A creative brief is a short document that stops a campaign from drifting. It states the problem, the audience, the single most important message, and the constraints. Good briefs run one or two pages. Long briefs get ignored.

The brief is a contract between strategy and creative. It gives the team enough direction to start and enough freedom to surprise. When a client later objects to the work, the brief is the document everyone returns to.

Core sections

• Background and business objective
• Target audience and insight
• Single-minded proposition
• Tone, mandatories, and deadlines

Vague briefs produce vague work. If the proposition needs three sentences to explain, the campaign will too.