Creative brief template.

A creative brief is the one or two pages you write before anyone opens a design file or picks up a camera. It says what you are making, who it is for, what it has to do, and who says yes at the end.

This template has eight fields for that, a filled-in example on page three, and a short checklist on page four. Leave a field blank and you will pay for it later, in the second round of feedback.

What is in it

Field	What goes in it	The usual mistake
1. The job in one sentence	What you are making and where it runs	Three ideas joined with “and”
2. The business problem	What happened, and what you tried before	Describing the product, not the problem
3. Objectives	The number, the change in people’s minds, how you will check	A goal nobody can measure
4. Who it is for	One person you could describe to a stranger	“Decision makers, 30 to 55”
5. The single message	The one thing they should remember	Two messages
6. Tone and must-haves	How it feels, what has to appear	Words like modern, clean, premium
7. Deliverables	Every asset with size, length and placement	“Social assets”
8. Dates, budget, sign-off	Review dates, a budget range, one final approver	A deadline with no owner

How to fill it in

• The job in one sentence. If you can’t say it in one sentence, the scope isn’t settled yet.
• The business problem. Why now? Add what you tried before, so nobody repeats it.
• Objectives. The business number and the change in the audience’s head are two different lines. Write both.
• Who it is for. Skip job titles. Write what this person believes today and what makes them switch off.
• The single message. One plain sentence. If you wrote “and”, you have two briefs.
• Tone and must-haves. Replace “modern” with what you mean. List the call to action and legal lines now, not at the end.
• Deliverables. Name every asset with its size and where it runs. “Social assets” is not a deliverable.
• Dates, budget, sign-off. Put the review dates in, give a range, and name the one person whose yes is final.

Why it is worth the half hour

Most briefs feel clearer to the person writing them than to the team reading them. In the Better Briefs Project, 80 percent of marketers said their briefs were clear. Only 10 percent of the agencies receiving them agreed.

80%

Marketers who say their briefs are clear

10%

Agencies who agree

Marketers rate their own briefs far higher than the teams who have to work from them.

Source: The Better Briefs Project, published with the IPA (survey of 1,700+ marketers and agencies across 60 countries)

The same research, published with the IPA, puts close to a third of marketing spend down to weak briefs and the rework they cause.

A three-minute masterclass

D&AD, the industry’s creative education body, recorded this short session with Kit Altin, who leads its course on briefing creative teams.

If you want the longer version of the process, our guide to writing a creative brief goes line by line. And if you would rather hand the brief to a team that already knows your brand, that is what we do at Moonb.