by Yell.com

Unless you are planning a purely digital campaign, online advertising will sit in a wider mix of communications. Ideally you should provide your ATL and digital agencies with a single brief with the objective of a totally integrated campaign. Online should never be thought of as just an add on. Depending on the budget being allocated you will probably need to designate a “lead” agency.

• Written brief
• Innovative ways of briefing
• Avoiding mistakes

Written brief

A written brief should always be provided as this acts as a reference point for the development and delivery of the campaign and sets the standards by which the campaign will be measured but should sit alongside an “in the round” briefing session to ensure the agencies have all they need.

The detail in the brief will of course depend on whether this is a new agency/new major activity or an extension of a previous campaign. But let’s assume this is a new agency engagement.

You should aim to give the agency as much understanding of your business as possible and the strategic and business objectives that the advertising supports. The first part of the brief should explain what the marketing proposition is and the key benefits – i.e. why consumers should buy, use, consider.

Give as much background as possible – what does the competitive marketplace look like. Include insights from any client research or reports AND ask yourself the following questions:

• What are the business and marketing objectives that the activity supports – grow market share/drive awareness/purchase/ usage/new product launch etc?

• What are the specific communication objectives – what should the advertising do? Are they different to the marketing objectives? Do you want the online activity to do something different to above the line (direct response vs. brand for example)?

• Who is the audience for the activity – this should be as detailed as possible – who are they, not just a demographic profile, what are their attitudes and behaviours? If you have research that backs this up give the agencies access.

• What are the key messages – what is it you want to say about your product or service?

• What are the reasons for a consumer to believe these messages – give as much evidence as possible – this might be product features/benefits?

• What do you want the target audience to do/think/feel as a result of seeing your messages/advertising?

• Brand values and tone of voice – this should be consistent with all other brand activity. Is it?

• What are the mandatories – are there things that the advertising must include (or exclude) these may include legal or regulatory requirements (e.g. costs of calls to premium rate numbers, information on financial products restrictions etc), client requirements – inclusion of parent brand name etc.

• How will the campaign activity be measured? What are the key performance indicators? Explain the research, tracking or other metrics that will be used.

• Timings. When do you need a response to the brief and when is the activity to start?

• What are the other activities that may support the campaign? Are you running PR or search engine marketing/ optimisation in-house? Give details of these activities.

• And finally, what is the budget and does this need to be phased?

[back to top]

Avoiding mistakes

Don’t be prescriptive when briefing an agency. You’re paying them for insight and creativity so give them a wide rein. Never rely on a verbal only brief. This is open to misinterpretation and can lead to dispute and lost time further down the line.

Be realistic and give timescales that are achievable – discuss this with the agencies before issuing a brief.

It’s tempting to measure online activity purely in terms of CPC – remember this is also a powerful branding medium so look at the how online fits with other activity and what the overall objectives are. A briefing template can be useful as it ensures that all requirements are covered. Some agencies will have preferred briefing templates so ask for these and combine with your own.

Innovative ways of briefing

As brand managers/marketers, we know lots about our brands and products. There’s a good chance we have lots of research (competitor or otherwise) that could help our agencies out. It’s a good idea to really cherry pick what we think is most relevant and useful, rather than send absolutely everything we’ve ever done, but we also need to think laterally enough to know what may spark a creative thought.

It can be useful to provide agencies with a snapshot of work done to date. If you think of your past activity as a book, only give a chapter away, not the whole thing. We want to move forward, so don’t want to focus too heavily on the past, but it’s good to share where the company brand has come from in order to focus on where we need to go.

Providing as many insights as possible will help agencies get under the skin of what we’re promoting. Briefing documents help, but if we can supplement these with more hands-on opportunities, we’ll get better results. This can cover product testing, demonstrations, factory/business tours, which all help deliver brand / product immersion.

True insights which become central to the creative strategy are often gleaned through unpredictable means. They are rarely found in a brand manual. Agencies can gain a wealth of information from talking to the people behind the business – those who live and breathe the brand. Shadowing the sale team or meeting the factory floor manager can be revealing. If you have a ‘Centre of Excellence’ – often true for car manufacturers - then plan agency visits to see how you operate at the top of your game.

Encourage agencies to talk to end users. Whether it’s through vox pops, focus groups, or informal chats in the pub. They can make insights into the experience come to life which pure desk research alone will not.

Finally, there is an expectation that as marketers we are not meant to know all the answers. With the incredible growth of online it is impossible for anyone to keep up 100%. Therefore if you are in doubt, simply ask questions rather than guess. Agencies respond better to challenges than briefs they don’t believe in.

[back to top]