Your Brief Is the Foundation of Every Great Project
The quality of work you get from a creative agency is directly proportional to the quality of the brief you provide. A clear, thoughtful brief gives your agency the information and direction they need to deliver work that hits the mark. A vague or incomplete brief leads to misaligned expectations, wasted revisions, and frustration on both sides.
At Motion By Design, we have received thousands of briefs over the years. The difference between the projects that run smoothly and the ones that struggle almost always comes down to the brief.
This guide will help you write briefs that get better results, whether you are commissioning corporate video, animation, illustration, or any other creative work.
What Makes a Good Brief?
A good brief is clear, concise, and complete. It answers the essential questions without overloading the agency with unnecessary detail. Think of it as the contract between you and your creative partner: it defines what success looks like so everyone is working toward the same goal.
The Essential Elements of a Creative Brief
1. Background and Context
Start with who you are and what you do. Even if you have worked with the agency before, a brief refresher helps. Include your industry, your position in the market, and any relevant recent developments. This context helps the creative team make informed decisions throughout the project.
Keep it to a paragraph or two. You are setting the scene, not writing your company history.
2. Project Objectives
What do you want this project to achieve? Be specific. “Raise brand awareness” is too vague. “Increase consideration among CFOs in mid-market Australian companies” gives the creative team something tangible to work with.
Ideally, tie your objectives to measurable outcomes. If you can say “we want this video to achieve a 60 percent view-through rate on LinkedIn,” your agency can make creative decisions that support that goal.
3. Target Audience
Who is this content for? Go beyond demographics. Describe their role, their challenges, their media consumption habits, and what they care about. The more your creative team understands the audience, the more effectively they can craft content that resonates.
If you have audience personas or research, share them. If you have data on what content has performed well with this audience in the past, include that too.
4. Key Messages
What are the core messages you want to communicate? Prioritise them. If your audience remembers only one thing after watching your video or seeing your design, what should that one thing be?
Limit yourself to three key messages at most. Trying to say everything means nothing sticks. A focused message is a powerful message.
5. Tone and Style
How should the content feel? Describe the tone in plain language: professional but approachable, energetic and bold, calm and authoritative. Provide visual references that capture the mood you are after.
It is equally helpful to say what you do not want. “We do not want it to feel corporate or stiff” is valuable direction. “We are not looking for anything too edgy or provocative” sets clear boundaries.
6. Deliverables and Specifications
Be explicit about what you need. How many videos? What lengths? Which formats and aspect ratios? Where will the content be used? Will you need social media cut-downs?
Include technical requirements: file formats, resolution, compression settings, any platform-specific requirements. The more specific you are upfront, the fewer surprises there are at delivery.
7. Budget
Share your budget or at least a budget range. This is not about giving the agency a number to spend up to. It is about enabling them to recommend the best approach within your means.
Without a budget indication, agencies either over-scope (proposing ideas you cannot afford) or under-scope (playing it too safe when you had room for something more ambitious). Either way, you lose.
8. Timeline
When do you need the final deliverables? Work backwards from your launch date and factor in time for internal reviews and approvals. Be realistic about how long your internal sign-off process takes. This is often where timelines blow out.
If there is a hard deadline (an event, a product launch, a campaign start date), flag it clearly. Your agency will plan their schedule around it.
9. Stakeholders and Approval Process
Who needs to approve the work? Define your approval chain upfront and commit to it. Nothing derails a project faster than a new stakeholder appearing at the final review with a completely different set of expectations.
Ideally, nominate a single point of contact who collates feedback from all stakeholders and provides a single, unified set of comments to the agency.
Common Briefing Mistakes
Being Too Prescriptive
A brief should define the problem, not the solution. Telling your agency exactly what to create defeats the purpose of hiring creative professionals. Set the parameters and trust them to bring their expertise to the table.
Skipping the Brief Entirely
Some clients prefer to “just have a chat” instead of writing a brief. While conversations are valuable, they are no substitute for a written document. A written brief ensures everyone is aligned and provides a reference point throughout the project.
Changing Direction Mid-project
Brief changes after work has begun are the single biggest source of budget overruns and timeline delays. Invest the time upfront to get your brief right. If the brief does need to change, acknowledge that it may affect cost and timeline.
Design by Committee
Too many opinions dilute the work. Keep your approval group small and give them clear roles. Not everyone needs to weigh in on every detail.
The Brief Meeting
Once you have written your brief, schedule a meeting to walk through it with your agency. This gives both sides the opportunity to ask questions, clarify assumptions, and align on expectations before any creative work begins.
The best brief meetings are collaborative. They are an opportunity for the agency to share insights, challenge assumptions, and propose approaches you might not have considered.
Templates and Tools
If your organisation briefs creative work regularly, develop a standard template. This ensures consistency across projects and makes it easier for new team members to write effective briefs.
Your template should cover all the elements listed above while remaining flexible enough to accommodate different project types. A video brief will have some different fields than an illustration brief, but the core elements remain the same.
Get Better Results from Your Next Project
A strong brief is the single most effective thing you can do to improve the quality of creative work you receive. It costs nothing except time and thought, and the return on that investment is significant.
If you are planning a creative project and want help structuring your brief, book a free consultation with our team. We are happy to help you define your objectives and scope before you commit to a project.
