The first step to a great video is a killer brief. Here’s our cheat sheet to write a smart, concise and wholesome brief that kickstarts the creative process and streamlines your marketing goals. All it takes is crafting the right answers to the 5Ws and 1H.
Always begin with a company overview—a quick summary of the most important aspects of your company—your history, location, values, mission, business size, and key milestones, to name a few. Also attach your communication style guide and brand guidelines in addition to the brief. Nothing sets creative context better than a concise introduction to who you are and what your vision is, since this defines the lens that you want your brand to be perceived through.
Next, explain why you’re making the video. And by this, we don’t mean “to educate”, “to inform” or even “to increase awareness”. Rather, describe the urgency and intent for making the video. You can then define the many measurable outcomes you’re hoping to achieve through the video. This information sets benchmarking expectations and determines other factors, like video format, duration, and genre, to name a few.
For instance, Quaker Oats realised its sales drop was because people do not have time for a wholesome breakfast in the morning and prefer a grab and go meal. And that became the “Why” to create an awareness campaign video around overnight oats breakfast recipes.
What is the one key message the video should communicate? What should your audience take away from watching the video? To make a meaningful impact across the spectrum, you want everyone to observe, and reflect on a singular premise. Your key message sets creative boundaries and ensures your film is always in line with your communication vision. If you’re clearly able to define this in one crisp sentence, your brief is 24k gold.
Who do you want to influence? Describe your target audience. Create the ideal customer persona that you wish to influence. Mention their location, gender, income group, age group, buying motivation, earning capacity and any other social or psychological insight that the creative team can tap into.
For example, if you were looking to excite innovative thinkers and inspiring leaders to join your senior management roles, your target audience would most likely be men and women, aged 35-40, with a Masters degree, who are global citizens managing a team of at least 50 people, and active on LinkedIn; and who aspire to work for a fast growth company. This data will help your creative team personalise the communication and try to influence the audience strategically.
Where will the video be shown? What are the platforms you will host your video on? Will it be aired on television, in theatres, on social media, or on a large screen projector in a boardroom meeting? Videos are contextual and platform-specific. How you plan to use the video will affect the duration, aspect ratio, filming equipment, file format, and even the CTA.
There is a second aspect of ‘Where’ — information about the production location. If your video needs to be shot in a specific location or multiple locations, add that detail in the brief too.
When do you need the video to be delivered? How soon do you want to kickstart production? If you have key dates already specified, mention it in the brief — availability of a location, date of an event, availability of speakers, timings, all tie back to your campaign go-live date.
Describe how you’ve imagined the video. What mood do you want the video to have? Light-hearted and friendly, shocking, humorous, or serious and professional? If you have a specific style or genre in mind , mention it in the brief. If it’s difficult to describe what you’re looking for, share references of other videos you like — or didn’t like.
Red Bangle Tip: Choose a video style that is aligned to the core message and the brand personality.
Looking to make product videos, explainers, ad films and more? Ready with a brief that you need help executing? Let’s make a video! Like always, the Red Bangle team is here to help. Fill out our contact form and we’ll get in touch.
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