How do I brief an agency?

Tell us about your business

Give us as much insight into your business as you can: what is it that you actually do and why do you do it? Where have you come from, and where do you see yourself in the future? Always be as descriptive as possible but if you can, try to keep it concise. Essentially, we’d love your best elevator pitch (the film Alien was pitched as ‘like Jaws, but in Space’), but if you find it impossible to do so all is not lost – this just means you could probably do with some help on your brand strategy.

We also want to hear what you consider could be your brand values, so give us some keywords that help to describe your business. Try and make these as bespoke to your business as possible – yes being ‘Inclusive’ and ‘Trustworthy’ is of course important, but what business doesn’t want to be these types of things?

Your brand personality is also important, as it gives us a broader idea when it comes to how your company operates and what your general ethos is. Describe your brand personality like you’re describing a person; ‘approachable’, ‘competitive’ or ‘fashionable’, for example.

Who is your key target market?

Knowing your key audience is vital for creative projects. From rebranding to communicating more effectively and developing campaigns, if you don’t know or focus on who you’re wanting to target then you won’t see the results. Getting into the mindset of your audience will help everyone involved gain a deeper understanding of their motivations, their expectations and also how best to reach them.

At Nalla, we strongly believe that getting under the hood of who your customer is key to creating strong, relevant creative that truly connects. This isn’t always easy, but luckily for you we’ve created an Audience Persona Guide that will help you to define your most valuable customer in a couple of simple steps. Download it here for free.

Tell us about the service or product you’re offering

What’s the full list of services you offer, or are planning to offer, to your customers? Offerings can be tangible products such as merchandise, or digital products, like a subscription service. Listing future ambitions, even if they’re pipeline dreams, also really helps creative agencies to ensure our solutions are future-proof for you and your business long-term.

What is your mission statement?

A lot of companies know what it is they do. A lot fewer know why they do it and if you don’t know why you do what you do, why should your customers care? Here’s an example: all employees (and we mean all of them) at NASA believe they are there for the same reason – to help send people into space. Why your business exists should be obvious and clear and simple, so that everyone from your audience to your employees can get behind it.

Your whole mission statement should be a few sentences long. Think about your what, how and why, starting with the latter:

• Why do you do what you do?
• How do you do it?
• What do you do, and how are you different from your competitors?

What type of project do you have in mind?

It’s common for businesses to come to us and have a specific outcome in mind, but providing an agency with challenges you’re having and what could be stopping or getting in the way of a successful outcome is equally, if not more, important.

Our clients, Delta, came to us needing help with a new marketing campaign. We knew that any campaign we worked on would fall flat due to the brand being dated. Instead of working on something that we knew wouldn’t produce results, we flipped the outcome and provided Delta with a refreshed brand, website and flexible templates so they could produce engaging marketing assets in-house.

So while it’s helpful to have an idea of what you want, always try to be open-minded. A great agency will work to identify the real issue at the core.

Give us some context

Put simply, creatives are nosey. We want context not only of your business, but of everything else as well. Who are your main competitors? Is there anything you think they’re doing particularly well? How are they similar or dissimilar to your company? What brands or campaigns inspire you?

Our client Kaleido, who launched a revolutionary diabetes pump, said they wanted to be the ‘Apple of the pharmaceuticals industry’. Immediately we understood what aesthetic and tone they wanted to go for when it came to their brand. So proffer anything that you think will help agencies understand what you want to achieve.

What’s your ideal budget?

It’s always helpful to have, at the very least, a rough idea of what you want to spend on a project’ However, try to think of your budget as an investment as opposed to an outgoing cost.

If you’re transparent about your budget, agencies will more often than not be able to tailor their approach to make sure that what money you do have is spent in the best possible way. It’ll also help manage expectations of what can be done.

What does success look like to you and your business?

Firstly, have a think about what the main objectives of the project are. Why are you doing it? Who are you doing it for? And what outcomes are you ideally after?

What success looks like will differ greatly from one project to the next. Increased sales might be your primary goal. Perhaps employee productivity is of real importance. You might want to receive positive responses from peers. Projects can of course have multiple ‘successes’, but it’s important to consider what’s realistic based on who your main audience is.

Considering what success looks like from the get-go will ultimately form the creative output. It could be that your agency will suggest solutions and a completely different output to what you proposed that will better hit these successes for you (we’ve done it multiple times before at Nalla), so again, be open-minded.

A thorough brief is never overkill! The more aligned with your agency, the better your results will be. And just like any relationship, whether it be personal or business, communication is key.

Nalla’s Business to People approach allows brands to connect on an emotional level and drives engagement across all channels. If your business needs agency support, simply drop us an email and have a chat with us.