Building better bridges between brief, creative and production

Every great ad campaign requires a formula of insightful creativity, a fair budget and a clear, concise brief. However, for far too long, industry professionals have quibbled that behind a credit list of work, an undercurrent of frustration saddles the creative process – from client brief to production – before the relief
of roll-out. 

“Often, we are tempted to overstuff briefs, which doesn’t set up anyone for success after,” says Natasha Vaughan-Jeremy, Fractional CMO and Founder of The Luxe Narrative.

“A brief might seem straightforward, but different teams – whether it’s the brand, the agency, or the production house – can interpret it in very different ways,” says Jonathan Bannister, Head of Marketing – GCC, PUMA Middle East.

“Often, a client brief is ambitious in scope but vague on the realities of time and money,” says Rania Salame, Producer, Bigfoot Films. 

“Briefs arrive heavily focused on deliverables, KPIs, and timelines but light on the real why behind the project,” adds Abeer Alessa, Co-Founder and CEO, The Bold Group and Vice President, Advertising Committee – Federation of Saudi Chambers.

The lack of alignment across teams leads to the loss of valuable time, money and, ultimately, hinders the potential of great work. 

“Agencies may run with bold creative ideas that aren’t financially viable, while production houses are left scrambling to make the numbers and schedules work,” says Salame.

“The gap between outputs and outcomes is what creates misalignment between clients and agencies,” says Alessa, agreeing with Salame, who adds “by the time these gaps surface, time and resources are already lost.”

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Redefining the brief

It’s not surprising that leaders across brand, creative and production want to rewrite the rules of creative collaboration.

“The biggest challenge is aligning everyone on a clear definition of the problem,” says Ryan Reed, Regional Chief Creative Officer, M+C Saatchi Group.  

Given the growing need for better workstreams and reasonable expectations, industry leaders offer solutions to improve cross-team workflows.

Bannister says, “It’s less about the brief itself and more about how clearly and consistently it’s understood by everyone involved, especially when working with multiple teams such as creative agency, social, PR and production house at the same time.”

Federico Fanti, Regional Chief Creative Officer, FP7 McCann MENAT, says what’s missing is clarity and simplicity.

“A brief should feel like a compass, pointing clearly to one big goal,” Fanti says, adding that the best clients know this because “they keep the brief as open and non-prescriptive as possible.”

Sharing a practical take, Bigfoot Films’ Salame suggests a two-fold approach: Early alignment and a logical framing of the brief. 

She provides the following framework for every new project:

• Ground the brief in reality: Every brief should clearly state the available budget and realistic timeline, alongside the brand objective. That context shapes smarter creative thinking and prevents downstream frustration.
• Joint kick-off workshops: Bring client, agency and production teams into the same room to co-interpret the brief, identify potential bottlenecks and stress-test feasibility.
• One-page alignment documents: Distill the agreed business objective, creative intent, target audience, budget and delivery schedule into a single page that all parties must sign off on.

Salame adds, “When briefs are both ambitious and logically constrained by budget and time, the collaboration is not only smoother but also far more likely to succeed.” 

Overcoming the trade-off

Industry leaders agree that instances of a trade-off between efficiency, speed to market, quality of delivery and creativity are a common occurrence.

“The triangle of speed, quality and creativity is real. But the one thing you can’t sacrifice is the idea,” says Fanti. 

“Moving too fast can sometimes compromise creativity or quality,” says PUMA’s Bannister. “At the same time, if we focus only on crafting the most creative work, we risk missing the moment.” 

Vaughan-Jeremy agrees, adding that while she strongly believes in “attention to detail and quality content”, teams must “collectively make a decision at some point, to move and launch because, ultimately, you can spend endless time re-working without actually making progress.”

M+C Saatchi Group’s Reed adds that “if there is a trade-off then we’re not approaching the creative challenge in the right way.”

To prevent this, Reed suggests inviting clients along the entire campaign journey because then they are “less likely to reject the work, when they’re part of the work.”

Developing a cohesive plan with clear lines of communication can mean the difference between a chaotic campaign and a seamless workflow from idea creation to launch.

“The real skill isn’t choosing between speed, quality or creativity; it’s designing a process where all three can coexist without compromise,” says Alessa. 

“If speed is the main driver, we may need to simplify the creative approach. If creativity is the hero, then we need to allow a little more time,” Bannister says. “It’s about finding balance, setting realistic expectations, and being open about trade-offs so that no one feels surprised later.”

“What’s critical is that all stakeholders agree at the outset on what metric – speed, cost, creativity or craft – is non-negotiable, and then resource the project accordingly,” says Salame.

Fanti adds that a strong idea can survive smaller budgets or tighter timelines, but no amount of polish can save a weak one.

“The trick is to protect the creative heart and then be pragmatic about execution – streamline, adapt and simplify,” he says. “Clients who give freedom here, instead of prescribing rigid formats, make the work faster and better. Deadlines can bend; bad ideas can’t be fixed.”

Incorporating new production technologies

With the speed of technology deployment, adoption of new hardware rigs and recently integrated generative artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, balancing the fallout on costs and tighter deadlines add another layer of complexity to behind-the-scenes operations.

“New technologies inevitably mean learning as we go or ‘building the plane as we are flying it’ so it would be wise to always take a more phased approach,” says Vaughan-Jeremy. 

“Deployed in the right areas, at the right time, [technology] unlocks sharper thinking and better efficiency,” Reed adds. “But, if there’s value in original thought and authentic human-centric work that impacts culture,
then there should be no fallout on cost and timeline.” 

Taking this a step further, Alessa refers to technology as a multiplier rather than a replacement, saying that while it helps us move faster, insight is what makes the work resonate.

“The balance comes from re-engineering workflows and investing where technology accelerates scale while keeping people at the centre for storytelling and cultural intelligence,” she says.  

Fanti agrees, saying that “technology should simplify, not complicate.” He explains that giving into the temptation of using every new shiny tool can add to the pressures and costs of current processes.

“The smarter move is clarity,” he says. “Choose where tech genuinely helps and where human creativity must lead.”

“The balance comes from strategic adoption, not blind adoption,” Salame says. To do this effectively, she suggests piloting new tech on smaller campaigns before deploying on flagship work, including training and integration costs into budgets from day one and using AI and automation to free up human talent instead of replacing it. 

“Proactively planning for costs for certain higher priority projects which demand it and allowing a set budget for experimenting with technologies first,” says Vaughan-Jeremy.

Fanti emphasises this, saying that while AI can be the engine, fuelling scale at speed, human creativity remains the non-negotiable compass of creative direction. “AI can speed up the process, but it can’t tell you which problem is worth solving and give a human emotion to it,” he says. “A tool without direction is just noise; creativity gives it purpose.”

Balancing business outcomes and social impact

Leaders agree that successful campaigns are those that bridge the gap between the brief, creative strategy and production. Work that is culturally attuned while focusing on business outcomes is long-lasting and effective. 

“Creativity without cultural intelligence simply doesn’t cut through,” says Alessa. “Content must deliver on business objectives, but its real power comes when it resonates culturally and earns lasting relevance.”

“Business results matter,” says Fanti. “But they’re not the only measure of success.”

“In a region as rich and diverse as ours, content that resonates culturally doesn’t just perform better, it becomes part of the conversation.”

“Content done well should connect meaningfully with audiences, create relevance, salience and meaning and unlock lasting business success,” adds Reed.

However, the discourse raises the question on how this can be best achieved without compromising one or the other. To do this, Fanti suggests to stop viewing creativity and business outcomes as separate tracks and start bringing them together to achieve lasting cultural impact. 

“That’s when work becomes memorable, meaningful and effective,” he says. “The best ideas are the ones that people talk about, share and feel something for, because that’s what drives both impact and value.”

He also points to campaigns such as ‘Recipe for Change’, ‘After Dinner Dinner’ and ‘Sponsored Balls’. These are more than just campaigns, he says, calling them “cultural interventions.” 

Fanti also says these campaigns “prove that when brands commit to one clear, resonant idea that connects business goals to culture, they stop being invisible and start being inevitable.” 

PUMA’s Bannister adds that if “content doesn’t resonate with people on a cultural and emotional level, then it won’t create lasting impact, no matter how strong the business results might be in the short term.” 

“I believe brands today carry a responsibility to go beyond just selling products,” he says. “We need to reflect and respect the communities we operate in, celebrate their creativity, and, where possible, contribute positively to society.”

To that end, Vaughan-Jeremy warns that the final product must ultimately be authentic to the brand ethos and vision. However, she also agrees that being culturally attuned is a given. 

“To stay relevant as a brand, you need to stay close to consumer trends and their mindset,” Vaughan-Jeremy says. 

“Ultimately, you will rarely achieve any sort of business outcome unless you are close to your category landscape and the consumer,” she concludes.