Leaders, don't be lazy. Your creative partner does not own the creative brief. You do.

It’s not the job of the copywriter, or the creative agency, or any other creative partner to set the strategic direction for their work. Dear leader, that’s your job. The creative brief forces you to make the hard choices upstream, before your creative development.

Do the hard work in advance of creative development. Why?

Because you will always get the creative that you deserve.

The absence of a creative brief (or the presence of a weak creative brief) will yield ineffective creative. A tight, choiceful creative brief will yield effective copy. You will get the creative that you deserve.

Questions your brief should answer:

· What's the assignment, exactly?

· Who's the audience?

· What's the action you want from your audience? What change should this evoke?

· What's the net takeaway – the one thing you want to make sure your audience takes away?

· What's the personality & tonality of this creative?

· What are the mandatory executional elements that must be present for this to work?

Simple? Yes. Easy? No. But if you want high-impact creative, do the work to set up your creative partners to succeed.

They’ll thank you for it, and you’ll thank yourself for it, too.