INSIGHTS
The most effective creative briefs are 1 – 2 pages long and should not require over 5 minutes to understand the project.

An effective creative brief contains a concise description of the business, the customers, and the campaign.

After a critical analysis of several practices in creative writing, we have established that an effective creative brief should be a concise 1 – 2 page documents that contain information on the business, the customers, and project/campaign. Below is a deep dive into our research.

To provide an overview of some best practices for writing creative briefs in the advertising industry, we analyzed several related articles from credible websites and blogs such as G2Crowd, Merline One, Work Zone, and others. Then we collated key contents that are recurrent on these sources to create the best practice for writing an effective creative brief in the advertising industry.

LENGTH
An effective creative brief should be between 1 – 2 pages and should take no more than "5 minutes to understand the project and its objectives." Although it should be brief, it should be concise and comprehensive at the same time, outlining the essence of the project and how to go about executing the project all in a short draft. "This is because designers and members of a creative team won’t be too inspired if they had to read through and think about too many pages which describe a particular project. It can hinder their creativity and therefore result in a mediocre project or design."

CONTENT
There is no standard or specific format for writing a creative brief, however, after collating several practices in writing a creative brief, we have established that best creative briefs should provide insights into the following details:

1. THE BUSINESS
A well-written creative brief should contain a brief detail on:
Company Overview: A creative brief should provide brief information on the company background, products, value proposition, vision and mission statement, and an analysis of the industry with information on the competitors. This will enable the designer to have a clear understanding of the business. However, if the brief is prepared for an in-house designer, then there will be no need for this section since the designer is fully knowledgeable of the company.

Project: The brief must contain the objective of the project, a description of the problem the project is meant to solve, and why it is necessary. It should include information on what is required to execute this project, the budget, the time frame for the project, and what is to be achieved from the project.

2. THE CUSTOMERS
Target Audience: A creative brief must identify the targeted audience. This might include a brief detail on the demography and psychography of the audience the projected is targeting. It needs to identify the opinion of the target audience on your brand and the market. Also, find out if the audience "have any hot button issues that need to be avoided" as this will inform the creative process' direction. 

Call To Action: The brief should also contain what the target audience is expected to do, how they can engage with the campaign, and "very clear request for action by your customers that lets them know what they should do next". There should be a prompt to either fill out a form, call a number, click on a link, create a free account, and others.

3. THE CAMPAIGN
Message: There should be a specific message that the campaign should communicate. An article by Hanlon Creative explains this section as thus; "If you had to distill the entire plan down into one sentence that encapsulated everything you are trying to say what would it be? Or, in other words, what is the one thing above all else you want the audience to take away? If you can’t find the essential crux of the plan, it’s doubtful anyone else will either."

Tone: The tone of communicating the message of the project should also be included. The choice of tone is normally dependent on the industry, and the audience the project is aimed at, however, the choice of the tone should be consistent with the messaging of the project and the brand positioning. Example, a "B2C messaging is usually less formal and jargon-laden than B2C communications."

Channel: The brief should also contain details on the channels to communicate the project to the target audience such as social media, websites, video content, logos, and others. Considerations such as if "digital platforms reach your audience well, or should traditional media be the primary driver" are all factored in a good creative brief.

Style Guide: There also needs to be a sort of guide on the style choice of the project that can "affect the creative direction of the project." It includes details on the "formatting, design direction, or written and visual tone" of the project.

EXPERT VIEW
In the course of our research, we found a compilation by Merlin One of 21 expert views on the most important aspect of a creative brief. Some highlights from the compilation are;

Attention on the Audience: Candice Frazer, Vice President of Marketing at TTI Success Insights, noted this to be the most crucial aspect of a good creative brief. Renee Bauer, Lead Content Strategist at Hello Marketing Agency, observed that most creative briefs don't factor the "audience’s intent when consuming the content." This was echoed by Tim Brown, Owner & Marketer at Hook Agency, Chris Bilko, Freelance Copywriter at Toffee Copy, and Paige Arnof-Fenn, founder & CEO of Mavens & Moguls.

Project Objective: Julie Ashkenazi, Co-Founder and Creative Lead at Small + Sole, identified that some creatives briefs are not detailed enough on the specific objective of the project. This was echoed by Josh Rubin, CEO of Post Modern Marketing.

Alignment to Business Goal: Sabrina Ram, Founder of Blu Lotus, noted that a good creative brief should be consistent with the overall goal of the business.

Finally, examples of creative briefs of popular brands such as PayPal, Reebok, Hush Puppies, and Quaker can be found here, while templates for writing a creative brief can be found here.