Define the change you want to support
Explain what the campaign is trying to achieve. Is the task to introduce a product, encourage trial, communicate a promotion or make the brand relevant to an occasion? Choose a clear primary objective and describe why it matters now.
Include the starting position where you know it. A sales target without a baseline, market or time period gives the team less to work with than a precise explanation of the current challenge.
Describe the shopper and the occasion
Tell the agency who the campaign needs to reach, what they are shopping for and what could make them hesitate. Include relevant research, previous campaign learning and anything your sales or retail teams hear regularly.
Separate evidence from assumptions. If you think a particular message will matter but have not tested it, say so. That makes it a useful question to explore rather than a fact the creative must follow.
Set out the retail context
List the confirmed retailers, channels and placements. Share dimensions, artwork specifications, retailer guidance and booking deadlines. Identify anything still awaiting approval.
A campaign may need a short shelf message, a larger display and supporting digital content. Naming those jobs early helps the agency plan how the idea will adapt.
Name the deliverables and their owners
Describe what you expect to receive and who will use it. Include the number of concepts, key visuals, artwork versions, languages, motion formats and toolkit requirements where known.
For physical activity, make production, distribution and installation responsibilities explicit. An agency creating artwork and a supplier manufacturing a display need a clear handover between them.
Share the budget and the fixed dates
Give a working budget or a realistic range. State whether it covers creative only or also production, media, prizes, logistics and other costs. If part of the budget is fixed elsewhere, identify it.
Work back from the in-market date and include retailer submission deadlines, print commitments and internal review time. Name the person who can approve each stage and flag any dates when that person is unavailable.
Agree how the campaign will be reviewed
Decide what information will be available and who can provide it. Sales, participation, asset delivery and retailer feedback answer different questions. Choose measures that relate to the objective and describe their limits.
If sales change during the campaign, other factors such as distribution, availability, price and media may have contributed. Keep those factors in the review rather than assigning the entire change to one creative execution.
Use this briefing checklist
- Brand, product, market and campaign owner.
- Commercial objective and the starting position.
- Target shopper, shopping occasion and relevant evidence.
- Campaign proposition or the question the agency should solve.
- Retailers, channels, placements and specifications.
- Required deliverables and existing usable assets.
- Budget range and what it includes.
- Launch date, approval deadlines and decision-makers.
- Production, logistics and installation responsibilities.
- Measurement, data owners and permission to publish results.
A practical example
The BFree brief asked Juice to support the launch of Avocado and High Protein wraps while building awareness of the existing range. That gave the work a product focus and a wider brand task. The creative response focused on what went into the products and developed across in-store, out-of-home, online and trade materials.
A useful brief does not need to prescribe every execution. It should make the objective and operating conditions clear enough for the agency to recommend an approach.
If you do not have all the answers
Send what you have and identify the open questions. An early conversation can help distinguish the decisions you need to make now from the details that can be developed during the project.
Share the objective, available information and target date. We can discuss the next steps.
Talk to Juice