear understanding of why the project is necessary, as well as the objectives and expectations, is essential. An effective creative brief sets the guidelines for the project, as well as defining the audience it wants to reach. Before launching a project, a creative brief brings everyone together on the same page. The doc is a tool that facilitates clear and detailed communication from the beginning of the creative development, video production or design process.
What’s Included In the Template
Almost every marketing team, advertising agency, or design team uses creative briefs. But the format of every company's creative brief might vary slightly depending on the measurable needs of the project or the campaign goals of the client. For this reason, Assemble's fully customizable template can serve as a starting point for more detailed creative briefs for specific projects.
In this document, the most important steps in the creative process should be outlined, along with relevant information for project stakeholders. Some of the items included in a creative brief are:
- Milestones and Deadlines
- Target Audience
- Key Message
- Brand Voice
- Brand Guidelines
- Deliverables
Why Creative Brief Templates Are Important
The defined limitations of creative brief templates are necessary to give the creative team a way to bounce ideas off of each other with parameters that are realistic. This will ultimately save time and money as there will be fewer misunderstandings, fewer changes, and fewer conflicts. This is an important step in the development of the idea and creates a streamlined process moving forward to accomplish the goal of production.
A creative brief also provide legitimacy to the request. If it’s well written, it will stand up to scrutiny and provide facts, not opinions. As an example, it might provide important elements such as performance metrics, citations of analytical data or historical references, and competitors' tactics.
How to Customize This Template
We’ve provided a creative brief template that you can use out of the box, or customize to your needs. Below, we’ll cover a variety of different creative briefs you can easily create by modifying our template using our collaborative document editor. This will allow for development of a great creative brief that will serve as a guide for the remainder of the project, minimizing waste and maximizing efficiency.
Start Your Creative Brief Template With Assemble
Take your idea from conception to creation with our creative brief template by following these steps below.
1. Open the Template
Open this template by clicking Use Template. The template will be created within a new blank project in Assemble.
2. Edit the Template as Needed
Click anywhere within the document to begin adding to or editing the template.
3. Share the Document
Click Share and select Share Document to easily distribute the document to your entire team with one click. You can even track who has viewed the document.
4. Save the Updated Template for Future Projects
Once you've updated it based on your needs, click the menu in the top right and select Save as Template to save it into your your personal template library.
14 Creative Brief Examples Using Our Template
When developing your specific needs, a creative brief template is an excellent place to start. But no two projects are exactly alike, so it's important to tailor a brief to the specific language and deliverables of your project. Based on these needs, we have identified 14 types of briefs that can be adapted from our basic template. You can use our creative brief outline and then customize it based on your unique needs.
Briefing Document Template For Film
What’s important in film is for the producer to understand the needs of the creative stakeholders such as the director and cinematographer. As a result, a briefing document template details the filmmaker's vision. To customize our creative brief for film, you could add sections with the links to the following elements :
- Visual inspiration and video clips
- Color palettes
- Lighting examples
- Locations
- Camera and lens choices
Creative Brief Template For Video
A creative brief for video includes information about the company, the project, the budget, and the deadline. It's essential to understand the brand's background, key messaging, and tone, as well as its target audience. In addition, consider including these aspects in the creative brief for video:
- Links to visual images or video clips to match the look, feel, texture and tone of your video project.
- Platform-specific distribution information including limits in length and aspect ratios.
Design Brief Template
You can use design brief templates to kick off any sort of design project. The brief ensures that the visual marketing content is consistent and on-brand. Additional things you may focus on in a design brief template are:
- Links to style references, inspiration and moodboards
- Summary of project goals (new vs. redesign, deliverables, etc.)
- Specific design needs
Graphic Design Creative Brief Template
As opposed to a design brief which is primarily concerned with the business objectives, outcomes, and results of the design, a graphic design creative brief template is more concerned with the design itself for a specific object, such a logo. Take for example the NFL's Denver Broncos logo, which has always featured a horse. Since the team's inception in 1960, different colors and designs have been used, but horses have remained a consistent part of their visual identity.
A graphic design brief would address:
- Dimensions and usage of the graphic
- Colors, imagery and other requirements
- How will rolling out a new design involve changes to all signage and marketing materials related to the product
Marketing Brief Template
A marketing brief template can audit all the places where branding is applied and ensure continuity in the user experience when it is renovated. Therefore sections in the marketing campaign brief template could include:
- Usage across all media types
- Goals to increase brand awareness
- Goals to gain more website traffic
- Goals to increase word of mouth
Campaign Brief Template
A campaign brief template refers to several different channels. For example, deliverables might be for TV spots, print advertising and social media and each one has their own lengths and requirements. All of these are unified by related storytelling. Your campaign brief would outline how you would like all of these omnichannel pieces to be linked together. Important questions to explore in a campaign brief:
- What is the problem we are solving for the customers?
- How does our product solve them?
- How can the campaign effectively prove the value to the target audience?
Project Brief Template
Often, the project brief is created for an internal team within an organization as a tool to communicate strategy and goals within the team. It’s important to include:
- Technical matters such as deliverables, schedules, timetables
- Logistics such as how to work within the scope, time, and budget
- Constraints such as what to prioritize and where to make adjustments
Advertising Brief Template
A creative brief template for TV advertising would identify the campaign start date and duration, production budget and media budget. An advertising creative brief example could include:
- Usage such as regional, national, run dates, etc.
- Goals for impressions, brand awareness, etc.
Client Brief Template
A client brief is a document that the client fills out to guide a project. It acts as a starting point for the project that lays the groundwork for the creative team to get started. Some clients may not have experience with creating briefs, so an agency may provide them with a version, helping them to understand and describe their stated goals.
The goal of a client brief template is to explain the project they need help with, their brand persona, and let the creative team know what they're looking for. This way all contributors are aligned with the project's goals, expectations, and strategy.
Helpful to include in a client brief:
- Focus on the business goal
- Include context of business issues
- Market dynamics
- Competitive insight and customer insight
- Corporate culture and vision for the future
Brand Brief Template
A brand brief template refers to an overall set of brandd assets that has a long shelf life. You may be creating the branding look and feel of a newly formed business, or in the case of an existing property, it could be a rebranding or a refresh of the existing assets.
The brand brief should discuss:
- The company's mission and culture
- How they wish to be perceived or how they do not wish to be perceived
- For a rebrand, what's wrong with the current brand
- What's changed since it was launched that makes the rebrand necessary
Daily Briefing Template
A daily briefing template would be a document that addresses the priorities of the day within a creative team. These documents organize important information you need to share with your team. In one shared document, you should include:
- Announcements
- Task lists
- Action items
- Team wins
Agency Briefing Template
Typically an agency brief template would be used by the client to share objectives for an upcoming campaign, and possibly an RFP (request for proposal). This would be sent out to different advertising agencies before choosing the one that aligns most closely with their needs.
- Give context around the project goals
- Illuminate any important insights
- Detail past failures with other agencies
- Outline the timeline for a proposal
Social Media Brief Template
The social media brief template is a means of outlining how you will run a social media campaign. There is typically a separate creative team produces original content for social based on each channel's unique features.
Social media is storytelling driven. Emphasize the emotions and facts that will connect the brand with the consumer. Nike doesn't just sell sneakers. Its tagline "just do it" is a rallying cry to fearlessness and seizing the moment. Given the interactive nature of social media, additional aspects to consider adding to the brief would be:
- Creating user-generated content
- Live streams
- Contests and competitions
- Targeting influencer collaborations
Website Creative Brief Template
A website creative brief outlines the web design process. This could include a new business that has no website, or a re-design. A few things you might add to a website creative brief template:
- Key pages or sitemap
- Domain name and hosting
- Ongoing maintenance
- Analytics and management
- Adding an ecommerce component
Communication Brief Template
Communication brief templates are used to plan how a company wants to communicate with the world, typically through PR or other forms of public communication. When a client comes to a PR firm with a goal, different messages are created for various channels in order to influence people to take action or to think differently about the brand. It represents the beginning stages of a campaign that is very communication-driven, rather than content-driven.
Using this template, you can add sections pertaining to different target audiences beyond your regular customers, such as:
- Press that can help promote your messaging.
- High profile public figures with similar brand ideals.
- Vocal customers who engage in promotion of products they like.
Creating a Project with Assemble
Assemble enables users to create a centralized hub to manage their entire project from start to finish - including documents, calendars, task management and asset management.
By using this creative brief template, you'll get access to all of Assemble's powerful features so that you can not only utilize this document, but keep production moving quickly and efficiently with our advanced collaboration tools built for producers.
Get started today for free by clicking Use Template to begin exploring all of Assemble's powerful features.
