5harathFounding Growth Lead, Willow Voice

Challenges of campaign execution - Jack Appleby

21 Jan 2024 · 1 min

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0:45

In a brief interview, two speakers discuss the most problematic advertising brief – the vague directive “do anything you want.” Speaker A recalls an academic audit where a professor highlighted this as the worst brief. Speaker B expands, noting that such open‑ended requests are common, unreasonable, and effectively ask agencies to work for free. The conversation emphasizes that vague briefs reveal clients’ lack of clear objectives, lead to unpaid or unproductive work, and ultimately harm the agency‑client relationship. Both speakers plead for clients to provide specific, well‑defined briefs to enable effective campaign execution.

I did like an audit when I was doing my master's at an advertising course. I audited it and the professor said the worst brief anybody can give you is do anything you want. Oh,
it's the worst. I get them all the time where it'd be like, oh, we just want to like hear some ideas. You know how many of those I sold over the last decade? I can count on one hand. Like it's unreasonable. It shows clients that don't know what they actually want. It's asking advertising agencies for free work. Right. No, never work. Like give specific briefs, please. I'm begging everyone, give people briefs.