Every year, B2B brands pour serious budget into creative campaigns, yet much of that investment fizzles. The ideas don’t land. The message doesn’t stick. The business impact? Well…it can just be a bit meh.
And while it’s tempting to critique the creative, the issue often runs deeper.
Because in many cases, underperforming campaigns were set up to struggle; not through lack of talent or intent, but because the inputs weren’t strong enough from the start.
In fact, according to Better Briefs, 33% of marketing budget is thrown away because of poor briefs; leading to a forecasted wastage of US $353,100,000,000 of global ad spend in 2025! That’s more than US $10,000 per second!
The brief: undervalued, underpowered, and often overlooked
Under tight deadlines and commercial pressure, it’s no surprise that the briefing process often gets compressed. CMOs and their teams are balancing shifting priorities, complex stakeholder landscapes, and the need to get campaigns moving…fast.
But that early alignment; between what the business needs and what creative teams are tasked with delivering, is exactly where the battle for campaign effectiveness is won or lost.
A well-crafted brief isn’t just a formality. It’s a high-impact moment. The opportunity to connect commercial context with creative clarity. To give teams the insight, direction and confidence they need to do their best work.
Better input = better output. And when the input is strong, the creative gets sharper. And the results? Well, they get stronger.
Sharpen your next brief with our free template
Use this editable Google Doc to provide clarity, context and direction from the start. It’s full of helpful prompts designed to align teams and clarify purpose.
Access the editable briefing template here. Please make your own copy before entering any information.
What separates a good brief from a great one?
We’ve seen brilliant creative ideas flourish when the briefing process is given the attention it deserves. And while every campaign is different, the best briefs we’ve worked with consistently deliver on three things:
1. Clear objectives and success criteria
Not just “drive awareness” or “support launch”, but what are we really trying to achieve? How will we measure success? What matters most to the business?
Great briefs align stakeholders upfront, including sales and senior leadership where needed. They clarify priorities. They get everyone on the same page before ideas start flying.
In a recent brief, a client gave us tight detail on the margin increase they needed to earn on sales of a particular product line, as well as the unique ‘why’ to include in the messaging. This meant the onebite team could plan a strong campaign that really demonstrated value, throughout (note ‘value’, not ‘cheap’!). The level of detail they were willing to provide in the brief made all the difference in how we responded and planned the campaign, not to mention the fact that all stakeholders were aligned from the outset – all round wins!
2. Fresh insight
What’s the nugget of truth, data or experience that can unlock something bold? Insight doesn’t always come from a slide deck. Sometimes it’s something the sales team hears daily. Or a pain point clients quietly admit on calls. If you can bring those little nuggets into the brief, suddenly the creative becomes more resonant, more relevant, and far more likely to cut through.
In a recent briefing with a telecoms vendor, the onebite team asked multiple questions to really unlock how the audience is currently feeling, and why. This depth of questioning unlocked a single golden nugget of information, which flipped the messaging hierarchy on its head, delivering resonance and a launch campaign that will ensure the audience feels heard, and will ultimately change their behaviour.
3. Commercial alignment
This one is often missing, especially in siloed teams. Why this campaign, why now? What’s its role in driving the pipeline, shifting perception, or accelerating sales cycles?
When creative teams understand the commercial ‘why’, they can create work that supports the bigger picture, not just ticks a tactical box.
From theory to practice: operationalising better briefing
A better brief doesn’t mean a 12-page deck or a drawn-out process. In fact, the best briefs are often sharp and to the point. But they do take a few non-negotiables:
- Standardised briefing templates
Ensure consistency across the team, and enable them to start strong, without them needing to reinvent the wheel each time. - Embed commercial context as standard
Include the why, not just the what. Bring in the context, the wider goals, the competitive pressures, the strategic ambition. - Always do a verbal briefing
Even the best-written brief benefits from a verbal brief. Involving your agency in a conversation surfaces nuance, clears ambiguity and allows them to ask deeper questions, and, frankly…it gets creative teams excited!
Stronger briefs, stronger outcomes
In a world where attention is fragmented, decision cycles are long, and creative outputs need to achieve more with less, the briefing process deserves a seat at the strategy table.
Because great creative doesn’t just happen. It’s built on clarity, insight and intent; all of which start with the brief.
If your campaigns aren’t delivering, maybe the fix isn’t a whole change of strategy or a fresher idea. Maybe it’s just time to start at the start.
Kiri Craig, Managing Partner
Kiri has been working in marketing agencies for almost 20 years, and in that time she has worked across a range of B2B and B2C sectors, from large enterprise clients to SMEs.
For the last decade, Kiri has been focused solely on B2B marketing, and as Managing Partner of onebite, Kiri draws on this experience to feed into B2B demand generation strategies for our clients and prospects, and to oversee onebite’s delivery.
At onebite, she’s curated a team of B2B demand generation specialists from the best talent on the market, helping our tech and telco clients launch, refine and amplify their brands to generate long-term revenue growth. Kiri’s passion and drive to deliver exceptional work for our clients is evident to everyone who meets her.
