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How to write a great video brief

5 June 2018 | Red Bangle Team

Write a great video brief

The first step to a great video is a killer brief. Here’s our cheat sheet to writing a smart, concise and wholesome brief that kickstarts the creative process and streamlines your video. All it takes is crafting the right answers to the 5Ws and 1H.

Before the brief: let’s get to know you

It’s important that before anyone gets to reading or understanding your brief, that they first understand your context. So, share about your company: what you do, your vision, where are you in terms of growth and scale, what are you most known for, what do you want to be known for, what’s the business like to work with and who the key stakeholders for videos are in your team.

Do also share your communication style guide and brand guidelines: as these are standards to work by.

BRIEFING FORMAT: THE 5W’s AND 1H

1. Why

Explain why you’re making this video. Is it to support a marketing campaign or wow investors? What is the one attainable and measurable outcome you’re hoping to achieve? This information – combined with the context shared about your business – will instantly help define the motivation behind making the video you want to want. 

And this is important: because when the video partner understands ‘why’, they can recommend the ‘how’.

2. What

What is the one key message you want the video to communicate? Yes, there are usually multiple messages everyone wants to pack into a video: but there is one that is top. Everything else is supportive or descriptive. If you’re clearly able to define your one primary message in half a sentence, your brief is already 24k gold.

3. Who

Help us understand your target audience. Describe your audience with emphasis on location, gender, age group, education, buying motivation and earning capacity. This will shape everything from the script (i.e., what to say when and how much emphasis to give it) to the tone and style of the video (funny, serious, funky or something else altogether). 

Also, to suit this audience if your video needs to be shot in a specific location or at multiple locations, do add this to the brief. 

4. Where

Now that we know your audience, let’s focus on the medium(s) that will work best for them. Share details of where you plan to publish the video. Videos are most effective when they are made platform-specific. How you plan to use it will affect the video’s duration, aspect ratio, cast, crew, filming equipment, and even the CTA. 

5. When 

The big question: what’s the deadline? Second big question: how soon would you like to get started? 

If you have any key dates specific to the video like: availability of a location, an event etc., do mention these in the brief. 

6. How and How Much

So what should be different about your video? Can it be edgy? Can it be dramatic? Can it be straightforward yet warm? If you’ve imagined your video in a particular way, share this vision. You can also share reference videos. But these are completely optional. You can leave it to your video partner to come up with awesome ideas and just sign off on the one that you think works best. But you want to go down this part, our tip is: choose a video style that is aligned to the core message and the brand personality. 

Meanwhile, what you can definitely share are these: 

1. mandatory elements or brand assets you’d like to include in the video like: logo, tagline, signature music, social media handles and website. 
2. a rough idea of your budget so your video partner can recommend what can be best achieved within this

Now that you know how to write a great video brief, send us an email on [email protected]!