In short
- A brief is a document, a briefing is a conversation. You need both.
- Two pages at most, with appendices for the rest.
- Always ask for a readback.
In this article (6)
Here’s the funny thing. More than 80% of marketers think they write good briefs. But only 10% of creative agencies agree. That’s according to the global BetterBriefs study (2021).
That’s not a small misunderstanding. That’s a gap that costs time, money and energy every week, on both sides of the table.
I see this pattern every week with new clients who come in at OMB. Not because they’re stupid or mean badly. But because nobody ever explained to them what a good agency brief looks like. That’s what I’ll do in this article.
A briefing is not a form to fill in
The first idea you need to let go of: that a briefing is a fill-in-the-blanks exercise. Download template, fill in fields, email file to the agency. That’s not how it works, and it never works well.
A good agency brief is the document and the conversation with which you, as the client, make the strategic direction, the desired outcome and the ground rules clear. It’s a route map for creative thinking. Not a shopping list the agency dutifully works through.
The brief
The tangible document you draw up.
The briefing
How you hand that document over: the live conversation, the room for questions, and interpreting the assignment together.
Only sending an email with a PDF attached? Then you’re skipping exactly the moment when most misunderstandings arise. And the moment when an agency builds the enthusiasm that makes good work possible.
What a strong brief must contain
A good main brief is one to two pages long, around 800 to 1,200 words. Anything heavier, such as research, data, brand guidelines and media plans, belongs in the appendices. That keeps the brief readable and focused.
Background and context
The market situation, your brand's position in the category and what did or didn't work before. Without context the agency has to guess at the playing field, and that's always a bad start.
The business problem
The core of the brief. In two sentences at most: which specific problem should communication help solve? Not "we want more visibility", but: which concrete problem or opportunity is central, and why is now the moment to act?
The hierarchy of objectives
What success means on three levels: the business objective, the behavioural objective and the attitudinal objective. Each objective gets a benchmark, a target and a deadline. Objectives without numbers aren't objectives. They're wishes that never get measured.
The target audience
More than demographics. Instead of "women aged 25 to 45" you write a human portrait: what do they want, what frustrates them, what stops them from choosing your brand?
The desired response
What the audience should think, feel and do after the campaign. Those three give the agency a clear point to aim at for the creative translation.
The core message
One thought that sticks, not a list of claims. One strong sentence works better than four mediocre ones, because people don't remember more than one core idea per brand.
The proof
Why should the audience believe you? Which facts, product features or customer experiences make the core message credible?
Deliverables and scope
What the agency delivers, and what is explicitly outside the assignment. That second part matters at least as much: it prevents scope creep and arguments later in the process.
The channels
Which channels are mandatory, which are a hypothesis and where the agency can still advise. Don't close channels off too quickly if you're not sure.
Timing and budget
The briefing date, the readback, the feedback rounds, the launch and the measuring moment. And what's available for media, production and agency fees. Budget isn't taboo: an agency that doesn't know the budget automatically delivers the wrong level of ambition.
The KPIs
The yardstick for the work. Three to five at most, each with a baseline, a target value, a deadline and a data source. More KPIs don't lead to more focus, but to less direction.
Stakeholders and approval
Who may give feedback, who makes the decision and who does the brand and legal check. Put this on paper before the briefing, otherwise the creative process later runs aground on internal hassle.
Brand and legal constraints
Tone of voice, brand guidelines, claims that aren't allowed and privacy requirements. Not a side issue: a campaign that has to be changed afterwards always costs more than a brief that makes this clear up front.
Where it goes wrong
The most common mistakes are surprisingly consistent. BetterBriefs names them on the basis of years of research:
- Briefing too early, before there’s internal alignment. Then the brief has to be redone halfway through.
- Too many objectives in one brief. The agency doesn’t know what really counts, and tries everything at once.
- Briefing by committee. Too many people give input without a clear decision-maker. The assignment becomes diffuse, the feedback contradictory.
- Jargon. “Impactful”, “disruptive” or “update”, without explaining why it’s relevant. That gives an agency nothing to hold on to.
The consequence isn’t just frustration. According to The BetterIdeas Project by BetterBriefs and the IPA (2025), it typically takes five rounds of creative development before there’s an approved idea. In IPA research from 2007 it was three. Every extra round costs time, money and energy, for you and for the agency.
The cause can often be traced back to three manageable problems: unclear strategic direction, too many stakeholders without a clear decision-maker, and no evaluation criteria agreed in advance.
Bad briefing language versus good briefing language
The difference between a brief that works and a brief that doesn’t often sits in the language.
Factory bread
"We want more impact in the market."
Says nothing about which problem needs solving or what success looks like.
Fresh from the baker
"Too few category entrants consider our brand; awareness is high, but preference lags behind."
Names the real communication problem.
Factory bread
"Make something buzzy."
Gives the agency nothing to work with.
Fresh from the baker
"Raise consideration among target group X from 14% to 20% in Q4."
Measurable, time-bound and relevant.
Factory bread
"Budget to follow."
An invitation to pick the wrong level of ambition.
Fresh from the baker
"Media €120k and production €35k, redistribution within this range is open to discussion."
Clear *and* flexible.
The pattern is simple. Good briefing language is concrete, decisive and testable. Bad briefing language is vague, full of jargon, or already half a solution.
The briefing process in the right order
A strong briefing rarely fails on content. Almost always on the process around it. This is the order that works.
Internal strategic clarity
Before you write down a single word.
Write the main brief
One to two pages, 800 to 1,200 words. Research, data, brand guidelines and media plans go in the appendices.
Align internally
On budget, brand and legal constraints.
The live briefing
Only once that internal alignment is there. A PDF attached to an email is not a briefing.
The readback
The agency tells you back what they heard. That's how you discover whether they understood your briefing, or heard their own story.
Two feedback rounds at most
Against criteria agreed in advance, so feedback is about the work and not about personal taste.
The confirmation of the assignment
Then you sign, and the baking can begin.
The readback isn’t a formality. It’s the moment you discover whether the agency understood your briefing, or heard its own story.
What a good briefing gets you
Fewer feedback rounds, better work and less wasted budget. Those are the three direct benefits. But the most important benefit may well be that you get sharper yourself. Writing a good brief forces you to make choices you’d otherwise push ahead of you.
A good briefing isn’t an extra step in the marketing process. It’s the foundation. Everything that comes after, strategy, creative, production and launch, builds on what you set down here.
Do it well, and an agency can really bake something for you.
Rubin is the founder of Online Marketing Bakery in Roermond. You take the stage, we fill the room. And we make sure it buys.
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How we work: first the offer, then the room. Want to get going with a brief like this? We do that in the Sold-Out Session: your offer and your event structure in one half-day.