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Why Is the Creative Brief So Important and How to Write a Good One?

creative brief

A brief introduction

All creative projects start with a creative brief, in which the client presents guidelines to the creative team: scriptwriters, with their final product. And just like with maps, if he brief is unclear, misleading, or incomplete, the treasure might remain buried under countless frustrated emails, revisions, and lost time. 

This article will help you compile a brief that outlines your goals in a way that will help the creative team dig out a gem of an explainer video. 

 

X Marks the Spot

Start from where the treasure is buried and work your way back. Visualize the desired end result of your explainer video –  thousands of people knowing your brand, a swarm of new clients running to your stores,  million new downloads of your app. Take the time to clear your goals, discuss them with your employees, managers, or co-workers. Ask yourself – what is the main problem you want to solve or the main question you want to answer.

After you have figured out what you are trying to achieve, let’s see how you can go about it.

 

Hear ye, hear ye!

Another important aspect you need to clearly communicate with the creative team is your target audience. Think about the people who will be watching your video – are they professionals in your field or laymen, regular everyday folk, or big-time important investors? This will help the scriptwriter sort out the correct tone of the video and the designer – the right style. Describe this in your brief, do you want your animation to have a light-hearted, humorous spirit or would you rather it be serious and straight-to-the-point? Or you might want to evoke a deep emotion from your viewers.

 

Explain Yourself

Describe your product, service, or business, even if you don’t want to include it in the video. In order to make the perfect explainer video for you first, we need to have you all figured out ourselves. Don’t just mention that you fix cars – tell us how you do it step-by-step. Don’t be afraid to get into the details, but stay away from advertisement talk. We need to know the facts!

 

Focus

After you’ve described what you do, tell us what is the most important thing people should know about your business. List your strongest points, what sets you apart from the competition, and what the main focus of the video should be – is it that you’re shipping worldwide, or that you’re open on Sundays; maybe you have 24/7 customer care, or your prices are the lowest on the market. The main message might also be your mission statement or the guarantees you give your prospective clients.

As explainer videos are usually quite short, concentrate on just a few bullet points. Think of it like this – if your viewer could only remember three or four things from the video, what would you want them to be.

 

Visuals

Send us your logo, mascot, corporate colors, preferred typeface – anything that makes your brand design recognizable and unique to you. In terms of style, you need to be specific – find another video you might like and share it as a reference. You can check out our portfolio or visit our YouTube channel for inspiration. 

 

The devil is in the detail

Besides the main points listed above, you might also want to include additional guidelines in your brief so that the creative team can get the full picture. Here are some things you may want to consider adding:

 

  • Do you want a voice-over script or just visuals
  • Is your brand slogan mentioned at the end of the video
  • Are there any characters and what do they look like
  • Is there  a call to action and what it might be

 

All in all, the more detailed your brief is, the better the creative team can understand your wants and needs. Of course, our talented team will be happy to collaborate with you on your project if you don’t have everything figured out just yet. Get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to discuss ideas and directions!

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