Creative Brief templates

Creative Brief template

Get our Creative Brief template, Media Brief template, and our Mini Brief template in a downloadable PowerPoint file.

Our marketing template includes a ready-to-use formatted blank slide with key marketing definitions where you can insert your own creative brief, media brief, and mini brief for specific projects.

$19.99

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Description of what is included

Our template includes a creative brief, mini creative brief, and media brief. Our file includes ready-to-use formatted blank slides with key marketing definitions where you can insert your own creative brief. And, we use our Gray’s Cookies example to show you examples to follow. 

Creative brief template

I wish everyone would stop writing ugly Creative Briefs. 

The brief is a crucial way for brand leaders to control the strategy, but give freedom on execution to the experts who execute. Too many marketers have this backward, preferring to give freedom on strategy with various possible strategic options layered within the creative brief. They attempt to try to control the creative outcome by writing a long list of tangled mandatories.

The flaw of the big-wide creative brief

  • When you write a big-wide creative brief with layers of options within the brief, the Agency just peels the brief apart and gives you strategic options. 
  • For instance, if you put a big wide target market of 18-55 years-old, your agency will present one ad for 18-25 years-old, another one for 25-40 years-old and the third ad for 40-55 years-old. If you put two objectives into the brief, asking to drive trial and drive usage, you will get one ad idea for driving trial and one ad idea for usage. 
  • This means you are picking your brand strategy based on which ad idea you like best. That is wrong. Pick your strategy first and use the creativity of execution to express that strategy.

To illustrate, click on either diagram to see our Creative Brief template.

To read about our creative brief process:

Mini Creative Brief

We include our mini creative brief in our template

  • With social media, digital advertising and search media, marketing is moving faster than ever. You still need a creative brief; however, you might need to try our mini creative brief. We are seeing things speed up, with opportunities come to brand leaders need quick decisions and even faster execution.
  • If your brand has a solid brand communications plan, you should be able to create a mini creative brief with a clear objective, consumer target and insight, the desired response, and the main message.
  • Going too fast sometimes takes too long. With the explosion of media options, timing is everything. Unfortunately, there are too many “phone call briefs” happening. Even worse, no brief at all. Slowing down will make you go faster.

To illustrate, click on either diagram to see our mini Creative Brief template.

Read our story on the Mini Creative Brief

Media Brief

We also include our media brief template

1. What is the brand’s budget size?  

Start with the size of your business and the related gross margins available to spend. Look at the past media ROI and creative advertising results as a projection for success. Identify the brand or business impact from previous campaigns, and match up to potential strategy you are looking at this time.

2. What is your brand’s core strength?

Story-led and product-led need significant budgets, to reach a large audience. Experience-led brands are a slower build and rely on word of mouth. Price-led brands needs efficient media choices to quickly trigger the transaction.  

3. How tightly connected is your brand with your consumer?

Where does your brand sit on the brand love curve? Where you sit impacts the communication focus getting consumers to see, think, buy, feel or influence. You should filter based on the degree of competitive threats you face in the market. The higher the competitive battle, the higher the advertising spend.

4. Where can you best impact the consumer journey?

Understand how your consumer moves from awareness, consideration, search, buy, satisfy, repeat, loyal and to becoming a brand fan. Match up to the communication focus of the strategy to the stage where you can have the greatest impact, related to your overall brand strategy in the brand plan.

5. Where are consumers most open to engage, think, listen, feel, and act? 

Who is your target? What part of the consumer’s life are they most willing to watch, listen, learn, engage, decide and act? How can you align with their day-in-the-life or moments during the week or year. Special life-changing moments. Are there adjacent or related products/services linked to your brand?

6. What media choices will best deliver the creative execution?

Your brand idea should drive the creative idea, which then drives your priority for gaining attention, brand link, communication or stickiness. Stay open on media during the creative development process to ensure your creative can fit with the best media choices.

To illustrate, click on either diagram to see our Media Brief template.

Read how to make smarter decisions when building a media plan

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