How to read a brief before you say yes

Four things to find before anything else

Before the mood board, before the product, find these four. If any one is missing, the brief is not finished, and the polite thing is to say so.

The brand and the objective. Who is paying and what they want to happen. “Awareness” and “sales” are different jobs and they want different content. A brief that cannot say which is a brief that will change its mind after you have shot it.

The deliverables. What you make, how many, in what format, and what counts. Three posts is not a deliverable; three feed posts of at least sixty seconds, delivered as files, is.

The usage. Where the content goes after your feed, for how long, and what that is worth. This is the line that most often costs creators money, and it has its own article.

The timing. When the draft is due, how many rounds of feedback, and when it goes live. Also whether the product ships in time for you to use it.

Deliverables: count what counts

Most arguments about a campaign are arguments about what a post is. Does a Story frame that disappears in a day count as one of the three? Does a re-cut for another format count as a new deliverable or a version of the same one? Do they want the raw files, and do they want them for free?

Read the deliverables line as if you were the person who has to say “that was not what we agreed” later, and make sure you would win. If the brief says “content” without a number, ask for the number. If it says “versions”, ask how many, and whether a version is paid.

Timing: the dates that are not on the calendar

The go-live date is always there. The dates that matter are the ones around it: when the product has to reach you, when the draft is due, how long the brand has to give feedback, how many rounds of changes are included, and what happens if they are late.

A brief with a shoot date and no feedback deadline is a brief where you will be asked for changes the night before. Ask for the round count and the reply time in writing. On Beatly briefs, content is approved before it publishes and the feedback dates are agreed when the schedule is set, so the waiting is bounded.

The line about marking the post as advertising

Every paid post, and every post where the brand expects one in return for a product, has to be marked as advertising, in the language of your audience, where the reader sees it first. In Sweden that is “Reklam”, in Norway “Reklame”, on the first line, not in the hashtags at the end.

A good brief tells you the exact wording. A brief that does not mention it at all is a brief written by someone who has not thought about it, and it is your name on the post. Ask. If you want to check a caption before it goes live, the Disclosure Check does it in a few seconds.

What is usually missing

The lines that are absent from a brief are the ones that cause trouble, because absence reads as “whatever the brand decides later”. Look for these, and when they are not there, ask.

Payment terms: how much, when, and what triggers it. Delivery, publication, or the end of the month after? Revisions: how many rounds are included before it becomes new work. Exclusivity: whether you are being asked not to work with a category, for how long, and whether that is priced. Approval: who on the brand side signs off, and whether you can publish once they do or have to wait for someone else.

Six questions to send back before you accept

Copy these into the reply. A brand that has thought about the campaign answers in ten minutes. A brand that has not will need to, and it is better they do it now.

• What should this content make people do, and how will you know it worked?
• Exactly what am I delivering, in what format, and does a Story or a re-cut count?
• Where will the content run after my feed, for how long, and is that in the fee?
• When is the draft due, how many feedback rounds are included, and how long do you take to reply?
• What is the exact wording for marking the post as advertising?
• When am I paid, and what triggers it?