Why the Creative Brief Is (Usually) Neither

mlns='> They're not supposed to be weapons of mass delusion [View Message in Browser]( / [Add Us to Safe Sender List]( Weekly News 12.17.21 Connect With CMI [Alone at Work? Use Quiet Days To Set Up for Personal Growth and Content Success]( If you're one of the few at work around the holidays, it's easy to feel stuck. No one's around to return emails or make revisions. Try these ideas for using the time to reflect, reorganize, and reorient your outlook and your content programs for the new year. [Read more]( By Ann Gynn More of the week's best stuff: - [9 Questions To Help You Prioritize Content Creation [Template]]( by Gina Balarin - [10 Content Marketing Truth Bombs Shared With the #CMWorld Community in 2021]( by Amanda Subler - [Try These Tools To Create Content That Works for Search Engines and Audiences]( by Sally Ofuonyebi - [3 Hot Takes: A Viral (Food) Report, an 'Ugly' Content Gift, and an Email Treat]( by Content Marketing Institute Team  Why the Creative Brief Is (Usually) Neither Many content teams I've worked with act as the internal agency for the company. These teams may or may not be considered strategic, but the way ideas get considered almost assuredly isn't. Requests for more and more digital content assets often arrive in something called the creative (or content) brief. Unfortunately, these are rarely creative or brief. The creative brief is an artifact of the [account planning process]( a function of marketing and advertising that emerged in the 1960s. The idea behind account planning was to document a client's strategy, directions, value propositions, and other elements into one centralized plan. The creative brief served as a plan summary that offered inspiration and guidelines for advertising or other marketing communications. But, like so many things in marketing, the creative brief has morphed into a bureaucratic Frankenstein. Creative briefs now go both ways – from client to agency and agency to client. The client sends a brief that dictates the ad should be blue, and the agency sends back an edited version of the brief suggesting it should be purple. The brief serves as justification for opinions. In other instances, the creative brief is a product of so many different stakeholders (product marketing, brand teams, the CMO, and so on) that it becomes a book of corporate guidelines, brand rules, and previous examples. In other words, it prevents any shred of creativity from going into making something new. I see this kind of content brief too often. A content team at a B2B company I worked with recently showed me one egregious example. Product marketing and sales teams would submit their requests for thought leadership content assets using an input brief that listed: - Related products and their value propositions - Competitive research - An analysis of requested keywords - Required sales messaging. Every creative brief consisted of 12 to15 pages of material. Not surprisingly, no one read it. Ironically, all those pages contained little worth reading. Most elements were copied and pasted from previous briefs because both teams required the form fields to approve a content project. Clients (the sales and product teams) would copy and paste previous text in the form to get their content requests accepted. The content team used the form to balance workflow – a mistake in any field allowed them to reject the request. They used that veto power to cope with the onslaught of content requests. Each side learned how to game the system to get what they wanted. The creative brief served as a weapon of mass delusion. What's the answer? Let's retire the creative brief. If brands take the time to create a messaging architecture that includes the themes, initiatives, and thought leadership positions, then they should trust the content team to take the lead and create content that aligns with the strategy. More importantly, think about how to balance the content requests proactively rather than reactively. Don't let the business think of the content team as a drive-thru service. That's a sure-fire way to ensure the team can only deliver the absolute minimum product to meet the brief. In reality, most brands need both proactive content planning that leads and inspires and the occasional reactive drive-thru service. How to balance both? Try this. Transform some of the content input from a form to be filled into a conversation to be had. In my experience, those conversations are more creative – and more brief. It’s your story. Tell it well. (And [tell us your thoughts](mailto:cmi_info@informa.com?subject=Feedback) about Robert’s note.) Robert Rose Chief Strategy Advisor Content Marketing Institute You're getting this exclusive article from Robert Rose as a perk of your newsletter subscription. Do you have colleagues or friends who would benefit from Robert's weekly updates? If so, please invite them to [subscribe]( here.  Sponsored Content How to Deliver a Differentiated Buying Experience Discover how a new approach to content can be directly correlated to improved sales, customer satisfaction, and the efficient delivery of connected and differentiated buying experiences. [Download E-Book »](   More From CMI New E-Book: Build a Stronger Pipeline With Content Producing high-performing sales-enablement content starts with smooth collaboration between sales and marketing. Looking for guidance to overcome knowledge gaps, strategic disconnects, and process-related obstacles between these two teams in your organization? Download our new e-book for expert advice and techniques to break down siloes and create content that grows your sales pipeline! [Unlock the Power of Sales and Marketing Collaboration »](   Gift Yourself a Year of Learning As the year comes to a close, arm yourself with new learnings, fresh perspectives, and a framework to set your 2022 on the right course to advance your practice of content marketing and help your company grow. Enroll now for Content Marketing University and you’ll receive 12-month on-demand access to an extensive curriculum designed to uplevel your strategy in the new year. Watch this video to learn more about CMI U, and then use code FINAL2021 for $150 off enrollment when you sign up by December 31. [Watch Video »]( [Enroll Now »](   [Content Creation Resources]( Events [Content Marketing World]( [ContentTECH Summit]( [Content Marketing Awards]( Resources [Research]( [White Paper/eBook Library]( [Content VIPs]( [CMI Business Directory]( Education [Content Marketing University]( [Chief Content Officer]( [Webinars]( [Job Listings]( Interested in advertising with CMI? [Learn more.]( To stop receiving future Content Marketing Institute update emails, please respond [here](. Copyright © 2021 Informa Connect, All rights reserved Content Marketing Institute, an Informa Connect brand 605 3rd Ave | New York | NY 10158 [Terms of Service]( | [Privacy Statement]( [informa tech]