I remember a time when the brief was very important.
Getting it perfect and approved by everyone and their moms was a ‘do not pass go’ moment in the process.
There would be long (often, esoteric) debates about a diction or turn of phrase. There would be primary research as necessary input. There would be writes and rewrites of this sacred one-pager.
I haven’t obsessed about a brief in years.
The first shift occurred in the 2010’s when, instead the strategist/planner working on the brief for 1–2 weeks before showing it to the creative director, it became en vogue to share ‘initial thoughts’ with creatives very early on.
To get their buy-in early.
This made sense.
Spending two weeks perfecting a “ta-da!” brief only it have it rejected by creatives at the briefing seemed like a dumb process.
Then other things started to creep in.
Things like ‘territories’ and ‘tissue sessions’ transformed the brief from a definitive document to a perpetually fluid one.
Phrases like “the brief is showing” (a bad thing) or “taking a leap from strategy to creative” (a good thing) gave creatives open-ended permission to ignore the brief outright.
Then timelines started to condense in really absurd ways.
2 weeks to 1 week to 3 days to 3 hours.
At this speed, the only research possible is Google or ChatGPT.
Which further detoritated the usefulness of the brief which created more need for vague territories which further demotivated the strategist/planner to find something interesting…and so the downward spiral continued.
Most briefs I see today are nothing more than regurgitated objectives from whatever the client said, vague audiences definitions (e.g. for anyone with mouths), inane insights (e.g. they don’t want to compromise between X and Y), re-iterated objectives disguised as strategies (e.g. grow the brand by increasing cultural relevance) and deadlines (e.g. tomorrow).
Good briefs frame a confluence of truths such that they reveals a shocking obvious, yet somehow hidden opportunity for a brand.
A judo move on a competitor. An earworm insight. A brave point-of-view.
But today’s brief is nothing more than paperwork.
I’m not sure how to feel about this.
I’m not nostalgic, I’m conflicted.
On the one hand, if the brief has indeed become useless, let’s all just stop pretending and remove it from the process entirely.
The response to ‘not having a good brief’ is we don’t do briefs — we talk, we iterate, we maximize guessing, we try multiple/contradictory things at once until we get to something is KPI-proven to work.
The inefficiency and opaqueness briefs of yonder were designed to mitigate is a feature of how we work, not a bug.
At a time of cheap, scaled, endless real-time testing & optimizing, I can see this as the optimal way of working.
On the other hand, if the brief is a lost art that matters more than ever in a world of increasing clutter, let’s all just stop pretending that it doesn’t matter and give it its proper time and rigor.
Re-elevate the brief to a status of contractual agreement — a collective focal point to which all people and work must adhere until agreed otherwise.
We talk, we research, we interrogate, we minimize guessing and we decide on the way to proceed and see if it works.
At a time of cheap, scaled, endless noise bombarding audiences, I can see this as the optimal way of working.
Ultimately, ‘to brief’ or ‘not to brief’ is the most important decision for any head of strategy or chief strategy officer.
It’s a decision that shapes the culture, interactions and the nature of problems a strategy team has.
The brief is dead, but now what?
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