A creative brief is a short document that tells a creative team the problem, the audience, the single most important message and what success looks like. Read the worked example later in this topic before you start: it shows Maya Collins's brief for Larkfield.

A brief is a question, not a set of instructions. The clearer the question, the better the answers. If you tell a designer exactly what to make, you get what you imagined, at best. If you tell them the problem, they may solve it in a way you hadn't thought of.

The parts of a brief.

1. The problem: what's wrong or missing, in one or two sentences. Use your strategic audit from Module 6.
2. The objective: the number that should move, with its baseline, target and date. This comes from your communications plan in Module 7.
3. The audience: one target, described as a person. Use your segment and persona from Module 3, and say where they are on their path to purchase.
4. The single-minded proposition: the one thing the communication must leave the audience believing or feeling. It grows from your proposition in Module 4, but it is a single message told in a way people remember, not a list of benefits.
5. Mandatories: what must or mustn't appear. Legal wording, a logo, a claim you can't make. Your fix list from Module 5 belongs here.
6. Budget: what the fee or production line is, and what it has to cover.
7. Timing: dates for concepts, final work and launch.
8. Success: how you'll know the work did its job, and who will judge it.

Keep it to one page. The longer a brief, the less of it gets read.

Test the single-minded proposition. Could someone repeat it after one viewing? Does it contain only one idea? Is it true, and can you prove it? If you need "and" twice, you have more than one message.

UK example: the IPA's briefing guidance. The IPA (the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) publishes Briefing an Agency best practice guide, listed on its website with a date of 21 February 2013. It covers the principles of a good brief, why a written brief matters but is not enough on its own, the role of the briefing meeting, and written briefing forms. A newer IPA guide, The best way for a client to brief an agency, was written by BetterBriefs and Mark Ritson in partnership with the IPA, and launched at the IPA Business Growth Conference on 6 July 2022. The lesson from both is the same: a brief is a conversation as well as a document. Check the IPA's website for current versions.

The work comes back. Now you have to say what you think, and that is harder than it sounds, because everyone has taste and taste is not a measure.

Judge against the brief. Put the brief next to the work and ask four questions:

• Does it answer the problem?
• Will the target audience understand it, not just you?
• Does it say the single-minded proposition, clearly and once?
• Does it meet the mandatories, including anything legal?

"I don't like it" isn't feedback. "It's too cold for an audience who are meant to feel looked after" is, because it points to a reason in the brief that the creative team can act on.

Feedback that works. Make it specific, kind and actionable. Say what works first, because the team needs to know what to keep. Then name the gap against the brief. Then, if you can, say what would close it, without drawing the solution yourself. "The headline reads as two ideas; the brief asks for one" lets the team find the fix. "Change the headline to this" takes the problem back from them.

One voice. If five people give feedback separately, the team gets five contradictory messages. Agree who collects comments, settles disagreements and sends one set. That is usually the person who manages the work day to day. The person who signs off decides, but they hear from the team through one channel.

When to say no. Sometimes the work doesn't answer the brief, and the right response is to say so clearly. Do it early, against the brief, not at the last round. If you're changing your mind about what you want, that is a new brief, and it may cost money. Say so honestly.

Rounds of amends cost something. Contracts usually limit them (more in Lesson 10.3). Collect all your feedback into one round, not a drip of small changes, so you don't use up rounds on things you could have said together.

You can't make everything yourself. Who you choose, and how you run the relationship, decides whether your brief becomes good work.

Choosing. Look at four things:

• Fit: have they solved a problem like yours, for a customer like yours?
• Chemistry: can you disagree honestly with these people? You'll need to.
• Capacity: who will actually do the work?
• Cost: what does the fee include, and what doesn't it?

To pitch or not. A formal pitch has agencies compete with sample ideas, which costs them and you a lot of time. For a small project, a chat and a look at past work is often enough. If you ask for ideas, say whether they are paid for.

Scope of work. The scope of work is what an agency or freelancer is contracted to deliver, by when and for what fee. A statement of work is the document that records it. Write down:

• Deliverables: each item, with its format. "Social assets" is vague; "12 social assets" is a scope.
• Fee: fixed or by the hour, and what it covers.
• Amends: how many rounds are included, and what happens after.
• Timeline: dates for each stage, including your own feedback.
• Owner: one named person each side.

Amends are changes requested after creative work is presented. Contracts usually include a set number of rounds. After that, changes cost extra. Clear feedback against the brief makes the included rounds enough.

Intellectual property and usage. Under UK copyright law the creator is generally the first owner, unless they made it as an employee in the course of their job. Paying doesn't make you the owner unless they assign it to you in writing. Agree in writing who owns the finished work, and where and for how long you may use it, including any music or stock images in it. This is general information, not legal advice; for a big contract, ask a solicitor.

Running the relationship.

• One owner on your side, the single voice from Lesson 10.2.
• Short, regular check-ins, not one long meeting at the end.
• Honest reviews in both directions.
• Pay on time, and say when you're delayed.

Leadership: setting direction for people you don't manage. You can't tell an agency what to do as you would a colleague. You can give a clear brief, a fair scope, quick decisions and honest feedback.

Retrieval. In Module 7 you split a budget into working spend (buying media) and non-working spend (making and managing the work). An agency fee is non-working spend. That isn't wasteful: strong work makes the working money go further. The test is whether the fee buys what the objective needs.

AI tools now draft copy, vary images and suggest ideas in seconds. You met the wider rules in Module 5; this lesson applies them to creative work.

Where AI helps.

• Ideas: a wide spread of starting points to react to.
• Variations: the same message in different lengths, tones or formats.
• Drafts: a first version to improve, not a finished piece.
• Critique: a second reader for your brief.

The limits.

• Accuracy: AI can state false things confidently, so every claim needs a human check against your evidence.
• Sameness: tools trained on existing work tend to produce what's common. Your audience may have seen it.
• Rights: who owns AI output, and whether the training behind it respected others' work, is unsettled (see below).
• Likeness: don't generate images or voices of real people without their agreement. An AI depiction of a real person can suggest an endorsement they never gave.
• Confidentiality: don't paste personal data or confidential material into a public tool.

Copyright and AI in the UK. Section 9(3) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 says the author of a computer-generated work is the person who made the arrangements for its creation. How that applies to AI output is unclear. The government consulted on copyright and AI from December 2024 to February 2025. In its Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence (18 March 2026) it proposed removing this protection for computer-generated works, while saying copyright should continue to protect works created with AI assistance. That is a proposal, not yet law, so check GOV.UK for where it stands before you rely on it. Don't assume you own a purely AI-generated image, and ask your agency whether and how they use AI.

Advertising rules still apply. The ASA and CAP, which regulate UK advertising, say the Codes have no AI-specific rules but apply however an ad is made. In a CAP News article of 29 May 2025, they note there is no general legal duty in the UK to disclose that AI was used. They suggest two questions: would the audience be misled without a disclosure, and if so, does the disclosure clarify the message or contradict it? A label won't fix a misleading claim. You are responsible for your ad whoever, or whatever, made it.

AI activity. Give an AI assistant your creative brief, with no personal or confidential data, and ask it to critique the brief and suggest three creative routes. Then judge the routes against your brief, using the four questions from Lesson 10.2. Note which suggestions you rejected and why. Keep the critique, the three routes and your notes in your portfolio: they show your judgement.

Milestone 2 closes the Practitioner stage. A campaign plan is one document setting out a campaign's objective, audience, message, channels, budget, timeline and how it will be measured. It pulls together your work from Module 7, Module 8, Module 9 and this one. Read the worked example later in this topic first: it shows Maya's plan for Larkfield.

The sections, each drawn from earlier work:

Make the sections agree. A plan fails most often at the joins. The objective in section one should be the objective in the brief. The money for production should match the fee in your scope. Every channel should have a KPI, and every KPI should lead back to the objective. Check each join before you call the plan finished.

Name the risks. What could go wrong, and what would you do? Late creative, a channel that underperforms, a claim that can't be supported. One line each is enough.

Leadership: bring people with you. The plan is only useful if the people who have to act on it understand it. Your manager, finance, the agency and your colleagues each need to see their part. Write the one-sentence version of the plan first and check that each of them could repeat it.

Looking ahead. The measures in this plan are what you'll judge the campaign by later in the course, so choose them with that in mind. Your baselines are the yardstick.