Have you ever wondered how the most successful artists, designers, musicians, and other creative people produce so much work at mastery level? I’ve often asked myself “what’s their secret?”

Well, it could be luck, connections, being discovered, working tirelessly for years on end, making a deal with the devil or…Drinking 3 Redbulls a day? Just kidding, that could be dangerous. While recently reading The Creative Habit: Learn In and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp I finally had an answer. It’s a combination of hard work, as in showing up daily for a full day and focusing, luck that comes from showing up, and what I want to talk about today: planning. Twyla explains in detail that there is a balance to this, a plan to start – to put the pieces in order. If we plan every detail of the work and stick to it without being flexible to variables, we will often fail. And if we don’t plan at all – we will also fail. 

In comes the beginning of a plan, mixing a work’s inspiration with the commercial outcome intended. THE CREATIVE BRIEF. What is it? Tie-dyed underwear? That’s a pair of creative briefs, but that’s not what we’re talking about here (why is a singular piece of underwear called a pair?!). When you start a creative endeavour, if you’re like me, you see or hear or experience something cool and then decide to make something like it with your own spin or interpretation. This is great for hobbies or something that doesn’t require a specific outcome. But for everything else, we may want to write down what it is that we want to accomplish and what inspired the idea. Below you can see an example of this produced for a RedBull ad. According to this brief: 

1. American’s discovered their product in 1996 and it became known as a source of energy to accomplish more and better performance but was primarily consumed by a younger crowd. 
2. The purpose or reason Red Bull is interested in producing an ad at a creative agency is to expand its market reach to an older adult market. 
3. The ad should target people who may be experiencing a mid-life crisis and feel that they need more energy to experience great things that they missed out on while building families and careers. 
4. The CORE message of the ad: GET YOUR BALLS BACK. 
5. Because of the enhancements that Red Bull provides, advertising these benefits specifically to, and tailoring messaging for people who are having a mid-life crisis will lead to a new portion of untapped market share and will help the customer achieve the adventures and personal changes needed to have a “sense of inner stability” in their lives.

This brief is very powerful because it gives us a basis for the messaging, a purpose or why the audience should listen (mid-life crisis), a specific message/big idea, and a starting point to understand the product. The brief is also helpful by not being too specific about what they want the creatives to do or methodology but is clear about what outcome the messaging should have. 

One criticism I have for the brief is it references that the target audience is men and women, but the core idea references “balls” which is a euphemism for testicles and/or courage but with an unavoidable slant towards masculinity. I hope the agency that handled the campaign overlooked this and had messaging that was inclusive to everyone in the target audience. 

I was also a bit confused by the last section about “reasons to believe and buy” because the brief explains the features and benefits of Red Bull then talks about the target audience’s emotional state but fails to connect the two. Perhaps this is the job of the creatives but a deeper connection between the two things – Red Bull enhances your performance in physical activities and a percentage of adults have a mid-life crisis leading them to try new things in order to overcome the crisis. 

Overall, a great brief. Have you written a creative brief to inspire a project or direct a creative agency? Let me know in the comments, I’m excited to learn more about this powerful tool. 

PS. If you want to see the article I grabbed this brief from and more examples, go here: 

https://www.leadquizzes.com/blog/creative-brief-samples/

And if you’re interested in supporting this blog while building a creative habit, there’s an affiliate link for Twyla’s amazing book

here: https://amzn.to/3jsDC22

Thanks for reading,

Daniel