The Client Brief: a best practice guide to briefing communications agencies

Three marketing industry associations with a common goal of improving the efficacy of the client-agency briefing process have joined forces to distribute this comprehensive reference guide.

The document is a reference/education piece for Clients who are responsible for briefing agencies. The better the brief, the better and more accurate the results! This document takes the reader through the briefing process step by step. Highly recommended reading for both Clients and Agencies.

The Client Brief: A best practices guide to briefing communications agencies is based on research conducted with more than 100 clients and 100 agencies, and is designed for use with all types of communications agencies.

The guide refers to a written brief as the most important piece of information issued by a client to an agency, since it is from the brief that all work flows. The better a company's corporate or brand position is defined and the more thoughtfully its key business issues are described, the more likely it is that an agency will be able to apply its specialist skills to produce great solutions.
A properly composed brief will save both clients and agencies time and money, and will provide a platform for equitable remuneration, the guide adds.

The Client Brief was originally produced by associations representing the British marketer and agency sectors. The document has been fully annotated with footnotes by the ACA and the ICA to ensure its applicability for Canadian marketers and agencies.

Table of Contents

Part 1

• 'THE CLIENT BRIEF' Summary

Part 2

• 'THE CLIENT BRIEF' in more detail
• INTRODUCTION
• RECOMMENDED AGENCY BRIEFING PROCESS
• THE NEW STRUCTURE FOR BRIEFS
• PROJECT MANAGEMENT
• WHERE ARE WE NOW?
• WHERE DO WE WANT TO BE?
• WHAT ARE WE DOING TO GET THERE?
• WHO DO WE NEED TO TALK TO?
• HOW WILL WE KNOW WE'VE ARRIVED?
• PRACTICALITIES
• APPROVALS

PART 3

• ABOUT THE CO-SIGNATORIES:
       
• IPA
       
• ISBA
       
• MCCA
      
• PRCA

PART 4

• REFERENCES

The Client Brief - click here

Le bref du client - cliquez ici