Turns a business problem into a single-minded strategic brief, a tested insight and a platform idea that can run across channels, then screens and reviews the work against agreed criteria rather than taste.
Use When
- Before anyone writes copy or designs, the launch or brand refresh needs a single-minded strategic brief.
- Our last brief produced weak work; interrogate it and rewrite it.
- We have several concepts; screen them on the effectiveness scale with idea cards and a responsible-creative check before the client sees them.
- Run the creative review or client presentation of concepts with a clear protocol and feedback language.
- Decide the campaign structure, template-led triplets or varied cousins, and how copy and image work together.
Do Not Use When
13-campaign-brieffor the production-ready brief with deliverables, dimensions, owners and dates.ad-copy-and-hook-labfor headlines, hooks and offer wording on a known concept.09-campaign-strategyfor the overall campaign plan and channel mix; visual execution goes to chwezi-design-engine.- Stop when nobody can supply evidence of the audience or business problem; return the discovery questions instead of a brief.
Required Inputs
| Artefact | Source/provider | Required? | If absent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business problem, objective and deadline | Client owner or approved brief | Yes | Stop; ask for the problem the brand faces and the result that would count as success. |
| Audience evidence (research, listening, reviews, sales notes, CRM themes) | Client, research agency or digital-research-engine wave |
Yes for insight work | Mark the insight provisional; run the insight discovery method as a research plan, not a finding. |
| Current positioning and brand voice | marketing-foundations-stp-positioning, 04-brand-voice-intake or client brand book |
Conditional | Record the permitted deviation as unknown and ask before concepts go further. |
| Budget (media and production), named decision-maker, review dates | Client owner | Yes before concepts | Draft the brief only; flag the missing commercial and governance fields. |
| Mandatory legal, category or cultural constraints | Client legal, sector regulator notes, docs/quality-gates/legal-market-release-gate.md |
Conditional | Treat regulated categories (alcohol, betting, health, finance, children, politics) as blocked until checked. |
Workflow
- Read the client's brief (or intake) twice and write a one-sentence directive: "The work must persuade [audience] who currently [belief/behaviour] to [action] because [reason]." Stop if the objective or audience cannot be stated.
- Complete the strategic brief with all core fields (see brief and insight method) and run the five-question brief test. If it fails, correct the brief before any ideation.
- Build or validate the insight: a truth about people paired with a truth about the brand. If evidence is thin, withhold the insight label and record a research action.
- Run the five-stage ideation process with scheduled incubation; produce at least three substantially different ideas, not variations.
- Write an idea card per concept, including the Lodestar line, press-release test and three channel sketches (concept screen and critique).
- Screen internally: effectiveness scale, idea-quality grid, acceptance questions and responsible-creative interrogation. Kill anything scoring 1–4; send 5 back for a sharper hook; advance 6–7.
- Decide campaign structure and copy–image construction (campaign structure and copy–image rules); hand visual execution to
chwezi-design-engine. - Plan the test pack: message test before execution test; brand-linkage check; record the emotional or rational choice with its evidence, the distinctive assets shown early, and whether a paid pre-test is proportionate (creative effectiveness and pre-testing).
- Run the review with the critique protocol; record decisions, likely negative reactions and sign-off. If the review drifts to taste or changes the brief, stop and return to the brief; rerun the affected steps.
Seven-point creative effectiveness scale
Paraphrased from Landa 2022: 1 destructive; 2 pedestrian; 3 off-brand; 4 not an idea; 5 on-brand but not attention-getting; 6 attention-getting short term; 7 strategically creative (builds the brand, moves behaviour, earns media). Advance only 6–7. The full method is in core method in brief.
Outputs
| Artefact | Consumer | Acceptance condition |
|---|---|---|
| Strategic creative brief (one page) | Creative team, media planner, client approver | All core fields complete; passes the five-question test; names one decision-maker and review dates. |
| Insight statement with evidence note | Strategist and client | States the human truth, brand truth and the evidence source/date, or is labelled provisional. |
| Idea cards (minimum three distinct ideas) | Internal review, then client | Each has Lodestar line, benefit type, driver, brand role, press-release headline, three channel sketches and likely negative reactions. |
| Concept screen record | Creative director and account lead | Each concept scored with rationale; kill/iterate/advance decision logged. |
| Test pack and review decision log | Client approver, ad-testing-and-scaling |
Message and execution tests defined; decisions, owners and dates recorded. |
Evidence Produced
| Evidence | Format | Acceptance condition |
|---|---|---|
| Brief test result | Five-question checklist | Every question answered yes with a line of justification, or the brief is returned. |
| Insight evidence note | Table: source, date, sample, confidence | No insight presented as fact without a traceable source. |
| Scoring sheet | Table per concept | Independent scores recorded before discussion; spread greater than 2 flagged. |
| Negative-reaction sign-off | List with approver and date | Signed before any provocative concept is released. |
Capability and Permission Boundaries
Read and search only; analysis is read-only. Publishing, spend, live account changes, outreach and personal-data processing need explicit, action-specific client authority. Brief writing, ideation, screening and review planning are drafting work; commissioning production or contacting research participants is not, and personal data from listening or interviews is handled under the client's lawful basis as themes, not identities.
Degraded Mode
Without audience evidence, brand documents or a named decision-maker, return the narrowest qualified result and mark the affected checks not assessed. A draft brief with gaps, a provisional insight and a research plan can still be delivered; never present a hypothesis as a validated insight or an unscored concept as approved.
Decision Rules
| Condition | Action | Failure or risk avoided |
|---|---|---|
| Brief fails any of the five questions | Rewrite the brief before ideation | Weeks of work against a vague or contradictory brief |
| Only variations of one idea exist | Generate at least two substantially different ideas | Client rejects the core idea and nothing remains |
| Concept scores 1 (harmful) on the effectiveness scale | Kill it regardless of other merits | Reputational or legal damage |
| Idea works in only one channel | Treat it as an execution, not a platform; keep searching | A campaign that cannot scale across the media plan |
| Feedback is taste-based or changes the objective mid-stream | Return to the brief; formal brief revision if the objective really changed | Diluted work and scope creep |
| Liked but not linked (high likeability, weak message playback or brand linkage) | Fix branding and single message, not media weight | Spend on advertising nobody attributes to the brand |
| Regulated category or cultural risk unresolved | Withhold release; route to legal/market gate | Breach of advertising codes or community harm |
Quality Standards
- One page, plain language, one message; the problem is framed, not the ad ("an ad that solves X", not "make an ad").
- Insight states tension and truth, not a demographic description.
- At least three distinct ideas per round; incubation of at least 48 hours between rounds where the timeline allows (practitioner norm, not a law).
- Every critique line ties to the brief, the business requirement or the audience, with a reason.
- Landa's mnemonics (C.H.O.I.C.E., S.U.I.T.E.S., A.L.T.E.R., L.A.S.T.) are internal checklists only; do not present them to clients as industry standards.
- Apply
anti-ai-slopto every brief line and idea card.
Anti-Patterns
- "Target audience: everyone in Uganda." Fix: name one primary segment with mindset and a behaviour, e.g. salaried Kampala women 25–40 managing household budgets on mobile money.
- Presenting three colourways of one layout as "options". Fix: present three different ideas so the client chooses a direction.
- Deciding in the presentation room by consensus. Fix: percolate-then-discuss protocol with one named decision-maker.
- "Make the logo bigger" with no reason. Fix: state the problem (weak brand linkage) and let the specialists solve it.
- Purpose claims with no funded action. Fix: require a multi-year committed action and backlash sign-off, or drop the claim.
- Testing to decide the most novel idea. Fix: test to validate and mitigate; familiar work usually wins tests.
- Casting the brand as the saviour of a community. Fix: the community is the hero; the brand is the guide or helper.
References
- Brief and insight method: read when writing or repairing a brief and building the insight.
- Concept screen and critique: read when preparing internal screening, client presentation or feedback sessions.
- Campaign structure and copy–image rules: read when deciding campaign templates and headline/visual relationships.
- Creative effectiveness and pre-testing: read when choosing emotional or rational creative, placing distinctive assets early, deciding on a vendor pre-test or preparing the post-campaign review.
- Core method in brief: read when you need the brief's core fields, the Lodestar and benefit rules, the East Africa adaptation or the worked scenario.
- Ad copy and hook lab: read when line-level copy is needed; 13-campaign-brief: read when a production brief is needed.
- Creative review gate and legal/market release gate: read when concepts go to review or touch a regulated category.
- Direct-marketing ethics filter: read when screening concepts for manipulative tactics.
- AI cultural bias audit protocol: read when running the responsible-creative check.
- Anti-AI slop production gate: read when drafting brief lines and idea cards.