When we ask you for the brief

Before the making of TV ad

“Brief” is a very common word used in advertising industry; especially in the creative department. Do we have the brief? What is the brief? Who has given the brief? Do we have the appropriate brief from the client? Has the client given complete information about the product/brand? Did the client elaborate the objectives of the ad campaign?
As a production house, sometimes clients contact us directly without any creative agency. In such cases, we always require extensive brief, before going for the making of story board prior to execution, either it’s a video film (TVC) or an animated commercial.
Generally, clients have some idea or inspiration in their minds before their first meeting with the production house .Most of them has certain liking and appreciation about one or more films, usually those are of their competitors’ .Innovation and out of the box thinking is considered as very interesting but this usually labeled as something risky.

Some very important questions, we ask from the advertisers are as follows:

• Why do you want to make a TV commercial , In certain cases the product is sold without advertising ,so client doesn’t feel the importance of making a TV commercial or an instant competition ,starts getting its market share and it becomes a threat for the existing player/players
• Who is the target audience and where do they live , specifically the demographics and psychographics
• The existing competition is the market and the most common SWOT analysis of the product
• What are the short term and long term objectives of the creative campaign
• Previous commercials ,if any
• USP, unique selling point ,if any
• Any market research conducted by the client in past about the product and its consumers from creative perspective
• If client is observing corporate social responsibility (CSR)
• If the message is being communicated to children and children are the primary consumer, did the client take all necessary measures?

In many cases , it is being observed that the objective is mostly the incremental sales ,which is naturally an immediate desire of the advertisers .If such questions are answered carefully and precisely , the thought process to generate a good creative idea becomes more analytical and scientific .Understanding about the product and brand is something inevitable for the creative manager , it’s not about the product but also about the market that every creative manager tries to understand ,before diving into the ocean of advertising creativity .Some creative ideas are instant and are delivered as per wishes and inspiration of the clients .Those ideas are considered as premature birth of a creative piece. The major objective of this article is to highlight the importance of the brief before the development of the idea .This brain storming session before the making of the concept, gives in-depth insights to the idea developers. More we elaborate and analyze the brief , more it’s easy to create a outstanding TV commercial .