How to Draft a Video Production Creative Brief

Any good marketer knows that the best way to ensure great results is to start with a good strategy. That begins with a solid creative brief. The more specific you can be in setting your expectations, the more likely you are to receive exactly what you’re looking for. This is true for video marketing and digital content too.

A video production creative brief - either created in-house or together with your video production team - will set the framework to accomplish goals for your business, and ensure that everyone is aligned on what, when, where, why and how your video will be produced.

The video production creative brief can be drafted various ways, but regardless of format, it is the plan to ensure your video is created exactly as you need it as the project heads toward completion. In short, it’s the blueprint everyone will follow.

Here are the considerations that your video production brief should include:

Your Audience

Who are you creating this video for? The more specific you can be at this point the better. A video made for teenage exchange students is going to be a lot different than a video for the CEO of global corporation. Your audience informs many minor and major creative decision - from the setting of the video, the script language, the people who will be in it, the music, the color and type of fonts or graphics, and so much more.

Your Goal

What do you want this video to achieve? Are you trying to generate awareness for a new service? Sell a specific product? Drive attendance to an event? Video is a marketing tactic and each tactic should have one clear goal. Without that clarity you may end up with content that doesn’t help you achieve the results you need.

Example: “Our goal is to attract new business for our service.”

This tells us that we need to focus on service benefits and ensure the video gives your viewers direction and a way to find out more about your service.

Type of Content

Chances are you already know what type of video you’d like to produce. It could be a talking head video, feature commercial, animation, explainer video, or a series of explainer videos. Each video best serves a particular goal and they’re filmed and edited differently.

Example: Our video will be a testimonial from three satisfied clients highlighting specific benefits. Total runtime not to exceed 1.5 minutes.

Your Message

If your goal is to bring in new business, your message should be in alignment. You should be able to explain the core idea of your video in one sentence. Your message provides reasons why your audience should take the action you want: i.e. buying your product.

Example: Our social media service saves marketers time by making scheduling easier, making editing faster, and creating more accurate measurements.

Distribution

A video production company will storyboard and tailor your video according to the channels and platforms you will show it on (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, television). It’s important to include any particular format you require as well as the estimated length of video you want. Some platforms require specific size and resolution considerations as well as an understanding of the placement of various call-to-action features.

Example: Video will live on our YouTube channel and be embedded on our website.

Deadline and Budget

Perhaps the most important parts of the video production brief are understanding how fast you need your content, and what your budget is.

Ideally, you should include a timeline for delivery of first draft, edits and final product.

Understanding your timeline and budget will ensure the team understands the quality required and the time frame they have to deliver the video. It will impact who they assign to your project and the set the expectation for the quality that can be achieved.

Example: First draft 12 weeks, one week for each round of edits (2) final video delivered in MP4 format by the end of Spring. Budget $15,000.

Contact us to get started and we’ll help with the planning of your content and ensure a smooth process from start to finish.

You can also get started by creating your own creative brief using our template below.