The Two-Day Brief

When I first started working in brand management, writing briefs was a long and iterative process consisting of many documents, some of them being multiple pages long. Especially for bigger projects like product launches, briefs contained detailed background sections with lengthy summaries of market research, deep discussions of the strategic importance of the initiative and guidance on mood and talent. The briefs were compiled over a month or two with several rounds of reviews and revisions. These briefs involved a lot of manpower and work, but because of that dedicated thinking, they generally resulted in well-aligned launches and excellent creative.

Today’s business environment moves much faster. Marketing managers are operating against shorter timelines and creative talent aren’t allocated hours to read and digest a brief. Briefs need to be created quickly and written succinctly. Ideally, every timeline would include two weeks minimum for brief development, but can it be done in two days?

Yes! Based on my experience, it is possible to complete an effective brief on an extremely condensed timeline as long as the following are in place:

• Any research or strategic rationale for the initiative is clear and already documented.

• The marketing manager has the mandatory inputs from partners already. For example, if the brief includes media, the marketing manager knows that the media is budgeted and available.

• The entire project team and leadership has signed on to the abbreviated timeline and their role in feedback and review.

Given all of these conditions, here are the steps to follow:

• Day One AM

  • Marketing Manager kicks off project with all team members. Ensures alignment to timeline.

  • Marketing Manager completes Draft One of the brief.

  • One or two trusted team members read Draft One and provide initial feedback, which Marketing Manager incorporates.

• Day One PM

  • Marketing Manager sends Draft One to the cross-functional team with a short deadline (1-2 hours) for asynchronous review. Using a project management tool like Workfront is perfect for this.

  • Marketing Manager incorporates feedback and completes Draft Two.

• Day Two AM

  • Full team meeting, led by Marketing Manager, is held to review Draft Two. This time is used to discuss conflicting feedback and clarify direction.

• Day Two PM

  • Marketing Manager completes Draft Three and sends to all parties for sign off with a short deadline (1-2 hours).

Keeping the brief simple and direct is crucial. Every company and industry has nuances that affect their brief format but the elements below are pretty universal.

• Background (Why is this project happening now?)

• Strategic Goals (What will this project bring to the company e.g., increased revenue, increased share, strategic support for an initiative?)

• Insights (What insights do we have that support the importance and direction of the project?)

• Target Audience (Both demographics and psychographics. Who they are and what they think)

• Single Most Persuasive Idea of the project (This is what the Target Audience will be thinking if the project succeeds e.g., New product X provides me with X benefit solving X need).

• Reasons to Believe (These are the main ways that the project can achieve the SMPI e.g., Product X has X benefit that is not yet in the marketplace)

• Executional Details (Media, budget, timeline and mandatories like logo placement or talent guidelines)

Is this optimal? No. But it is achievable as long as all of the parties involved are signed on to the process and the importance of the brief. The downside of moving so quickly is that it prevents the richness of thinking that several weeks of discussion can add, but having a disciplined process that all team members have bought into maintains the value of the brief and will prevent misalignment of the work down the road.