Every creative has a war story about a bad brief. The kind that made you question not just the project, but all of the career choices that led to having to deal with that brief. I’ve had briefs so stuffed with jargon I half-expected to find a glossary in the appendix. I’ve seen briefs that promised three competing “top priorities,” like a magician trying to pull three rabbits out of one hat. I’ve even seen one that described the target audience as “millennials who like health and wellness.” Which is not so much an audience, but a census report with a corresponding Pinterest board.

The success or failure of a project almost always comes back to that little document. A great brief doesn’t guarantee a great campaign, but a terrible one practically guarantees mediocrity. Done well, a brief is less about checking boxes and more about setting the stage. I like to think of a brief as a GPS for the creative journey—clear enough to guide, flexible enough to let you take the scenic route, and inspiring enough to make the team want to get in the car in the first place.

Start With the “Why”

Too often, briefs start with the “what.” In other words, a specific ask: a new tagline, a campaign, a video, a TikTok series. That’s fine, but it’s not enough to get started. What briefs really need to answer is the “why.” Why this project? Why now? Why does it matter to the audience, not just the client? How did we get here?

When you articulate the why, you give creatives something bigger to sink their teeth into. Teams rally around purpose. If the brief doesn’t explain the purpose, the work is already half-lost.

Don’t Skip the Insight

If you’ve ever been in a kick-off with me, you know that the first question I typically ask is “what’s the insight?” because this is where many briefs go flat. They cover the audience, the deliverables, and the mandatories, and then they leave out the one thing that could actually make the work memorable: the insight.

The insight is the “a-ha” moment that acts as the heartbeat for a concept. It’s the human truth that makes creatives sit up straighter in their chairs. It doesn’t need to be profound or poetic; it just needs to be true. Maybe it’s that people aren’t overwhelmed by choice, but  they’re exhausted by the prospect of making the wrong one. Or that no one actually wants the cheapest option; they want the one that feels like the safest bet.

That’s the magic moment. When a brief includes an insight, the work has something real to build on. Without it, you’re essentially asking a team to create something out of air and hoping it lands.

Clarity Is Kind

The best briefs don’t try to impress. They try to communicate. A line like, “Our brand promise is an integrated approach to holistic wellness solutions” looks smart on paper but gives a creative team absolutely nothing to work with. Compare that to “We help people feel better faster.” That’s clear, human, and useful.

Being clear isn’t dumbing it down; it’s doing the hard work of distilling complexity into something simple and sharp. Clarity is kindness. Confusion is cruelty. And trust me, your creatives will remember which one you chose.

Choose One Goal (Seriously, Just One)

If you want to watch a creative team quietly deflate, give them a brief with three or four “primary” objectives. Increase awareness, drive leads, rebuild brand identity, and while we’re at it, let’s go viral. That’s not a brief. That’s a wish list.

A strong brief picks one north star. Everything else is a cast of supporting players. The more focused the goal, the more energy the team can pour into making it work. Without that focus, the project turns into a tug-of-war with no winner. And what fun is that?

Guardrails, Not Handcuffs

There’s a difference between giving direction and writing the ad yourself. A good brief sets boundaries. It includes must-haves, no-go zones, legal realities, but it leaves room for creativity. Think of it like bumper bowling: you won’t hit the gutter, but you can still roll the ball your way.

When a brief prescribes the headline, dictates the imagery, and essentially storyboards the outcome, it smothers the process before it starts. The most inspiring briefs are the ones that say, “Here’s the sandbox. Now go build something.”

Leave Them Inspired

The final words of a brief shouldn’t be a list of mandatories. They should be a spark—a customer quote that nails the frustration, a cultural reference that reframes the problem, or a little story that makes the team lean in.

Creatives aren’t robots. We don’t churn out brilliance on command, but Lord knows we’ve tried. We respond to energy. If a brief ends with something that makes us want to crack it, the project is already halfway to being something great.

The Bottom Line

A creative brief is more than paperwork. It’s the blueprint, the rallying cry, and sometimes the sanity check. When it works, the team works. When it flops, no amount of talent can rescue the project.

So, take the time. Ask the why. Dig for the insight. Write with clarity. Choose a goal. Give guardrails. And end with inspiration. Because when the brief works, the work works.