What is a creative brief?
A creative brief is a short document that tells the creative team what to make, who it’s for, what it needs to achieve and how it will be approved. It’s written before any concepts, so everyone judges the work against the same agreed goal instead of personal taste.
A good brief is short. One or two pages is normal. If it runs longer, the decisions probably haven’t been made yet, and the brief is passing that work on to the designers.
- Client brief: what the client sends the agency, often loose and incomplete.
- Creative brief: what the agency writes back, sharpened into one objective, one audience and one message, and agreed by the client.
- Statement of work: the commercial scope, deliverables and acceptance terms. The brief guides the creative; the statement of work defines what’s delivered.
The sections in this template
The download contains the full brief with placeholders, plus a short client brief form you can send before the briefing call.
| Section | What it covers |
|---|
| 1. Project overview | Client, project name, brief owner and date. |
| 2. Background | What’s prompted the project, in two or three sentences. |
| 3. Objective | The one measurable result the work should achieve. |
| 4. Audience | Who you’re talking to, what they think now and what should change. |
| 5. Single-minded message | The one thing the audience should take away. |
| 6. Supporting points | Reasons to believe the message: facts, proof and offers. |
| 7. Tone and brand | How it should feel, and the brand rules that apply. |
| 8. Deliverables | Each asset, with format, sizes and channels. |
| 9. Mandatories and constraints | Legal lines, logos, words to avoid and technical limits. |
| 10. Timeline | Key dates, including review windows for the client. |
| 11. Approvals | Who approves each stage, and how feedback is given. |
| 12. Measurement | How you’ll know it worked. |
Example: a gym membership campaign
Here’s how the key sections read for a typical campaign. Riverside Fitness is a fictional client used for illustration.
Objective: get 300 new members to book a first class during March.
Audience: adults within three miles of the gym who have tried a gym before and stopped going. They think gyms are for people who are already fit. We want them to feel a first class is a low-pressure place to start.
Single-minded message: you don’t need to be fit to start here.
Supporting points: beginner-only classes on weekday evenings; the first class is free; coaches adjust every exercise.
| # | Deliverable | Format | Due |
|---|
| 1 | Campaign concept | Two routes, presented as mood boards with headlines | 6 Feb |
| 2 | Social ads | Six static ads, 1:1 and 9:16 | 20 Feb |
| 3 | Poster | A2 print-ready PDF for the gym entrance | 20 Feb |
Approvals: the marketing manager approves the chosen concept and the final artwork, each within two working days. Feedback is sent as one consolidated set per round.
Five ways briefs go wrong
- Several objectives. “Raise awareness, drive sales and refresh the brand” gives the team three briefs. Pick the one result that matters most.
- An audience of everyone. “Adults aged 25–55” describes a population, not a person. Say what they believe now and what should change.
- A message that’s a list. If you can’t write it in one sentence, the creative can’t land it either.
- Missing mandatories. Logos, legal lines and banned words that appear at the artwork stage cost a full round of revisions.
- No named approver. When the brief doesn’t say who signs off, new opinions arrive late. Name the approver for each stage and agree the review window before work starts.
Get the brief agreed, then keep it
Send the brief back to the client and ask for written sign-off before concepts begin. Then judge every round of feedback against it: if a change doesn’t serve the agreed objective, audience or message, it’s a new request, not a revision.
If you need more context from a new client first, start with the client intake form. For the kickoff call itself, use the kickoff meeting agenda.
In the Angelwood client portal, clients approve work and record decisions, so the signed-off brief and each approval stay with the project instead of in an email thread.
Use it in Word, Google Docs or PDF
Microsoft Word
- Download the Word (.docx) file and open it. If Word opens it in Protected View, select Enable Editing.
- Use Find (Ctrl+F or Cmd+F) and search for “[” to jump between the placeholders you need to replace.
- Save a clean copy as a Word template (File → Save As → Word Template) so every new document starts from it.
Google Docs
- Upload the .docx file to Google Drive.
- Right-click it and choose Open with → Google Docs, then File → Save as Google Docs to keep an editable copy.
- Use File → Make a copy for each new client so your master stays clean.
PDF
Fill it in Word or Google Docs, then export it: File → Save As → PDF in Word, or File → Download → PDF document in Google Docs.