Sitting in my Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) class, I was getting fascinated by the question of what really goes into a creative brief with which a creative leap is taken. I posed this question and I finally got my answer. Here is the outline of the components of a creative brief:

1. Defining the competitive environment
2. Target audience (aspects like age, gender, attitude)
3. Key consumer insights
4. Current attitude and behavior of consumers towards the category
5. Key desired response after the execution of the ad
6. USP of the product
7. What should be the proposition/message of the ad
8. Tone and manner of communication (example:  warm, emotional, endearing)
9. Mandatories (like is price flash needed, certain brand properties which must be communicated)
10. Specify the media vehicles and budget

Phew! That looks really exhaustive. And after the brief is given, typically an ad agency would have a “challenging the brief” session where they would try to tear apart the brief in order to gain a better understanding. Based on all these, finally we see those sexy and appealing ads

m0r0N.