How to brief creators without killing the idea
A creator brief is a contract with a stranger about what good looks like. The best ones we see from our clients fit on one page, and they get better with everything you delete.
Many of our clients work with creators themselves, and when the videos are going to run as Spark Ads on TikTok, we see the briefs behind them. The typical one is four pages long: a brand story, a tone-of-voice section, a list of mandatory phrases and a storyboard. The videos that come back are accurate, on-brand and dead. When the brief is cut to one page, they often get worse at first, and then much, much better.
1. What belongs on the page
The product and what it actually does. The one thing the viewer should feel by the end. The first three seconds, described as a feeling rather than a shot. Two examples of ads that worked, with one line each on why. Delivery specs. If the video is going to run as a Spark Ad, also an agreement that the creator posts it on their own profile and gives you access to advertise with it. That is the whole brief.
2. The three lines you can delete
We find them in almost every brief we read. “Please mention our USPs”: the creator reads this as a script and the video becomes a list. “Keep it on-brand”: nobody knows what that means, including whoever wrote it. “Avoid negative framing”: one of the strongest hooks we have run as a Spark Ad opened with a complaint about the whole product category.
- What the product does, in one sentence
- The feeling at the end
- The first three seconds, as a feeling
- Two reference ads and why they worked
- Specs and deadline
3. How to give notes without rewriting
Give one round of notes, three notes maximum, and make every note about clarity rather than taste. If the creator's take is not what you imagined but the product is clear and the hook lands, let it ship and get tested. Ads Manager is a better judge of taste than a Slack thread.
Where we come in
With our clients, the brand itself runs the dialogue with its creators. We run the videos as Spark Ads on TikTok and advise along the way: what belongs in the brief, what can go, and how to keep the notes short. The brief is the same whether you sell, say, a DKK 200 skincare range or a DKK 12,000 sofa; only the two reference ads change.
We run your Spark Ads on TikTok and advise you on how to work with your creators.
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