The Brief Bros.

143: A collaboration between Tom Fishburne, IPA and BetterBriefs.com

Kudos to our friends Matt Davies and Pieter-Paul von Weiler, past guests on The Brief Bros., for their partnership with the Marketoonist Tom Fishburne and the Institute for Practitioners of Advertising (IPA), the oldest professional organization in our industry. They've assembled a Compendium of brilliantly drawn cartoons that reflect their global survey on creative briefs, published in 2021, and is available to you at betterbriefs.com. Henry Gomez and I selected one of Tom's fun cartoons to discuss on today's episode. The topic is vital and too often overlooked: reviewing creative work. It's also a great tease to encourage all of you to download the new Compendium assembled by Matt and PP.

142: Reviewing a creative brief for Iceland Frozen Markets by hhcl/red cell, London

Today, Henry Gomez and I examine a creative brief for a popular frozen foods grocery story in the UK, Iceland. We love briefs for everyday products and services because these are the "widgets" advertising professionals cut their teeth on, creatively and strategically. That they are "everyday" things makes them real and necessary, but also challenges brief writers to find a clever and strategically sound pathway to a good creative solution. This brief, written by strategists at London's hhcl/red cell, does exactly that, briefly, succinctly, and, well, cleverly. Watch and find out for yourself.

141: A conversation with Tyrese Leverty, brand planner at Carmichael Lynch.

Henry Gomez and I have added a new series to The Brief Bros.: Conversations with recent college grad about their new careers. Today, we are proud to present Tyrese Leverty, a recent grad from the University of Minnesota's Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communications. He was recommended to us by our old friend Mark Jenson, a venerable instructor at Hubbard. Tyrese is a brand planner and he shares his experiences in his evolving role at Carmichael Lynch.

140: The iconic Uncle Sam.

Did you know that the famous poster of Uncle Sam pointing his finger and declaring, "I want you..." is more than 100 years old? Henry Gomez and I stumbled across this iconic image as we searched for old ads to discuss, and we decided it warranted an episode of its own. We have good reasons, too. Tune in and find out.

139: We reverse-engineer an ad from Band-Aid and write a creative brief.

Henry Gomez and I look closely at a clever ad from Johnson & Johnson's Band-Aid brand of band aids and together we discuss what we see and voila! We write a brief. And we post the brief within the episode for your viewing enjoyment (not available in stores). Henry and I urge all ad folk to practice this bit of thought exercise everyday to keep your brief-writing skills sharp.

138: Our best look at a Best Buy brief from CPB.

Another shout-out to Baiba Matisone whose Creative Brief Bank provided the impetus for today's episode of #thebriefbros. It's a Crispen Porter Bogusky brief for Best Buy. Henry Gomez and I have always admired the agency's work, but do we love this brief? Watch and find out!

137: Gameboy brief

Henry Gomez and I do a deep-dive into a creative brief written by someone affiliated with the One Show. It's for a competition among "Young Gun" creative teams with a prize attached, a free Gameboy. Henry and I examine this brief and share with you our thoughts. It's another in a series we love to do where we look closely at a real brief. Thanks again to our friend Baiba Matisone, who posted this brief on her Creative Brief Bank.

136: Reviewing a creative brief by FCB for Dodge.

First, special thanks to Baiba Matisone, who appeared on The Brief Bros., for posting this creative brief on her Creative Brief Bank. Henry Gomez and I did a top to bottom examination of this brief and shared our thoughts in this episode. We agreed...mostly. But even where we disagreed, we aligned on one thing: It's a great example of a single-page, well-written and inspiring document. Watch and learn!

135: Do creative briefs need to include deliverables?

Henry Gomez and I debate a seemingly mundane question: should a creative brief include deliverables or is that the creatives' job to recommend? Some of the finest briefs do not even ask the question. Others ask simply for the "Big Idea" while still others require every tactic. Where do you stand?

134: The Brief Bros discuss the famous Kiwi creative brief

Last week, we heard from Sarah Walker-Hall and her take on the brief she wrote for Kiwi shoe polish. This week, Henry Gomez and I discuss and dissect the brief ourselves. I weighed in with my high praise when Sarah and I spoke, and today I continue my rave but this time with a chance to hear Henry share his thoughts as well. We love this brief and you have much to learn from it.

133: A conversation with Sarah Walker-Hall, Part 2: Examining the Kiwi creative brief

Last week, we met Sarah Walker-Hall, brand strategy group head at TRG in Dallas. She is a veteran strategist whose skills and dexterity as a thinker can teach all brief writers how to write better briefs. Today, she and I dive deep into her award-winning brief for Kiwi shoe polish, the resulting campaign for which also won awards. Sarah will pull back the curtain and share with us how she wrote this brief, what she did to make it unique, and together, we talk about what makes this brief, all 127 words, such an extraordinary teaching tool. Henry and I will be back next week.

132: A conversation with Sarah Walker-Hall, author of the famous Kiwi creative brief

You could say I waited 20 years to meet and talk to Sarah Walker-Hall. She authored a creative brief I have read, admired, written about and taught from almost since I began my latest career as a brief-writing instructor. In the first of a two-part series, we meet this remarkable woman who began her career in branding and found her way to strategy and planning. She has worked three times for TRG, formerly The Richards Group, in Dallas. Next time, Sarah and I will share with you the brief I love to rave about for Kiwi shoe polish, dissect its magic and show you an example of the award-winning work it inspired. If you ever doubted that a brilliant brief existed, believe. (Henry apologizes for being on the road.)

131: A conversation with Jess Saunders and Roh Kerr, recent SCA/London grads

We've had wonderful conversation with Marc Lewis, dean of London's famed School of Communication Arts. Today, Henry Gomez and I talk to two of his recent graduates: Jess Saunders and Roh Kerr, about their experiences at SCA, how they teamed up as writer/AD partners. And then Henry and I put them through a test: we reviewed a famous TV spot from the 1970s for Samsonite luggage, the one with the gorilla, and together we did a reverse engineering exercise to figure out the creative brief. We put them through their paces and they came out swimmingly! Watch and enjoy.

69. Writing a creative brief, Part 3.

The final episode of our Hulu summer re-broadcast:
Drum roll, please! Today we reveal our finished (draft) creative brief. Henry Gomez and Howard Ibach wrap up our exercise of writing a creative brief for Hulu. We’ll take you through every question on the brief and show you how Henry applied his thought-process to arrive at his final (draft) brief. We emphasize that it’s still a first draft because this is an exercise. We hope you have had as much fun watching our efforts unfold as we did brining our thinking to you. Happy brief writing!