It’s of those days today. Time’s running out (so why am I wasting time blogging?) and every thought feels like it’s running through treacle.
But a bit pressure makes you feel alive. And while being depended upon can be a little stessful, it’s nice to be wanted. Days like these can be hard, but I just thank my lucky stars I don’t suffer from Boreout.
You may have noticed that I’m a lover of proper food. Since I burn loads of calories in my daily routine, eating well and keeping healthy was always a no brainer for me. So I love stuff like this. Lurpak ad. But that won’t work for all.
This report on obesity in the UK made for an interesting read. It suggests that we can’t help getting fatter, life makes us that way.
I guess it’s up to you if you buy the conclusions – maybe it comes down to your views on how much responsibility people are willing to take for themselves – but you can’t argue that human biological evolution is way behind our social and technological development. Food is there whenever we want it, and we like eating it too much.
When we’re hungry, we can’t help but get some food as quick as we can – and nature hasn’t stopped us craving the energy dense food we don’t need anymore. and here’s the rub, we haven’t developed the urge to stop eating when we’re full.
If you asked me, I’d say it’s easy. Eat a bit less and exercise a little bit more, but the evidence suggests that expecting everyone to take that view is naive.
So while there’s a big need to encourage us all to change our behaviour, it won’t happen overnight. And I hate to admit it, but I can’t escape warming to technology that messes with food a bit more.
Natural food is becoming popular. Look at how Birds Eye has re-cast the role of frozen food based on it’s purity and nutrition. But, maybe food that’s been interfered with needs its role to be re-defined.
You cannot change people’s attitudes and behaviour overnight. I’ve seen enough primary research on attitudes to global warming to see that – people are far happier to do the right thing if it fits into what they’re used to. And they’re used to stuffing their faces and sitting on the ir arse.
And most people can’t afford to shop at Waitrose either.
And, like people’s biggest biggest problems with hybrid cars, cost aside, is the perceived lack of performance, it’s pretty much the same with food. It needs to behave normally.
Low fat food just doesn’t taste the same – or behave the same. Low fat cheese doesn’t just lose the taste, it loses texture and it when you make cheese on toast, it doesn’t bubble the same way. Low fat mayo isn’t as thick and creamy – so you just pile on more. Turkey rashers, rather than bacon give you gas. Take saturated fat out of meat pies and they become too watery. Burgers made with low fat steak mince don’t bind properly and so on……
What I’m suggesting is that low fat food needs to be indistinguishable from the normal stuff, and that means working hard on re-formatting it to fool us a little bit more. Make it more like the normal stuff. The challenge will be to keep it good for us in other ways. But are chemicals really that bad? Who REALLY likes tea with the chemical taken out? Caffeine I mean.
I
It’s here. Being a Youtube novice, I didn’t realise the file was too big to upload. I’ll put it up tomorrow.
For the time being…..
Download andrew_sings_copy.mpeg
I’ll never work in this town again.
So you’ve written a good brief. Good, but unfortunately not great. The thing is, creatives remember great briefings, but they rarely remember the brief. The conversation is everything. The brief becomes a point of reference and nothing more.
There’s loads of spiel about the the creative brief being the Holy Grail – the part that aligns right brain thinking with left. When you strip away the mystique, it’s simply your chance to inspire the team. The process is messy, you need to be talking to them a lot – the spark can come from anywhere in truth. So make the briefing as inspirational as you possibly can – and keep talking.
The first thing to think about is your target audience – for the briefing I mean – which is the creatives. No one works in the same way, and you should be designing your briefing, and your brief for that matter, so suit the way they want to work.
Here’s some people I’ve worked with – I haven’t asked their permission to show a picture, so here’s some pretty accurate lookalikes.
This is Nick. He wants to feel like he owns the strategy. It’s usually best to have a very open conversation with him and find a way to get him to draw his own conclusions – the trick is helping him make the right ones.
Paul doesn’t like tight propositions. He’ll look at finished strategy and argue that you’ve missed the most interesting thing. It’s best to include him in everything as early as possible, the factory tour, the lot, and make what excites him work.
Jim is a maverick. He wants some finished thinking with a strong creative direction already there. He’ll want to thrash that out and then be left alone to make it as interesting as possible.
Stuart likes to feel part of a team. He’s totally open and just wants to be included in everything. As long as he gets that, he’ll be open about his side of things. But do look like you’ve made some effort to think about it.
Martin is very arty. He responds well to imagery, film and metaphor.
If you know whom you’re briefing, the document itself should be designed to fit their way of working, and so should your process.
Not everywhere does pre-briefing meetings, and if they don’t, try and do them unofficially. Talk to them way before the briefing, and way after.
You’re not a suit who speaks for the client, you’re not the creative director – their boss. You’re the planner, you’re neutral. And as such, you’ve a great opportunity to be a non-threatening sounding board. Use it, since it seems the more conversations you have about the work, the better it gets.
And there will be different way to unofficially get a chat. One grumpy team used to love me making them proper coffee (blatant I know), there was a female team that used to like mothering me – they couldn’t resist giving me advice about my tragic love life.
As far as the briefing is concerned, the more sounds, pictures and films you show in the place of words, the better.
Like target audience – there’s nothing more powerful than showing a picture of them. Like the way this describes why someone my age has such a strong relationship with vintage Nike clothes (when we were ten you HAD to have a Nike windrunner). And BMX bikes for that matter.
This picture shows the strong connections between British Asians family and food. So does this quote, "The most special ingredient in our food is laughter".
This film illustrates the curious love hate relationship that pervades most strong male friendships.
While this one dramatises what twenty something slackers think of people with serious jobs.
In any case, try and do some theater. Make it interesting.
Here’s some general tips from creatives:
Insights are great, creative starters are not.
Don’t assume the answer comes from the proposition
Include us in the client’s business.
Information is good.
Breathe life into the target audience.
So there you go, that’s my two penneth on creative briefing. And remember, this is only a start.
This is the chinese version. Warming, comforting, perfect for feeling a bit positive. Wonderful for using up roast chicken.
You need – a litre of good, not chicken stock chicken stock – organic cubes are fine to use with boiling water. I”l show you how tro make your own stock another time.
A big handlful of shredded roast chicken
Teaspoon of chinese five spice
Heaped tablespoon of cornflour
A big tin of sweetcorn – make sure it’s the kind you get in unsweetened, unsalted water.
Tablespoon of sherry.
Put the stock,spice and the sherry in big pan, bring to the boil.Throw in all the sweetcorn and shredded chicken and bring to the boil.
While it’s boiling, put the cornflour in glass and add two tablespoons of tepid water. Stir hard until it becomes a paste. Just before the stock comes to the boil, add the paste and stir thouroughly.
As it boils, it will thicken and become slightly gelatinous. Perfect.
It’s that easy.
Following on from this and this, how do you write a creative brief?
Plannerspheres got a good page on this by the way.
Firstly, let’s get one thing straight. Most agencies have their own proprietary briefing document, with it’s own little twist, like BBH’s ‘brand DNA’ or the way JWT doesn’t have a proposition section, it has a take-out section instead.
But in reality, it doesn’t matter where you work, a creative brief covers the same things. That’s what we’ll go over. But before we do, here’s a few general pointers.
Like this……
"Destabilize the competition by making this shaving brand appeal to a more younger demographic who tend to find beards distasteful"
v
"Make beards uncool"
So here are the components:
Get the problem/opportunity worked out
I don’t mean the business problem, I mean the strategic problem. Like Skoda’s realising the badge was acceptable now, but no one knew enough about the cars.
Thinking this way also opens up more media options too, and avoids the usual ‘The answer is advertising, now what’s the question’.
I really like the ‘Nike dance’ work which is born out of an objective to connect with women who think Nike is macho and not for them – even though they’re athletes as well. And the recent Air Max work which was intended to take Nike Air out of pure fashion and back into proper athletics gear.
Define your target audience
I don’t mean spew out endless demographics. I mean get down what you know about them that will help solve the problem. Put down what they think of the category, the brand, the product and how they’ll interact with the media choice, but only in the context of "We know this which will help you crack the brief".
Coming back to Skoda, the insight was that enough people wanted to buy one, but they were stopped by OTHER people taking the piss.
There’s the brilliant Polaroid discovery that it was used for far more than pictures of memories.
Harvey Nichols exploited the fact that they’re customers were full on fashion addicts that would do anything for the latest styles.
I always like this British Airways comparison:
Anyone considering taking a flight in the next six months.
ving them down.
"British opinion formers who are highly cynical, speak loudly over other people at dinner parties and express their opinions as fact.
Unlike almost any other country in the world, rather than talk up national success stories they delight in knocking them down".
Propositions
Some lucky buggers are born proposition writers. I’m not. And you know what? it doesn’t matter. If the rest of the brief it littered with gold, it doesn’t matter. Every section of the brief should be making the same point anyway. On fact, if you really want them to use an idea, it can be useful to bury it somewhere else in the brief. Let them find it for themselves, berate you for not having a clue what works and what doesn’t and then use it.
But you do have to do them. Some agencies will call them ‘core thought’ or ‘creative challenge’. But they are in there somewhere. Try and avoid writing a headline- just put down the main thing you want the work to communicate. Look for twists. Keep them simple. These are some I’ve liked:
The polo is small but it’s tough
The Olympics is made of heroes
Ben and Jerrys – homefangled ice cream
No one knows more about money that Barclays
It depends on where you work, but some places work to ‘task based propositions’. They work well for a bit more creative freedom, and when you have something more complex and meaty to get across.
Dramatise the fact that Honda used hate positively to make their diesel engine
Make the reliability of the Civic desirable rather than dull
And if you’re stuck, you can always resort to the liberating ‘not’…….
Not slow
Here’s a proposition checklist:
Surprising
Thought provoking
Relevant
Can you write an ad from it? I’m not suggesting DO creative creative starters – you may get thrown out of the room, though it depends on your relationship. Just know you can do one. If you can do a bad idea, they’ll be able to a great. AS LONG AS YOU CAN SEE LOTS OF IDEAS FROM YOUR PROPOSITION – NOT JUST ONE!
Why is that different?
Now it depends where you work. You may have to explicitly state why your thinking differentiates from the competition, but in any case, it should be weaved into your brief. In many cases, disrupting the market can be your primary objective, especially if your a challenger brand. It’s a good source of ideas for the creatives too.
Like this VW Golf ad that wants to destabilise other brands that need to try too hard.
Or this Natwest work that focuses on how dreadfully the market treats its customers.
And then you come to the support
This is important on one level, since you need to prove your thinking. "Creative people, you can believe this is the right thing to do because.." But it’s also a great place for them to find ideas – and for you to bury some ideas. Some people write tons for this bit. I try and write it as if it was the body copy for a press ad – that forces me to keep in only what’s relevant, and make it short.
Most of the thinking for this ad went into the support – since it was the slices of real life that made people’s REAL relationships with beds come to life.But it was too executional to put anywhere else.
And now tone of voice
That’s how to deliver the message, it’s usually the brand values and it’s nearly always the neglected part. That’s partly down to it being very hard to put into words, and partly because it’s never easy persuading a creative team to deliver their work in a certain way.It’s not so bad if you work on a brand with a strong, long term, clear vision – but not if you don’t. In any case, just like body language, most of how people process ads is down to the tone and manner, so it’s crucial you get it right. Much of that is briefing it right, and getting the right stimulus. But it starts with the right words. I find it easier to think of the kind of person the brand is and describe that. Avoid contradictions – like ‘confident, but shy’, and don’t make it CLEAR. Like:
Boddingtons – dry humour with a Mancunian twist
Honda – optimism
Senokot – Intimate mentor
Ben and Jerrys – Unassuming, conversational, generous, local and, above all, professionally amateur
Pot Noodle – Willfully insists on doing something wrong
By now you should be checking your logic and making sure it all pulls together. If it doesn’t – rewrite. And if it does, make it shorter.
And then finally, it’s the mandatories
Lets be clear on this – this is only what MUST happen, and what MUST NOT. Not what you want to happen, or what YOU THINK the client wants. I think it’s anything that will get the work dismissed out of hand – which creatives need to know. When 99% of your work ends up in the bin, you don’t want to lose it on something you should have been warned about. Just make sure you say if it’s something the client wants or not, and what you think they want.
And your done. Doing briefs is hard, but it can be the most rewarding part of your job, apart from seeing the work that springs from it. Good luck!
Next time we’ll be going over the briefing. Should have been this week, but that’s life.
It’s to raise money for ChildLine.
Isn’t it good?
This might interest you if you’re in need of a couple of quid. On the other hand, wouldn’t it be embarrassing to lose if you’re a seasoned professional?……….
Think of a design to put on a Dr Martens boot.
Enter it online.
Get your mates to vote for it.
Get voted the winner.
Bag yourself £1000.
Get you boot design made and sold worldwide.
BDH/TBWA are looking for a planner. If you want to be a planner at a very good agency that’s not in London,it’s worth thinking about.
"We’re looking for someone with at least 4 yrs experience, but not necessarily with a traditional planning role. They’ll be given loads of opportunity and responsibility – working as the key planning contact on a range of key accounts."
Email Lorna Hawtin, their Planning Director [lorna.hawtin@bdhtbwa.co.uk] with your details if you fancy having a go.
So on we go after a first post which didn’t really say much did it? This is gleanings from Nikki Crumpton’s (Head of Planning Mccan) seminar at the APG Network, along with Russell Davies’ and Dylan William’s at the APG Creative briefing course. Of course I can’t help but stick my own oar in.
And first, I’d like to democratise the whole thing. It tends to be the planner who writes them, but I physically wrote more as a suit. No one has the divine right to write a creative brief.
Here’s my credentials as brief writer: husband, uncle, brother, son, cat owner, driver, wage slave – HUMAN BEING.
Strategy – and therefore briefs are really about how people behave. And we’re all human beings (just about). Richard Huntington often talks about planning from within – how do I think, what would I do? That’s a good start. Being able to put yourself in an audience’s position helps too. But ANYONE CAN DO THEM. They are hard, but the only way to get really good is to do lots of them.
If you’re a suit wanting to get strategic, have a look at the briefs the planners write and see what you’d do different. Do speculative ones for projects you think might happen. In some places, the less meaty ones may be your responsibility – and the briefs no one wants to write are the ones no creatives want to work from. Work hard on making them as good they can be. I learned more from working on the homebuilding briefs no one wanted to do than anything else I think.
And the creatives loved me for simply making them not dull.
I used to practice by looking at finished ads and writing what I thought the briefs might have been, and putting them in front of creatives to see what they thought. Once you can ‘work back’, you’ll find starting from scratch much easier.
Anyway………….
We’re going to divide this into three parts:
Part 1 is worth dwelling on for a second. From an ‘outside the London bubble’ perspective, creative briefs are not as common as they should be. They’re not ingrained in the process. Which is pretty daft. On the other hand, some resent having to do them, which a little silly too.
They are actually great for being profitable and making life easy. They help better work, saving time and helping fairer remuneration.
Better work because it provides a direction for our collective efforts, it also channels creativity. Some would be inclined to say it controls rampant creativity.
On one level I would say yes – without an agreed criteria, there’s no way you can reject a script featuring Tom Jones whipping Princess Leia (and come to think of it why would you?) apart from the old, "I like, I don’t like argument". But it can also FREE up creativity – allowing you to post rationalise something really good that just needs a nudge to be ON brief.
It forces everyone to be analytical, strategic and make decisions BEFORE the first review, There’s nothing more hateful for everyone than deciding what the brief really is after seeing some work.
It also forces you to not give into difficult moments – those, "Will the client buy it?" moments. If it’s on brief, and that’s based a strategy you all buy into, well, if the work’s right, it’s right. It forces admissions that they don’t want to present it since they just don’t think the client will like it. It gets you out of the smoke and mirrors and into THE REAL reason stuff gets in front of the client.
That also saves time since there SHOULD be less of the endless internal rebriefs – and that means saving money too since most agencies judge profits based on how much time has been spent on a job (I’m not saying that’s right, it’s just a fact).
And the more organised you look, the more you and the client judge work from an agreed criteria, the less work SHOULD BE rejected. You work quicker, fall out less and argue over invoices less. Everybody wins.
And finally, you will be helping the creatives if you give them a good brief. There’s nothing more frightening than a blank piece of paper – apart from not knowing where to start, and having to second guess what will happen in the first review. Creatives suffer duff briefs all the time – any effort to make the one you do interesting, and a joy to work from will be greatly appreciated (just don’t expect them to tell you that).
Don’t expect them to work TO the brief precisely either. The brief is the start, no more no less. As John Steel says, "Creatives work from a brief, not to it".
Next up is how to go about writing them.
NORTHERN PLANNER 
