Photo by Alice Yamamura

You’re gearing up for your next great social media campaign when it hits you: you know what needs to be done, but you’re not sure how to get there. The creative brief ensures you and your team are on the same page and sets up your campaign for success.

In this blog, we will cover what a creative brief is, why your organization should be using creative briefs, and tips on how to get the most out of your brief.

What Is A Creative Brief?
According to Dr. Amy Jauman, a creative brief is a short document that provides direction for creative teams by defining the scope, goals, and key elements of a project. These briefs are often created cross-functionally, including both internal departments (e.g., marketing, finance, etc.) and external businesses (e.g., clients). These briefs are not style guides; instead, they are made using a combination of research, interviews, and discussions between a client and a content designer.

Why Should You Use A Creative Brief
Creative briefs build the road to effective content that aligns with your brand’s goals. For many campaigns, the creative brief is the differentiator between a well-planned, harmonious campaign and an aimless, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink one. A great creative brief will provide multiple benefits to your team on the road to a successful campaign:

• Team Synchronization: A well-crafted creative brief will consider the needs of all stakeholders involved in a campaign. By using their insights to build your brief, you provide your team with a clear outline for the project and get everyone on the same page.

• Efficient Project Execution: Creative briefs clearly state the goals and objectives of the project. By nailing your creative brief, you ensure your team members understand the project and create more efficient workflows.

• Minimized Risk: Like before, a clear and concise creative brief leaves little room for mistakes that may damage the overall message of your campaign.

• Creative Consistency: While your creative brief is not the same as your brand’s style guide, a comprehensive creative brief will often state what the overall tone and message for a campaign should be. When crafting your creative brief, be mindful of your brand’s existing style and tone to help align your next campaign to the overall message of your brand.

 

Tips To Take Your Creative Brief to The Next Level
While the layout of the creative brief may vary from organization to organization, most effective creative briefs will include similar key components. Here, I’ve outlined some tips to ensure your brief sets your team up for success:

• Be brief: While this seems simple enough, it’s easy to overload your brief with too much detail or unnecessary jargon. Keep your brief clear and concise for maximum efficiency.

• Leave room for creativity: It’s important that a creative brief provides clear direction for the project, but it’s equally important that the brief leaves room for creativity. Overly rigid briefs may stomp out innovative solutions before they can flourish.

• Leverage key insights: Baking data and research from your target audience is crucial to campaign (and creative brief) success. This goes beyond just numbers. Great key insights will take common human truths backed up by research, and those great key insights will develop great creative briefs.

• Embrace feedback and input: One of the best aspects of the creative brief is the feedback and input given on its development from stakeholders across departments and organizations. By harnessing the power of each stakeholder’s input, your creative brief is much more likely to set your team on the path to campaign success.

 

Final Thoughts
The creative brief isn’t just a rehash of your brand’s style guide; it’s an outline made up of feedback and input from your stakeholders that will guide your team to their next creative success story. In this blog, we talked about what a creative brief is, why you should be using this wonderful creative tool, and tips to make your creative brief go from zero to hero.

In the NISM Comprehensive Field Guide, Dr. Amy Jauman provides a step-by-step exercise to help you practice your creative brief building skills. You can find this information and more on creative briefs here.

 

Author: Kassity Lee

Kassity Lee is a 2025 Social Media Strategist Intern at the National Institute for Social Media. A senior at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Kassity is a dual Marketing and Journalism major with a specialization in Advertising. Kassity is passionate about marketing strategy and utilizing the power of human truths to craft effective campaigns. In her free time, Kassity can be found hanging out with her cat Bug, playing video games, and occasionally catching a local basement show with her friends. You can find her on LinkedIn here.