Our Creative Brief

Those of you who have worked with us know how much effort goes into our creative briefing documents. So I thought I’d share our own brand brief here, and invite your comments. It’s a work in progress, as are we all. I love the questions of the creative brief because they seem to me to be the big questions of life. “Why are we advertising? (i.e. Why are we here?) Who are we talking to? What do we know about them that will help? What’s the main thought...” The creative brief is where the rubber meets the road. It’s the end product of everything that comes before and the platform for all that comes after. It so simple, yet potentially so powerful. You don’t ordinarily share a creative brief with the world. But we asked ourselves another of those big questions, “Why not?” And, this time, we couldn’t come with anything that outweighed the value we expect to received.

So, here it is...
Creative Brief
Date: 2/7/07 8:50 PM
Project: DiMassimoGoldstein Brand Campaign, beginning with Credentials.
Brand Mgrs: Mark DiMassimo
Creative Team: TBD

Why are we advertising?
Simple answer: We want clients to choose us.
Big picture answer: We need to stand out from the hundreds of other brand consultancies, design firms and advertising agencies and attract clients to us by demonstrating that we can do for ourselves what they hope we will do for them.
Who are we talking to?
In a word, Clients. Prospects. Consultants. Hires. The press. Our mothers.
What do we know about them that can help?
They are afraid of failure. This fear is realistic. The average tenure of a CMO is 18 months and has been declining for years. They would be smart to go into operations or general management, and many have tried…but what can they do? They’re built to be marketing people. In their own minds, they’re too creative for regular business jobs, but not creative enough join a creative department. They’re extremely social and get a lot of gratification from being part of something. They want to be part of the creative process, they want to inspire it and they want to be inspired by it. That’s fun and feels like being alive. They want to get it right. They know how precarious this can be. They are under unrealistic pressure to show results fast. Everyone seems to have an opinion about what they do. And everyone’s spouse does too. Often the people they work for don’t really understand what they do. People who don’t know what reasonable expectations are. The best of them are translators, from the language of humanity and emotions to the metrics of business and back again. Most look for an agency that can do the same. Chances are, they’ve been burned by a combative relationship with an agency in the past. Their most common complaint: my agency isn’t PROACTIVE in bringing me them ideas and solutions. They’ve been disappointed. They’ve come up empty handed. So, they dot their I’s and cross their T’s. But they can’t help being dreamers.
They admire the Richard Bransons, Ian Schragers, Steven Jobs, Martha Stewarts, Anita Roddicks and Phillipe Starcks; the creative mavericks that make good art good business and make it look so fun. Sometimes when they’re with their agency, brainstorming, noodling creative work or out at a shoot, that’s exactly what they feel.
Turn offs: failure, invisibility, embarrassments. Turn ons: confidence, competence.
What’s the main thought we want them to know and to repeat?
EMERGE!
Most brands fail. Others stagnate. A few emerge as leaders. Emerge!
What are some ways in?
BRAVE MARKETERS – these are the marketers who emerge victorious.
BRAVE has a particular meaning to us. It means they are able to
“Be Real And Visionary Everywhere.” Every time. This makes every single dollar work harder, by making every necessity build both brand and business at once.
Starter creative ideas:
In our conference room, we have mugs. When hot stuff is poured into them a message in heat sensitive ink appears on the lip. It says, “Emerge!” We use a similar technique on our business cards – when held our message appears.
There’s no logo outside our front door, or at least it looks that way from the turn in the hall. Only when you get close to the door does the logo and message emerge, etched in the metal façade.
Our decks use gels to let important information emerge. Our website uses card tricks and levitations. Our mailings use pop-ups and other techniques to represent our promise of brand emergence.
What are some support points?
We’ve worked with more than our fair share of BRAVE MARKETERS. Doug Levine of Crunch. Steven Jobs of Apple. Howard Schultz of Starbucks. Ted Waitt of Gateway. JetBlue. GoSMILE. McKinsey. Island. Citibank. Snapple.
The list is long. We’ve been in a rare position to study this sort of client and we’ve learned a few things…
The striking thing about heroically successful visionary entrepreneurs – the Steve Jobs, Howard Schultzs, Richard Bransons, Ted Waitts, Doug Levines, Martha Stewarts and David Neehlemans of the world – is their ability to combine utter realism with full-strength vision in everything they do. They’re able to “Be Real And Visionary Everywhere.” Every time
Realism and bold vision aren’t’ opposites. Brave marketers see the bigger picture.
BRAVE MARKETERS create an environment in which realism and vision can creatively coexist. Howard Shultz has said, “I spend next to nothing on advertising. I spend my money on training.” Steven Jobs builds innovation teams with their own fierce identities.

When truly invested, nearly everyone wants their organization to emerge as extraordinary, successful, worthy and winning,
Yet, most brands, companies, people, policies and ideas don’t emerge. Instead, they disappear into the clutter. A rare few make it to the next level, then stagnate or decline. Most literally disappear. But some brands consistently outperform. They emerge, from start-up to challenger to thought-leader to icon.
What’s the tone?
Inspiring. Intelligent. Sophisticated. Visionary. Realistic.
What is mandatory?
What’s the shortest path to making a difference with this campaign?
1) The credentials and agency identity elements.
2) The Website
3) The Space
4) The Emergence campaign