A third of ad budgets are wasted due to poor briefing, a global study revealed at the 2021 IPA EffWorks Global event.
Respondents estimated that a substantial 33% of marketing budgets go to waste due to poor briefs and misdirected work. Rebriefs happen too often with nearly two-thirds of marketers (69%) and nearly three-quarters of agencies (73%) agreeing, leading to loss of time and money and fuelling frustration on both sides.
The findings were unearthed via a collaboration between research firm Flood & Partners and the BetterBriefs Project, which was initiated by Australian strategists Matt Davies and Pieter-Paul von Weiler.
Staggering findings which highlight the importance of producing a well defined creative brief to ensure desired results.
According to Joe Talcott - the former global marketing director for McDonald’s responsible for the ‘I’m lovin’ it’ positioning - “The brief is one of the most valuable and paradoxically most neglected tools marketers have to create good work.”
Here are five of the biggest mistakes we’ve seen in the way marketers approach the brief:
Mistake #1 - Not writing a brief
Unfortunately a lot of marketers are overworked and so the brief often gets neglected. But a quick phone call or email brief is not going to deliver the results you need.
Mistake #2 - Not focusing on the key proposition
Marketers must be able to reduce their brief to one simple message that they want to communicate. What is the one thing you want people to take away from your campaign? Tip: If you have ‘and’ or ‘also’ in there you haven’t succeeded in narrowing down your message.
Mistake #3 - Providing the solution
Don’t be too prescriptive, describe the problem but allow the creative team to develop the solution. If the marketer goes in with a preconceived idea of how they want their idea to be executed, then you may as well not have a creative team working on it. Allow the creative process to unfold.
Mistake #4 - Drowning in data
With so much data at our fingertips it can be tempting to include reams of data and information within the brief. While data is useful it tells us nothing about why someone doesn’t want to buy our product. It’s the invisible thing you’re trying to discover, so think about it, discuss it, ask a lot of ‘why’ questions.
Mistake #5 - Not acknowledging when the brief is wrong
Sometimes the marketer will brief the creative agency but finds that the options being delivered back are just not what they were looking for. If this happens, it can be easy to blame the agency, but it’s worth going back and reevaluating your brief. There may be something that needs to be tweaked in order to get your message across clearer to the creative team. Allow them to come back with fresh solutions.
Our simple process can help your team brief better and work more efficiently to ensure creatives that deliver. Find out more here.