The brand brief. For many, a source of anxiety, restlessness, confusion and maybe even excitement. The idea of telling brand marketers what they want to hear, without “yes’ing” them to death and still creating something organically cool enough you want to share? Doesn’t exist. Or does it?
I’ve spent years in media, both on the publisher side at an in-house creative agency as well as on the brand side, doing the briefing and knowing exactly what it sounds like while doing it.
Being in RFP-land can be exhausting, but it can also be extremely rewarding. When you win business, what a feeling! But before we dive into how to do that, let’s take a step back.
If you’ve ever viewed a project on Tongal, you’re already familiar with the basic premise. Briefs are documents that companies or their representing agencies create to provide information on upcoming marketing/advertising campaigns, new product launches, refreshed messaging around their product or company, and upcoming tentpole events.
This information is confidential but usually shared around the industry so different publishers, creators, agencies, or production companies can draft ideas around how to help the company advertise. The act of sending a brand brief is referred to as RFP’ing someone. RFP = Request For Proposal.
So in summary, a company, either hand-in-hand with their creative agency or without, internally develops their new marketing strategy for the upcoming quarter. The strategy is based on market research, consumer demographics, historical data, etc. All of this is packaged into a document, either a Word doc or a presentation, that details all of the above.
Using that information, the brief will ask for an entire campaign idea or a single commercial pitch or branded content - or some other deliverable, and tell you a budget and the timeline for launch. Rather than RFP-ing only a few industry insiders, Tongal knocks the doors open to bring the briefing process to ALL creators.
Now that you know what the brief is saying and looking for, it’s important to look for clues to what the brand thinks is important; this will help you refine your own response.
In order to provide the solid answers marketers are looking for, you need to ensure you’re answering the right questions. When you boil it down, you must answer THREE questions:
The most important aspect of responding to a brand brief is clarity. No matter what you pitch, as long as it is clear what you’re pitching, you have a better chance of winning business. The last thing you want is a marketer to be confused about what they received from you.
If your pitch can answer those three questions above in an elevator-pitch, succinct way, then over half the battle is won already. Marketing language often is filled with buzzwords. By staying away from fluffy language like “stylized” and fully painting clear pictures of your vision, the response is infinitely more valuable.
By sticking to the essentials, being descriptive and being concise and clear in your vision, winning business won’t become a celebration, but easy and turnkey.
Now that you've learned how to read and respond to a creative brief, why not give it a try?
