Best 10 Creative Brief Templates for Researchers

For researchers, a creative brief serves as a foundational tool, guiding both the scope and direction of their projects. It ensures all team members are aligned with the project's goals and understand their roles, enhancing efficiency and clarity. A Creative Brief Notion template simplifies this process by providing a structured, accessible format for capturing and sharing this crucial information.
Before initiating your own creative brief, consider exploring these Creative Brief Notion templates to streamline the creation process, ensuring a solid start for your project.

What Should Creative Brief Templates Include?

Choosing the right Creative Brief template can streamline your research process, ensuring all critical aspects of your project are clearly defined and communicated. Here are key components to look for:

Objective: The template should clearly outline the project's goals. This helps keep the team focused and aligned throughout the project's duration.
Target Audience: A section dedicated to defining who the research is targeting is crucial for tailoring content and strategies effectively.
Deliverables: It should specify what the end results are expected to be, including formats and deadlines, to ensure accountability.
Budget and Resources: Understanding the available resources and budget constraints is essential for realistic planning and execution.

Choosing a template that resonates with these elements can significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your research endeavors.

What Should Creative Brief Templates Avoid?

Choosing the right creative brief template is crucial for streamlining your research projects effectively. However, certain elements can hinder rather than help. Here are three key components to steer clear of:

Overly Complex Structures: Templates with too many sections or complicated layouts can confuse rather than clarify. Opt for simplicity to enhance usability and understanding.
Undefined Objectives: Avoid templates that do not clearly define the goals or outcomes. A good template should guide you to articulate specific, measurable objectives.
Excessive Jargon: Templates filled with industry-specific jargon can be restrictive. Choose a template that uses clear and simple language to ensure it is accessible to all team members.

Remember, the best template is one that facilitates clear communication and efficient project management without adding unnecessary complexity or constraints.

1Small Design Agency Task Management

This template helps to organise incoming work from the client account management teams into a creative design team at a small design agency. Often there are competing creative deadlines across account management teams which can lead to miss management of task priorities. On this template both the management team and creative team have their own workspace which is connected together, providing a way to manage creative tasks.

A template preview for Small Design Agency Task Management

2Influencer brief

The influencer brief template is your go-to resource for streamlining collaborations with influencers. This template organizes all vital campaign information, such as campaign objectives, content examples, talking points, and deliverables. By providing a clear brief, your team can ensure influencers align with your brand's vision, ultimately leading to more impactful promotions.

3Brand Design Brief

Ugh, tired of design drafts that miss the mark?

You know, the ones that look kinda pretty, but don't really connect with your audience or boost your sales?

Been there, done that. That's why I created this super-simple Brand Design Brief Template.

Think of it as your magic wand for crafting a brand that:
Turns heads with stunning visuals that capture your unique vibe.
Speaks to your ideal customers like they're old friends.
Crushes the competition by standing out from the crowd.
Drives real business results, not just likes and shares.

No more design drama, Just a clear roadmap that helps you and your designer:
Understand your target audience inside-out. Who are they? What makes them tick?
Unleash your creative vision. Playful? Sleek? You name it! ✨
Spot your competitive edge. What are they doing right (and wrong)?
Fuel your designer's imagination. Share visual inspo to spark their creativity.
Align design with your business goals. Let's make it happen!

4Brand Foundations Framework

You can use this visual framework is a tool to help you structure your brand foundations and map out the hierarchy of your brand narrative and supporting messaging. Use it as a reference for a more robust messaging guide, or use it as a template and fill in each block with your actual mission statement, vision statement, and so on.

5Content Deliverables

Devin Reed's Content Deliverables Template is designed to help you effectively plan and track your content deliverables for an entire quarter. This template lets you record the deliverable name, its status, project description, demand, target audience, lift, and ETA. The option to view by status, lift, or ETA gives you the flexibility to manage your content projects in a way that best suits your workflow. Simplify your content planning and stay ahead of your deliverables with this efficient Notion template.

A template preview for Content Deliverables

6Product and Content Idea Generator

The Idea Generator template revolutionizes the way individuals, teams, and companies generate ideas by providing a systematic and focused approach. It eliminates distractions and shiny object syndrome, allowing users to concentrate on important ideas that truly matter. With this template, users unlock their creative potential, develop innovative solutions tailored to their target market, gain confidence in execution, and explore new perspectives that challenge traditional thinking. By leveraging the Idea Generator, individuals and organizations can optimize their productivity, generate winning ideas, and confidently bring their solutions to life.

A template preview for Product and Content Idea Generator

7Creative Brief

A simple document to help you organize all requirements and information needed to enable smooth collaboration with agencies and freelancers.

8Approving Campaigns/ Briefs with External Agencies

This template efficiently organizes campaign information, including goals, target audience, and key messaging. It features a table for tracking tasks and deliverables, an approvals checklist, and an integrated Calendly booking page for effortless scheduling of review sessions with agencies and internal teams.

A template preview for Approving Campaigns/ Briefs with External Agencies

9Design Brief

A simple document to help you organize all requirements and information needed for effective execution of design projects.

10Creative brief

Creative projects have many moving parts. This creative brief lets you gather all the necessary information and materials in one place — goals, deliverables, timeline, budget, and more. Get aligned with internal or external teams to set expectations and move forward with clarity.

Closing Thoughts

Utilizing these templates streamlines the research process, ensuring clarity and efficiency from start to finish. They help in maintaining focus on the objectives and deliverables.

Adopt these tools to enhance your project management skills and improve collaboration among team members. Start implementing them today to see significant improvements in your research outcomes.

What is a Deliverables?

Deliverables refer to the final outputs or products that are to be delivered to a client at the end of a project, as specified in the creative brief.

What is a Scope Creep?

Scope Creep is the term used when a project's initial objectives expand or change without adjustments to time, resources, or budget, often impacting the project's timeline and output.

What is a Stakeholder Feedback?

Stakeholder Feedback involves input and reactions from individuals or groups with a vested interest in the project, which can influence revisions and the project's direction as outlined in the creative brief.