B2Bridge

“A briefing document? Oh well, we don’t have time for that anymore. Deadline is approaching, you know. You got all the background information you need for a first draft. You can start right away.”

Recognize this answer of the communication manager when the agency was asking for a proper briefing? Time pressure is often the main reason for hasty and unsatisfactory briefings. A false economy, as you can bet your boots that it will lead to re-working over and over again. The more time and effort that is put in at the start, the greater the time savings throughout the process. That’s better for the client and for the agency.

A few years ago one of my biggest clients ordered a new company brochure. The communication manager hadn’t had the time for preparing a briefing. Instead, he invited me to interview the management during their weekly Executive Committee. “They know best what message they want to communicate”, he ensured me. After three hours of debate, we all had to conclude there was no consensus on the company’s strategy. Difficult to write a company brochure then, isn’t it? Too often, clients use the creation process to shape their strategy. It shouldn’t surprise you that we needed fourteen proposals of that brochure text before my client was satisfied. A costly wasting of man-hours – on both sides.

Since then, I have three recommendations to communication managers:

1. Always provide your agency with a written briefing, it forces you to be clear on the objectives;
2. Clearly define the result you expect, it increases the chance that your agency will hit the bull’s-eye with its first proposal;
3. Make sure every approver within the company agrees on every single detail on the briefing document.