What’s the Best Way to Deliver a Brief to a Digital Producer?

A subject we’ve seen broached at many brand and talent panels over the years, sometimes managers even saying “It’s fine, just send it to us and we’ll figure it out”. But the truth is, agencies, brands, creators and managers can help each other in making the ‘briefing process’ a far smoother and easier experience for everyone involved.

So should the brief be very specific so there’s little room for error and the need for edits and re-shoots? This can then compromise the creative integrity of the talent and also come across very heavy-handed and un-natural for when the content is published. 

Should it be loose and relaxed so the talent feels free and un-pressured to do their best work? With this approach it could be very off-target and not deliver the message the client is looking for, also needing lots of re-shoots and edits…which neither side wants to go through. 

After 400+ jobs in 2 years at Sharper we’ve found that talent actually respond well to 4-5 points of direction, and so long as it carries the core message of the brief then usually (after sometimes reviewing a couple of treatments put forward by management and talent to ensure this is all covered), edits and re-shoots are kept to a minimum, if not totally avoided.

So brands and agencies; as long as you have your (few) core messages and (also few) tags clear and worked out before approaching talent, talent and managers then need to be just as clear in replying with story-boards to clients covering those points so that everyone can get on with the creative work and turn around a campaign as easily and efficiently as possible.