Where Does Amazing Work Come From?

Every brand wants amazing work. Every agency wants to create amazing work for the brands that they represent.

It doesn’t just happen. The cash register doesn’t start ringing on its own. Having consumers talk about a brand is rarely something that starts as organically as it seems. People often ask me about where great ideas come from. There needs to be a root. A foundation. A beginning point. An agreement between the brand and the agency about where they must wind up. We live in a results-oriented world now. It’s a place where every piece of creative can (and should) be tested and analyzed. We also live in a real-time environment, where even TV commercials can be posted on YouTube to see how they perform. Measurable, real-time and there’s lots of it. Advertising takes on many different forms now. Much more than the traditional, TV, radio, print and out-of-home model. Native advertising, search engine marketing, sponsored tweets and more. The stakes have never been higher.

Everything starts with a great brief.

What looks like a simple document is – in reality – an agreement of how audacious and serious a brand is about making the right impression. You won’t find a marketing professional who doesn’t take the brief for what it is: page one of a much bigger story. So, how do the most creative people in the world think and use the brief? It turns out that Bassett & Partners (a brand and strategy design firm) wanted to know the answer, so they created an incredible mini-documentary titled, Briefly. If you are curious about how to write a better brief or how to deal with the briefing process (and who isn’t it), please watch this… and share it with your team… and the brands that you represent.

Here it is: Briefly…

Briefly from Bassett & Partners on Vimeo.

(hat-tip to Min at Twist Image for the find).