tool 10 of 12 · class 12 · design for brand

the creative brief

The document you hand your Creative Advertising partners: the problem, the audience, the one thing to say, the proof, the tone, and what you need back by when. Identity v1 rides along.

instrument · landing pagedue before class 13 · Nov 17venture book chapter · the campaign

what you make

The creative brief

The document you hand your Creative Advertising partners: the problem, the audience, the one thing to say, the proof, the tone, and what you need back by when. Identity v1 rides along.

The brief is graded as a piece of design, because it is one. A good brief makes good work possible; a vague one guarantees the opposite.

Landing page

One live page, one screen, one call to action. Built from the value proposition and the voice, in the identity.

The smoke test is the oldest startup tool there is. It gives the campaign somewhere to send people and gives you a number: how many clicked.

what good looks like

  • 01
    The brief fits on two pages and a stranger could write an ad from it.
  • 02
    The one thing to say is one sentence, and it matches the messaging matrix.
  • 03
    The landing page loads, works on a phone, and has exactly one button.
  • 04
    You can say how many people saw it and how many acted, even if the numbers are small.

how to do it

  1. 01
    Fill the brief from the tools you already have: persona, value proposition, messaging matrix, voice.
  2. 02
    Cut it until it fits two pages. Then cut once more.
  3. 03
    Build the landing page with your AI tools: headline, one paragraph, one image, one button.
  4. 04
    Put the identity on it: logo, type, color.
  5. 05
    Send it to ten people who match the persona and count what happens.

the template

Creative brief

Print this page, or copy the structure into your Venture Book. Every line is meant to be filled in.

Why are we doing this (the business problem)
Who are we talking to (the persona, in a paragraph)
What do they think today
What do we want them to think or do
The one thing we need to say
Why should they believe it (proof)
Tone (from the voice system)
What we need back, and by when
Mandatories (logo, legal, the things that have to appear)
back to class 12

where it comes from