The Fortune Cookie Brief

The most common irony you’ll find in our game is the line in creative briefs that highlights “The single most important thing we need to say.” Because in that little section you will likely find – not a single thing at all – but two or three, or as you’ll soon see - 26 things. Creative briefs are rarely either.
Usually they’re a litany of messages that the client wishes they could see in their commercial. They somehow believe you can pitch as much in a 30-second commercial as you can in the 30-minute TV show it’s sponsoring.
I once had a client who absolutely insisted that we pack 26 different messages inside her 30-second commercial because all 26 messages were somewhere on the brief. I kid you not. And she counted them.
My partner and I were the third team subjected to this. After four months, we had done it. All 26 messages in a 30-second script. Word spread through the agency. People stopped by to see our script like they were visiting the wolf boy in a carnival.
But when the client saw the script, she still wasn’t satisfied. “I don’t think you people get it. What am I supposed to do with this mess?”
“One thing,” I said. “Get yourself a new boy.” And I walked out.
Fortunately, my boss had seen what we were dealing with and didn’t fire me, but I learned my lesson.
One brief. One ball.
In different forms, all briefs try to answer questions like, What’s our business situation? Why are we advertising? Who are we speaking to? What should we say? When is it needed? How much money do we have? What are the executional mandatories that we hope the creative team doesn’t forget?
Then there’s my favorite section - What are all those things that the client insisted that we include in the brief - that we argued against - but ultimately we always put our tail between our legs when the client frowns - so it’s still there - which means when the ad is done they can still take the brief and yell at us and say, “I don’t think you people get it. What am I supposed to do with this mess?”
The actual name of that last section is cruelly titled “Support Points.”
Let’s pause here a moment.
Good creative teams want to know as much about the product and customer as they can. They want to hear the support points. They want as much information as they can get. Sure it’s nice to have it analyzed, distilled, and organized. But there is nothing that will unearth a great idea like doing the digging yourself. Instead of giving a creative team a two page brief, give them stacks of information and factory tours and time with real customers.
Somewhere you will find the golden nugget of truth.
And with it, let me propose a new creative briefing format that will get you to brevity and greatness.
It’s a fortune cookie.
You will never find a better creative brief than a fortune cookie. It is the harmonic embodiment of form and function. Interactive. Edible. And, they magically dispense your future on a tiny slip of paper.
Here’s all you do. Buy a box of fortune-less cookies.
On the slip of paper that goes inside, very carefully write your brief in one word. One.
On the other side of the piece of paper, describe the psychology of the target - briefly. Now insert the fortune into the cookie. Hand it to your creative team, and slowly walk away.
It’s not easy. But it works. Focus, and fortune awaits.
No matter how much clients say in their commercials, it always gets boiled down to one thing.
That’s all you get in this game.
One thing. Make it count.