Kevin McTigue - The Creative Brief Blueprint: Crafting Strategy That Generates More Effective Advertising

Copyright 2021 Kevin McTigue & Derek D. Rucker

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book r eview.

ISBN (Print): 978-1-09838 -075-5
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-09838 -076-2

Contents

About the Authors

Kevin McTigue is a clinical associate professor of marketing at Northwestern Universitys Kellogg School of Management teaching multiple classes for the MBA program and executive education, where he is a two-time winner of the Core Course Teaching Award. His career spans more than twenty years in teaching, consulting, brand management, and advertising. He has written or evaluated hundreds of creative briefs for everything from social media for a childrens hospital to Super Bowl ads for consumer-packaged g oods.

Before his full-time appointment at Kellogg, Kevin led the strategy and consulting practice in the central region of the US for global digital agency SapientRazorfish. His work focused on driving value for clients in the digital age. He advised senior Fortune 500 clients on how to best leverage digital platforms to create value, from marketing strategies to digital transformation road maps to the creation of entirely new busine sses.

Prior to SapientRazorfish, he spent seven years in brand management with Tyson/Hillshire Brands/Sara Lee leading businesses including Jimmy Dean, Ball Park, and Hillshire Farm. Over this time he developed and launched multiple products, repositioned and developed new campaigns, and led all activities related to planning and running the business. Kevin spent significant time working in digital and traditional advertising at agencies such as marchFIRST, JWT, and BBDO. He also led brand strategy and campaign development for clients including Nestl, Unilever, and Mars/Wri gley.

Dr. Derek Rucker holds the Sandy & Morton Goldman Professorship of Entrepreneurial Studies in Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management. Trained as a social psychologist, his academic research interests and pursuits focus broadly on consumer behavior with an emphasis on advertising, persuasion, social hierarchy, and compensatory consumption. He explores questions related to what makes for effective advertising and what motives underlie consumer consumption. He has contributed to more than 130 academic publications including leading journals such as the Journal of Consumer Research , the Journal of Marketing Research , the Journal of Marketing , and the Journal of Consumer Psychology . His research has been covered in major media outlets such as the New York Times , Time magazine, and ABC News.

Dr. Rucker currently teaches advertising strategy at Kellogg. The course focuses on basic psychological principles to better understand how to plan and execute successful advertising. A central aspect of his course is the writing, evaluation, and revision of creative briefs. His students have gone on to do impressive brief work for brands such as Mattel, Old Spice, Unilever, and Tyson. In recognition of his commitment to teaching excellence Dr. Rucker has won both the Sidney Levy Teaching Award and the Top Elective Professor Award. In addition to his work in the classroom, Dr. Rucker is a co-instructor of the annual Kellogg Super Bowl Advertising Re view.

Acknowledgments

Many of the ideas explored in this book are the result of our experiences with wonderful minds throughout our careers. These include our colleagues at Kellogg and our friends at brands and agencies, as well as our students. In particular, we would like to acknowledge several people who graciously gave their time in creating this book whether it be bouncing off ideas or looking at early drafts: Tim Calkins, Molly Hayes, Ian Sohn, and Mike Str atta.

We also add particular thanks to Mauricio OConnell, Kellogg class of 08, who read the entire book from front to back. Moreover, he offered precise comments that challenged us to push our ideas a little further along each step of the jo urney.

We also thank Adisa Fazlovic for her help in providing the perfect amount of whimsy in the illustrations throughout the book.

Finally, we would like to thank our familieswithout their love and support none of these ideas would have ever moved beyond a bluep rint.

Why

Y oure building your dream house. It is a house you want to live in, a house you want to entertain in, a house you want to share with your friends and family. How would you build this house? Would you hire qualified builders and say, Please build me a house. See you when its finished, or Do whatever you want to do; I dont care? Noif youre at all like us, youd make plans first. Youd make sure everyone understands the blueprint. Before you meet with a builder, youd meet with an architect. She would ask you what you want. How many bedrooms? Are you really into cooking? Do you want a home theatre setup for your family? Do you plan to entertain for large parties or more intimate occasions? What is your budget? The architect would work to understand your goals and translate them into a clear blueprint for the builder. You would put all this work into the blueprints because, with proper thought and careful diligence, the blueprints would allow your dream home to be built to serve your specific needs within your budget. And if you are walking through the house during construction and see something amiss, you would go back to the blueprint as a basis for your discussion with the bu ilder.

We have written this book with a similar idea in mind. Too often in practice, we see brands hand poor strategies to their agency or creative partner. Sometimes its as bad as Please make me an ad. Let me know when its finished. Much like we would want a blueprint to build a house, we need a plan to develop successful executions. Throughout this book, we use the term execution to refer to any number of potential creative outputs such as advertisements, communications, logos, social content, and other forms of messaging. If you are creating an execution that is intended to have value and impact, then you need to start with a stra tegy.

For us, the blueprint for an execution manifests in the form of a creative brief . Like a blueprint, the creative brief is a means to offer guidance, direction, and even inspiration to advertise your product, service, or business. If you see something amiss in the creative work, you have a reference point, like a blueprint, to discuss your vision and plan with your creative partner or agency. But lets back up for a moment. What exactly is a creative b rief?

A creative brief is a document developed by the clientthe person for whom the advertising or communication servesthat outlines the objectives, intended target, insights about the target, the main message, important details about media or production, and expected measurement of the executions success. The creative brief is shared with an agency or creative partnerthe person or persons responsible for bringing to life the tactical execution. In some cases, the creative brief might be a cocreated document. In other cases, especially for smaller firms and entrepreneurs, the client might be the sole party responsible for the creative brief. However, regardless of the size of the team behind the creative brief, a creative brief is the strategic nucleus of a campaign. It is the blueprint that guides the building of your advertising campaign. This observation is true whether you are interested in a video advertisement, a series of social media posts, an email, a logo, or even creating an experience. A proper creative brief provides all the necessary information to guide the team to produce the desired outcome so that you get the output you want.