The Best Advertising Agency Creative Brief – I Think (Well, I Know)
I started my advertising agency career at New York’s Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, one of the original Mad Men agencies. Other than having an absurdly rich AOR client list (Toyota, P&G, General Mills, Nabisco, Wrangler, HP, and on) we were known for our ‘best’ advertising agency Creative Brief. This brief worked so well that it was adopted by the 4A’s as the gold standard.
That was then. Does this agency Creative Brief still work to guide brilliant advertising? I think so.
The Best Advertising Agency Creative Brief For A B2B Podcast
I applied the Creative Brief format to one way I think that an advertising agency or any B2B marketing org could build and run a standout podcast. By the way, think that it is easy to stand out in the world of podcasts? Check out these numbers from PodcastInsights.
Also, a common question is “how many podcasts are there?” and most of the data out there is outdated, but we have an accurate method for determining the number of shows – and it’s currently over 2,000,000.
There are also over 48 million episodes as of April 2021.
I wrote this Creative brief for one of my agency clients a few months ago. Therefore, it might seem a bit outdated, or better yet, prescient. Go ahead and use the idea. The idea will work for many industries.
I highlighted the core CB sections / questions in red.
A Sample Podcast Creative Brief
CREATIVE BRIEF: Giant Gorilla Agency Product/Service: The Marketing Journey Podcast
January _1_2021
Background
London’s Giant Gorilla agency specializes in hospitality industry marketing.
It has been successful in building a large client base across a range of industry subcategories. Giant Gorilla is known for its strategic approach, data expertise, high ROI programs, and for its business insights and social media channels.
It is time to move this energy into podcasting.
What is the objective of the project?
Create and produce a daily, unignorable podcast for the hospitality industry.
The Marketing School podcast from Neil Patel and Eric Siu, is an example of a daily listen. Each show averages 5 minutes and includes a commercial.
Who are we talking to?
Listenership will include food and beverages, lodging and recreation industry corporate marketers, business owners, and related press.
What do they currently think?
The hospitality industry took a major hit in 2020. We expect a slow but steady revival in 2021. Current trends point to growing domestic travel and then a resumption of international air travel by the third quarter of 2021.
The industry is ripe for the consumption of marketing information related to category growth.
What do we want them to think and what action do we want them to take?
We want the industry to view Giant Gorilla as the leading advertising and digital marketing voice and marketing communications agency in the hospitality industry. The essence of hospitality has changed, and Giant Gorilla is uniquely positioned to be a leading voice in industry marketing.
What is the message that will move this target audience to action?
Giant Gorilla’s The Marketing Journey hospitality podcast delivers business-building information, insights, and brief interviews – every day.
“Give us eight minutes every morning and we will help you accelerate your growth.”
Program Elements – The Show
The five-minute The Marketing Journey Show will be published every weekday at 8 AM EST.
Giant Gorilla’s COO Nancy Greene and Creative Director Jill Davis will host The Marketing Journey. Nancy will use her past broadcast experience to lead the discussions. Friendly, intelligent banter will rule.
From time to time, the show will bring in Giant Gorilla’s leading thinkers (like CTO Sandy Goddof on TikTok and travel), current clients and guests from the industry.
For production efficiency will gang record five shows every Tuesday afternoon unless there is late-breaking industry news.
The production team is TBD.
What are the support points?
Timely topics will include news about the business of hospitality: industry trends, Covid related issues, what’s hot in marketing, new business models, and a range of discussions on the constant evolution of hospitality marketing, with a concentration on digital marketing.
Great Guests = Traction & Unignorability.
We have already booked interviews with the CMO of InterContinental Hotels; Shake Shack owner Danny Meyer, a very successful Airbnb host, and the CTO of Hotels.com.
What is the brand’s character?
The Marketing Journey is super smart, knowledgeable, and curious – all with a touch of humor.
What is mandatory?
Each show will be broadcast on all of the major podcast platforms and will be supported by individual show landing pages.
Each show will promote Giant Gorilla’s hospitality industry expertise. See The Marketing Journey marketing plan for detailed information.
Oh, Oh… Does Your Agency Need An Action Plan To Get To Being UNIGNORABLE?
Give me a shout to get you there faster. Bottom line? I am like every other advertising agency business development consultant. OK, not. Name one that ran biz dev at Saatchi, owned his own agency, and started two Internet companies? I am more strategic, smarter, and more action-oriented. Also, funnier.
My advertising agency resource list is curated to help advertising, digital, design, and PR agencies easily find the inspiration and industry resources that will help y’all build killer agencies and careers.
