How to Write a Good Marketing Brief

Often clients ask us what need to be included in a brief or worst they do not provide a brief at all.
It is essential for all third parties involved in a briefing process to actually receive a brief it enables for the brand to capture all ideas, information that can be handled in a transparent manner to the agencies who can deliver the tailored content thanks to the detailed brief.

A brief is the occasion for the marketers and brands to gather all ideas related to a campaign or a project in one place. Briefing agency orally is always nice to have, while a written brief is a must have. When briefing an agency in an oral manner it is always possible to forget a few elements or details that cannot be forgotten if written down in a brief. It also ensures the agencies and brands that the process has been truly thought through, that it is a strong intentional project that require immediate and diligence support.

Whether you like it or not, the quality of the brief will increase the chances to receive a quality proposal from the agency. Therefore we’ve collected a list of must have elements to have in a brief:

Elements to include in a marketing brief:

• Company or client overview.

• Campaign or project objectives.

• Campaign or project purpose.

• Target audience and/or segmentation details.

• Campaign Geographic location.

• Deliverables.

• campaign Timing.

• Normal Brand Seasonality.

• Budget.
  

If not all information are available it is important to highlight that they are not available at this stage or not applicable to your campaign or project.
Having a brief in writing will capture and write in stone your brand ideas and direction, it is definitely a plus and must have when a brand wants to create a memorable and impactful campaign.
Good luck and wishing you to enjoy the first step of a promising campaign!

NEW EU Law against Greenwashing

March 2023 Commission adopts proposal for a Directive on green claims.
Enabling true sustainable choices and sanctioning greenwashing.

Today, the Commission is proposing common criteria against greenwashing and misleading environmental claim.

As we, 360 Agency Berlin wrote in our ‘What is sustainable advertising’ Manifesto back in January 2023:
For consumers, it is worrying to see that many brands environmental claims and products attributes are not systematically verified. As a consequence it might erode the credibility of sustainable efforts on the long term.  This is why it is vital to fight actively against greenwashing, but also offer new propositions to better regulate our industry.

A Commission study from 2020 highlighted that 53.3% of examined environmental claims in the EU were found to be vague, misleading or unfounded and 40% were unsubstantiated. The absence of common rules for companies making voluntary green claims leads to ‘greenwashing' and creates an uneven playing field in the EU's market, to the disadvantage of genuinely sustainable companies.

According to the proposal, when companies choose to make a ‘green claim' about their products or services, they will have to respect minimum norms on how they substantiate these claims and how they communicate them.

The proposal targets explicit claims, such as for example: ‘T-shirt made of recycled plastic bottles', ‘CO2 compensated delivery', ‘packaging made of 30% recycled plastic' or ‘ocean friendly sunscreen'. It also aims to tackle the proliferation of labels as well as new public and private environmental labels. It covers all voluntary claims about the environmental impacts, aspects or performance of a product, service or the trader itself. However, it excludes claims that are covered by existing EU rules, such as the EU Ecolabel or the organic food logo, because the current laws already ensure that these regulated claims are reliable. Claims which will be covered by upcoming EU regulatory rules, will be excluded for the same reason. 

Before companies communicate any of the covered types of ‘green claims' to consumers, such claims will need to be independently verified and proven with scientific evidence. As part of the scientific analysis, companies will identify the environmental impacts that are actually relevant to their product, as well as identifying any possible trade-offs, to give a full and accurate picture.

Clear and harmonised rules and labels.

Several rules will make sure that claims are communicated clearly. For example, claims or labels that use aggregate scoring of the product's overall environmental impact, will no longer be permitted, unless set in EU rules. If products or organisations are compared with others, such comparisons should be based on equivalent information and data.

The proposal will also regulate environmental labels. There are currently at least 230 different labels and there is evidence that this leads to consumer confusion and distrust. To control the proliferation of such labels, new public labelling schemes will not be allowed, unless developed at EU level, and any new private schemes will need to show higher environmental ambition than existing ones and get a pre-approval to be allowed. There are detailed rules about environmental labels in general: they must also be reliable, transparent, independently verified, and regularly reviewed.

Next steps

Following the ordinary legislative procedure, the Green Claims Directive proposal will now be subject to the approval of the European Parliament and the Council. 

2023 Latest AR6 IPCC Report

The new 2023 IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change) just launched the 19 March 2023 the 6th Assessment Report. Which gives an accurate picture, keeping track of the agreed KPI and emissions to contain globally in order to not surpass the 2 °C temperature increase.
We truly think that we, as advertisers, need to understand the learnings and advices delivered by the IPCC report in order to guide future agency decisions.
As human beings this is the most important challenge we have ahead of us and we shall unite all forces all professions all countries towards the same goal of respecting natural resources in order to improve living conditions for future generations.

The 2023 IPCC Report define the actual increase in temperature at 1.1 °C and determine the cause as anthropocene activity with certainty.

Human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming, with global surface temperature reaching 1.1°C above 1850–1900 in 2011–2020.

Global greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase, with unequal historical and ongoing contributions arising from unsustainable energy use, land use and land use change, lifestyles and patterns of consumption and production across regions, between and within countries, and among individuals.

The new report states that we are not on tracks to limit warming to 1.5 or even 2 °C.

Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, and biosphere have occurred. Human-caused climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe.

Unfortunately vulnerable communities who have historically contributed the least to current climate change are disproportionately affected.

All Industries need to adapt and review their activities goals and forecast in order to decrease significantly Global GHG emissions in 2030.

Policies and laws addressing mitigation have consistently expanded since AR5. Global GHG emissions in 2030 implied by nationally determined contributions (NDCs) announced by October 2021 make it likely that warming will exceed 1.5°C during the 21st century and make it harder to limit warming below 2°C. There are gaps between projected emissions from implemented policies and those from NDCs and finance flows fall short of the levels needed to meet climate goals across all sectors and regions. 
Deep, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions would lead to a discernible slowdown in global warming within around two decades, and also to discernible changes in atmospheric composition within a few years.

2019 emissions are 12% higher than 2010.

Climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and planetary health.
There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.
Climate resilient development integrates adaptation and mitigation to advance sustainable development for all, and is enabled by increased international cooperation including improved access to adequate financial resources, particularly for vulnerable regions, sectors and groups, and inclusive governance and coordinated policies. The choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts now and for thousands of years. 

This is why we find it not only a solution but truly vital nowadays to promote exclusively sustainable brands and initiative and to strongly condemn and sanction greenwashing activities.
We as advertisers, need to act and to act now!

Full report can be found here: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/

Greedy Grey or Giving Green

The Covid 19 electro choc, has had several consequences that are not all unveiled at this stage. While one of them is becoming more and more ostentatiously visible: Excess of wealth will be likely to be more and more perceived as a lack of redistribution and an abuse of our natural limited resources.

In parallel we’ve seen several brands using green washing and abusing sustainable messages by using misleading environmental claims far from the real attributes of their brands.

These two observations make us believe that it is time for a new type of communication to rise, taking a stance opposite direction from the traditional approach of advertising, aligning from now on production with communication linking message with action.

Therefore we strongly believe that a new type of advertising needs to take place that we have decided to call ‘Give Back’ advertising type.
Companies should be actively looking to be part of a social and environmental scheme to not appear only as being the cause of a global scale co2 emissions problem but part of a joint solution.

The principle of the ‘Give Back’ advertising concept shall set a minimum percentage of the brand profit that needs to be shared into tangible environment/biodiversity protective initiatives. Fighting actively and earnestly for the environment. This will result in considerable budgets that would make a real change in the fight for the protection of our environment and the biodiversity. With subsequent proportional funds ensuring to fight with dignity and appropriate gravity against climate change and the collapse of biodiversity.

If we leverage that principle to another globally known FMCG brand such as ‘Lion’, and if we imagine one second that the brand would not only ensure to use 100% recycled plastic in their packaging but also that they would redistribute a 10% of their profits to wild life (lions) protection it would very likely ensure a brand likability and preferability in the very long term.
It is time for brands to show that they can have a positive impact on our environment and manoeuvre away from the ‘Only take’ scheme that shall be replaced by a ‘Give back’ one.

The ‘Give Back’ new advertising concept will be taking Corporate Social Responsibility to an entire new level.

What is sustainable advertising?

 The latest IPCC report has been shared publicly the 1st March 2022 and reveals that climate change effects are outpacing our ability to adapt.
Are we still supposed to approach advertising the same way?

In 2014, 360 Agency Berlin thought that it was time for a structural change in the advertising industry and that profit could no longer be the main KPI to measure success. Advertising should not be impermeable to the latest gigantic consumer concerns and brand perceptions evolvement. It is time for marketing to embrace new survival indispensable changes.

Sustainable advertising shall align the DNA and real attributes of the brand with its communication. Therefore dishonest attempts of companies to promote false environmental qualities shall be strongly sanctioned. For consumers, it is worrying to see that many brands environmental claims and products attributes are not systematically verified.
As a consequence it might erode the credibility of sustainable efforts on the long term.  This is why it is vital to fight actively against greenwashing, but also offer new propositions to better regulate our industry.

For further info I highly recommend to read our ‘Sustainable advertising manifesto’ accessible via the following URL: www.whatissustainableadvertising.com

From An Agency Perspective

There is an obvious need for a greater transparency in the advertising industry and the time to act is now.
This is why we created some new processes at 360 Agency Berlin based on what we call sustainable advertising.
We promote exclusively sustainable brands. We think that to assess the level of sustainability the brand/advertiser should compile with the 3 following criteria.
We look at the brand respect of international labour rights and their environmental impact by looking into their certifications and by asking production origins and standards.

We also look at the brand Corporate social responsibility parameters they have in place before to identify if they compile with all requisites and identify if we can fully support the brand messaging. We strongly believe that the agency is accountable for the message they issue and deliver, therefore we take full responsibility of the brands, and initiative we promote.
For further information we highly recommend to read our entire Manifesto: What Is Sustainable Advertising?

How to reduce our co2 emissions from an Agency Perspective?

It seems essential to align actions with words therefore it is vital to avoid from the agency perspective at any cost the use of virgin plastics, and refrain as much as we can co2 emissions.

To do so we established a few internal rules such as refraining traveling by plane whenever possible, such as for briefing meetings that can be online shall be led via webinars, and we preferably travel by train wherever possible. Also company cars instead of being luxurious shall be electrical.

We shall avoid printing whenever possible, (Internal documents, minutes that can stay in a drive). We also strongly advice and completely avoid BTL print advertising, such as brochures or single flyers.
Use Ink and paper from recycling initiative, such as Air ink or recycled paper. Systematically propose eco-friendly solutions to clients. And finally enable the members of the agency to work at least 2-3 days from home in order to save further CO2 emissions.

We highly recommend to read further our What is sustainable advertising manifesto?

Relevance against Frequency

We would not be able to talk about sustainable advertising without talking about Digital online privacy that we actively fight for. We believe that the regulation should come from the advertising industry itself. Therefore when we plan a digital campaign we strongly believe that we should avoid to overload the audience, avoiding approaches that can be perceived as too intrusive. 

We’ve often asked ourselves when companies and advertisers will avoid selecting frequency as a performance indicator. It is not because you’ve see something often that you like it more.

Advertisers need to consider with greater caution the consumers as a clever entity that operates with one main actionable which is relevance and therefore cap the ads with a maximum frequency of 3 impacts in a month.

Humans are not a senseless machine that would be convinced to a specific purchase or action just by a high number of OTS.

Our cognitive system tend to close itself to repetition that finally pass unnoticed nor occulted. Frequency without relevance is the biggest possible wastage of inventory and ultimately budget.

Nowadays that it is discernible that we live in a defined environment and that less is more it seems essential for advertisers and brands to adapt their strategies to enter a new paradigm where relevance shall be the main key performance indicator and that frequency shall be considered only if fulfilling a purpose.

LESS IS MORE.