Throughout my career, I’ve had many opportunities to work with designers and creative teams to develop campaigns and promotions from sales incentives to national advertising. Every project was a valued experience.
Developing that next inspiring idea takes a creative mind with unique skills. But, getting there doesn’t happen in isolation. There are steps to take and information to share before you get started. Take a look.
Fill your briefs!
Understanding the business you’re in is a first step for any designer or writer. A creative brief captures relevant information that gives your team what they need.
Business background
Your brief can include a variety of information from background on your business — the industry, size or market you’re in, for example — to the personality of your brand.
Target audience
Tuck in information on the audience you’re targeting. Characteristics vary by age group, so capture the habits and behaviours for your audience and their expectations.
Project goal
What’s the problem to be solved? It’s important to clearly articulate the goals of the project. What outcome do you want to see from the campaign? Should it attract interest from a new audience? Maybe you want to increase sales with a strong call to action or simply leave audiences comfortable that your business cares about the community they live in?
Capture your goals and don’t forget to include how you plan to measure success in your brief.
Scope of work
How big or small is your project? Use your brief to outline the work to be done. Are you expecting a logo, designed tagline or a full-blown campaign with multiple elements?
Include how you plan to communicate your promotion and the budget the creative team has to work with.
I recently worked with a designer to complete a logo. The business was small and so was the budget! However, all the basic information existed: Business background, its goals, where the logo would be used (print, web, social), the brand personality, and most of all, the business’s expectations for the tone and feel of the finished project.
Empower your team
The creative process is intriguing. I’ve often wished I had even a little bit of the creative minds around me.
The real success, however, comes when you give your team the freedom to leverage their creativity. Let them use their expertise to think outside the box to uncover ideas you may not have thought about.
I believe that when you feed the creative mind, the true creativity begins! So, go feed ‘em!
Writing for you. 