Most disappointing video projects have one thing in common: a weak brief. Not a poor production team or limited budget — a weak brief. A brief that doesn't articulate what success looks like, or who success is for, or why the video exists in the first place.
Weak briefs are common because most organisations don't have a framework for what a video brief should contain. They know what they want — "a video for our website" — but not what they need to articulate for a production partner to deliver it.
A good brief isn't a script. It's not a mood board. It's not a list of nice-to-haves. A good brief does one thing well: it creates clarity about what the video is trying to achieve, who it's trying to achieve it for, and what success looks like.
Here's how to write a brief that actually works.
What is this video trying to accomplish? Not "raise awareness" or "tell our story" — those are too broad. What is the specific business outcome?
Better objectives:
The objective determines everything else: tone, length, audience, distribution, messaging. Without it, you're guessing.
Not "business decision makers". Not "millennials". Specific.
Better audience definitions:
A specific audience definition tells a production team how to pitch the message. The tone, pacing, vernacular, concerns, and perceived barriers are all different for different audiences.
This is usually the missing piece from briefs. "The video should be engaging" is not a definition of success. Engaging to whom, and in service of what?
Better success definitions:
These are measurable. They create accountability. They tell a production team what to optimise for.
Budget. Timeline. Distribution channels. Technical requirements. Where will this video live? How will it be promoted? What's the deadline for delivery?
Constraints actually help production teams make better decisions. They tell you what choices are available. Without them, you get back something that looks beautiful but doesn't fit into the channel you wanted to use it in.
This is where you articulate the key points that need to land. Not word-for-word scripting — that's the production partner's job. But what are the 3-5 key messages that need to come across?
Example:
This gives production teams something to work against. It sets the boundaries of what the video is trying to do.
This is the contextual piece most briefs miss. If you've already tried to reach this audience with a white paper or a webinar and they didn't respond, that's important information. It tells a production partner what messaging angles haven't worked.
Sometimes the issue isn't the medium — it's that this audience is already resistant or unconvinced. Video might not solve that. Understanding that is crucial.
Not as a style guide — as a reference for the feeling you're trying to achieve. "Like that TED talk about" or "similar pacing to this YouTube video". This gives production partners a sense of direction without over-scripting the creative execution.
Who makes final decisions? How many rounds of revisions are included in the budget? What's the feedback process? Do you have approval rights over script, footage, audio, etc?
Being clear about process upfront prevents frustration and scope creep later.
A brief that includes these elements does one thing well: it creates enough clarity and constraint that a good production partner can make excellent creative decisions within those boundaries. It removes guesswork. It focuses effort.
It also sets you up to measure whether the final video actually worked.
The brief is where the real strategic work happens. The production is just the execution of a strategy that should already be clear.
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