The creative brief is perhaps the single-most important factor in ensuring that the projects you embark on with your supplier go to plan.

The creative brief is a statement of intent that determines what you want, how you want it done, what success will look like, and ideally how you intend to measure it.

By agreeing mutual objectives with your supplier and then committing these to black and white, you avoid all misunderstandings and potential for moving the goalposts – on both sides.

We give you guidelines to writing a brief below, but we recommend that you invite your supplier to help you write it. After all, if you’re asking for expert help and advice surely that starts with planning and assessing what’s feasible with the timeframes, budgets and resources available.

In essence, it’s the best way to guarantee getting the job done right first time. Here are the basic elements of the brief:

Who are you? Name of your organisation, why you exist (mission statement would be fine here) and the key people your supplier will be working with.

Where are you now? Market position, awareness and challenges (all of which can be taken from your marketing plan).

What are your brand guidelines? (We told you they were important!)

Where do you want to be? I.e., what do you want to achieve as a result of working with this supplier?

Audience? Who are you trying to reach and why? What makes them tick? How do they generally think, feel and behave?

The project. What work do you specifically want undertaken and in what timeframe?

Results? How do you want people to think, feel and act as result of the project? More awareness? More donations? Greater satisfaction?

What are the practicalities? How do you propose the relationship will work? How will decisions be made?

Spend as much time as possible on the brief. But remember, it’s called a brief for a reason. Think quality not quantity.