Question

Find an ad (from any media) and work backwards through the process of creating that ad to imagine the briefing document. What are the key characteristics of the ad? What information would the creative team needed to produce the ad (i.e., what are the key pieces of information that were part of the briefing document)? Use the template/headings from the Kennedy, et al. (2017, pp. 467-469) to create a hypothetical briefing document for the ad.

Answer 1

To answer this question I am telling (as a example) about Amazon's product development and process. There are many ingredients that go into making a good ad: a clear objective, the right agency, understanding the audience, the execution, ad placement - the list goes on. The list is also important. Ads need a clear objective and thats comes from the client. Without ones there is no need of a add. But a clear objective is nothing if it's not backed up with a good brief.

There is an aproach called "working backwards" that is widely used at Amazon. They try to working backwards from the customer, rather than starting with an idea for a product and trying to bolt customers onto it. While working backwards can be applied to any specific product decision, using this approach especially important when developing new products or features.

For new initiatives a product manager typically starts by writing an internal press release announcing the finished product. The target audience for the press release is the new updated product's customer, which can be retail customers or internal users of a tool or technology. Internal press releases are centered around the customer problem, how current solutions fail, and how the new product will blow away existing solutions.

If the benefit listed don't sound very interesting or exciting to customers, then perhaps they're not (and should'nt be built). Instead, the product manager should keep iterating on the press release until they've come up with benefits that actually sound like benefits. Iterating on a press release is a lot less expensive than iterating on the product itself.

Here is an example outline for the press release

Headings : Name the product in a way the reader (i.e. your target customers) will understand.

Sub - heading : Describe who the market for the product is and what benefit they get. One sentence only underneath the title.

Summary : Give a summary of the product and the benefit. Assume the reader will not read anything else so make this paragraph good.

Problem: Describe the problem, which the product can solves.

Solutions: Describe how this product elegantly solves the problem.

Quote: A quote from the spokesperson from the company.

How to get started : Describe how easy it is to get started.

Customer quote : Provide a quote from a hypothetical customer that describe how they experienced the benefit.

Closing and call to action : Wrap it up and give pointers where the reader should go next

If the press release is more than a page and half, it is probably too long. Keep it simple.

The client brief should be simple, short documents that provides the information account manager needs to write the creative brief. It should be brief . However there is no ' best' way to write a brief, the most effective mehod I have found

Where are we now?

• Think of this as the begining of the journey
• Describe the current product and the company brand
• Consider the position against competitor.
• Name any key issues which are facing
• Provide information about current customers/supporters   

Where do we want to be

• Think of this as the destination
• Define the single maesurable objective that looks like success
• This could be an increase in sales or donations. It could be changing attitudes or behaviour.

What are we want to get there

• The objective to the add should be aligned against an existing strategy, perhaps a marketing strategy , a communication strategy or a campaigning strategy.
• Consider asking the agency "How do we ....?" thats a challenge many agencies would love to tackle.  

There are a few ways to use this questions. Either use them to prompt thinking and write the brief or can answer questions directly.

There will be a temptation to write plenty. Keep the brief brief. Long briefs can be overwhelming. The shorter the brief the better the agency will feel about the project. Agencies generally produce their best work on projects they feel good about.