Best Creative Brief Templates for Brand Managers

Creative Briefs provide a foundational framework for brand managers, aligning teams on project objectives, audience insights, and brand messaging, ensuring that creative work meets strategic goals. Utilizing a Creative Brief template within Notion can streamline this process, organizing critical information and enhancing collaboration among stakeholders.

Before diving into the creation of your own Creative Brief template, consider exploring these options listed below to simplify your workflow.

What Should Creative Brief Templates Include?

Choosing the right creative brief template can streamline your project management and enhance team alignment. Here are key components to look for in an effective template:

Clear Objectives: The template should clearly outline the project's goals. This helps ensure that everyone understands the desired outcome from the start.
Target Audience: A section dedicated to defining the target audience is crucial. It guides the creative team in tailoring their work to the right demographic.
Deliverables: It should specify what final outputs are expected, including formats and deadlines. This keeps the project scope well-defined and manageable.
Budget and Resources: Understanding the available budget and resources helps in planning and prevents scope creep.

Selecting a comprehensive creative brief template equips your team with a robust foundation for launching successful projects.

What Should Creative Brief Templates Avoid?

Choosing the right creative brief template is crucial for capturing the essence of your project without cluttering the process. Here are a few elements to steer clear of:

Vague Language: Avoid templates that use ambiguous terms which can lead to misinterpretation and confusion. Clarity is key in a creative brief.
Overly Complex Structures: Simplicity aids understanding. Templates with overly complicated structures can obscure important information and deter smooth workflow.
Irrelevant Sections: Ensure the template only includes sections that are applicable to your project. Extraneous components can distract from the main objectives.

Selecting a template devoid of these pitfalls will facilitate a more focused and effective communication channel between all parties involved in the project.

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 brainstorming process, ensuring that all critical elements are covered efficiently. This leads to a clearer direction and more cohesive brand messaging.

By adopting these templates, you can significantly reduce project turnaround times and enhance team collaboration. Don't hesitate to integrate them into your workflow to see immediate improvements in project 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 Target Audience?

The target audience is the specific group of people identified as the intended recipients of the message or product, detailed in the creative brief to guide content and design choices.

What is a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

A unique selling proposition is a factor that differentiates a product from its competitors, highlighted in a creative brief to focus the project’s marketing strategy.