Good grief! It's the brief?

Within a couple of months of joining this industry, I was exposed to a lasting lesson. It was about the art and science of writing a good brief. Apparently, there were three kinds of briefs: the brief, the brief brief, and the good grief brief.

Now it’s not hard to imagine the first one was the benchmark, and the second didn’t have enough information for creatives to work off. The third is more interesting. A good grief brief is something that spills over into a second sheet of paper. More than a decade later, I can happily inform you, that this last travesty has been well and truly licked.

We no longer have briefs that run into two pages. Nope, in the second decade of the twenty first century, they run into sixty slides.

And they continue to evolve, mutate and become more complex. So the brief has now split itself into two constituent parts. There’s the client brief, and the agency brief. And the latter is supposed to lead to the creative idea. In theory.

In practice however, increasingly, the idea comes first, and the brief follows. It’s called the Reverse Osmosis brief.

To these can be added the taking-a-leaf-out-of-the-competition’s-book brief, the all-gravy-no-beef brief and my personal favourite, the chief-I-have-a-problem brief, which is sort of a de facto super-category; any brief you’ve upscaled to your boss automatically goes here.

There are no established symptoms to speak of; you’ll know this brief when you see it.

Question: Who are we talking to? Answer: Consumers.

Question: What tone of voice should we use? Answer: Authoritarian but warm.

Question: What is the objective of this ad? Answer: To raise awareness.

I swear on Bill Bernbach, these are actual briefs I have received over the years (I have a delightful collection), and my response to each was exactly the same. Upscale, upscale and upscale.

Even the DNA of the brief is changing. Single-minded propositions or SMPs (once considered the building blocks of a healthy specimen) are being replaced with two virulent, clarity-resistant strains of bacteria called ‘ands’ and ‘yets’. These tend to attach themselves to bullet points very easily.

l Premium ‘and’ affordable.

l Strong ‘yet’ smooth.

Of course, every now and then, you get a good old-fashioned brief. It will have information, insight and inspiration. Because it will have been written by someone who deserves the responsibility of writing it.

Back when I started in advertising, you had to have a little experience before you got a chance to write a brief. When your Account Director asked you to author one for the first time, you knew you had earned the opportunity, and you approached the job with respect.

The next time you sit to write a brief, ask yourself one question before you answer the eight on the document in front of you. Do I want this to be framed for inspiration, or forwarded for laughs?

(The author is Executive Creative Director, Dentsu Creative Impact)