Creative Brief Template

A creative brief is one page that says what you're making, who it's for, what it has to do and what can't change. Copy the template below into Google Docs, Word or your form tool, send it before work starts, and get a written yes on it before anyone opens a design file.

The creative brief template

Every field has a one-line hint under it. Keep the hints in when you send it, because they show the client what a good answer looks like.

CREATIVE BRIEF

Project name
  A short name everyone will use in emails and file names.

Client contact
  Who answers questions about this project day to day.

Approver
  The one person who gives the final yes. Name and email.

Needed by
  The date the finished work is due, and what that date is tied to.

Goal
  What should this make happen? One sentence.

Audience
  Who is it for? Describe them the way you'd describe them to a friend.

Key message
  The one thing the audience should remember after seeing it.

Deliverables
  What exactly are we making? Format, sizes and how many of each.

Channels
  Where it will run: email, social, print, website, paid ads, events.

Must include
  Logos, offers, legal lines, phone numbers or copy that has to appear.

Must avoid
  Colors, words, images or competitors that are off limits.

Examples
  Two or three links or images you like, with one line on why.

Brand files
  Where the logo, fonts, colors and guidelines live.

Budget or allowance
  The fee, hours or monthly request allowance this falls under.

Notes (optional)
  Anything else we should know before we start.

What each field is for

Most fields exist to stop one specific kind of rework. If a field doesn't prevent a redo for your work, cut it.

• Goal and audience stop the work drifting into something that looks good but does nothing. "Get owners of small cafes to order a sample box" is a goal you can design against. "Raise awareness" is not.
• Key message forces a choice. If the client can't write it in a sentence, the ad will try to say five things and say none of them.
• Deliverables and channels catch hidden work. "A social post" is often four sizes, a story version and a caption.
• Must include and must avoid catch the legal line, the banned color and the competitor nobody mentions until round two.
• Approver is the field most briefs leave out, and the one that causes the longest delays. Name one person. Not a committee.
• Budget or allowance ties the brief to what you agreed, so a big ask doesn't slide in as a small one.

An ad creative brief version

If you're briefing paid ads, swap the channels field for these. Ad work fails on missing specs more than on missing ideas.

AD CREATIVE BRIEF ADD-ON

Offer
  What the viewer gets: a discount, a free trial, a sample, a call.

Call to action
  The exact button or line: "Book a call", "Shop the range".

Platforms and placements
  For example Meta feed and stories, LinkedIn, Google Display.

Sizes and lengths
  Every size and video length needed, listed out.

Variations
  How many versions to test, and what changes between them.

Landing page
  The URL each ad points to, and whether it's live yet.

A filled-in example

Here's the template filled in for a small agency's client, a local coffee roaster launching a subscription.

• Project name: Brightwater spring subscription launch
• Client contact: Maya, marketing lead
• Approver: Tom, owner (tom@brightwater.example)
• Needed by: March 10, two days before the launch email goes out
• Goal: Get existing customers to start a monthly coffee subscription.
• Audience: People who already buy beans from the shop or website, mostly locals who buy every few weeks.
• Key message: Your usual beans, delivered every month, with 15% off.
• Deliverables: One email header (600 px wide), three Instagram posts (1080 x 1350), one story (1080 x 1920), one A5 counter card for print.
• Channels: Email, Instagram, in-store.
• Must include: Logo, "15% off your first three months", the shop's web address.
• Must avoid: Stock photos of people holding mugs. No red, it clashes with the new bags.
• Examples: Two links to other roasters' launch posts. "Like the product shots on plain backgrounds, not the lifestyle ones."
• Brand files: Shared folder from onboarding, updated last month.
• Budget or allowance: Counts as two requests from the monthly retainer.
• Notes: Bag photos are being shot on March 2. Use placeholders until then.

That took the client about ten minutes, and the designer can start without a call. For more on getting clients to answer the questions at all, see how to write a creative brief clients will actually fill in.

Three more creative brief examples

Different jobs stress different fields. These are short on purpose: each one is the brief a designer could start from today.

Example 1: a landing page for a software launch

• Goal: Get trial sign-ups from the new pricing page during launch week.
• Audience: Operations leads at companies with 50 to 200 staff who already use spreadsheets for scheduling.
• Key message: Scheduling that fixes itself when someone calls in sick.
• Deliverables: One landing page design, desktop and mobile, plus two hero image variations to test.
• Must include: The free trial button, the three customer logos they're allowed to show, the security line from legal.
• Must avoid: Screenshots of the old interface. No "revolutionary".
• Approver: Priya, head of marketing.

Example 2: a social campaign for a nonprofit

• Goal: Get 200 volunteers to sign up for the spring river clean-up.
• Audience: People aged 20 to 40 in the city who follow local events accounts.
• Key message: Two hours on a Saturday, and the river is cleaner for a year.
• Deliverables: Five Instagram posts (1080 x 1350), three stories, one Facebook event cover.
• Must include: The date, the sign-up link, the city council partner logo.
• Must avoid: Photos of litter close up. They want hopeful, not grim.
• Approver: Daniel, volunteer coordinator. The board sees it after, not before.

Example 3: a product video for a skincare brand

• Goal: Explain the new two-step routine in under 30 seconds so the product page converts better.
• Audience: Existing customers who already buy the cleanser and haven't tried a serum.
• Key message: Two steps, two minutes, visibly calmer skin in a week.
• Deliverables: One 30-second video (16:9 for the website, 9:16 cut for stories), with captions burned in.
• Must include: Both products in shot, the "dermatologist tested" line, no claims beyond the ones legal approved.
• Must avoid: Before and after photos. Music with lyrics.
• Approver: Lena, brand manager. Legal reviews the script before the shoot.

Notice what changes between them. The software page lives or dies on the message and the button. The campaign needs dates and sizes. The video needs the claims cleared before anyone films. That's why the template keeps "Must include" and "Approver" on every brief, whatever the job.

How to use it

1. Send it when the request arrives, before any estimate, sketch or kickoff call. A brief sent after work has started only records what went wrong.
2. Fill in what you already know first. Brand files, budget and channels are often on record from onboarding. The client should only answer what you can't.
3. Read it back in your own words. Turn the answers into a three-line summary: what we're making, for whom, by when. Send it to the approver.
4. Get a written yes from the approver. The same person signs off on the brief and on the finished work. If someone else wants a say, add them now, not at round two.
5. Keep the brief with the files. Check the final work against it before you send it for sign-off. Our guide to the client approval process covers what happens next.

Using it in Google Docs or Word

The template is plain text, so it pastes cleanly into either.

• Google Docs: paste it into a new doc, turn each field name into a heading, and keep it as your master. For each new project, use File, then Make a copy, and share the copy with the client.
• Word: paste it in, style the field names as headings, and save it as a Word template (.dotx). Each new brief starts from a clean copy.
• Form tools: make each field one question and put the hint in the help text. Use checkboxes for channels and deliverables, because clients answer faster when they pick.

Common mistakes

• Asking too much. Twenty questions look thorough to you and look like homework to the client. Keep the required fields to the ones that prevent a redo, and mark the rest optional.
• Writing the goal as a task. "Make a banner" is the deliverable, not the goal. Ask what the banner should make happen.
• No named approver. Without one, feedback arrives from three people in round two, and they disagree.
• Agreeing the brief on a call and never writing it down. Two weeks later nobody remembers who said "no red". Write it, send it, get the yes.

How Dora does this for you

Most clients will never fill in a form. They send an email that says "can we do something for the spring launch?" and attach a photo.

Dora writes the brief from that first message, whether it arrives in the portal, by email or from the client's own AI tool, and asks the client only for what's missing. If they go quiet, she follows up. Files and decisions stay on the request, so the brief and the final work live in one place, and the client approves the work in one click. If nobody replies, it auto-approves after a few days.

Every hour you spend chasing a client for a deadline or a logo file is an hour you don't bill. See how Dora works as your AI account manager, with every client in their own client portal. Your first client is free, then it's $10 per client per month with unlimited team seats. See pricing.

Frequently asked questions

What should a creative brief include?

A creative brief should include the goal, the audience, the key message, the deliverables and channels, what must be included or avoided, two or three examples, the deadline and one named approver. Anything else is optional and depends on the job.

What does a good creative brief example look like?

A good creative brief example fits on one screen: a goal you can design against, an audience in one sentence, one key message, exact deliverables with sizes, what must be included or avoided, and one named approver. The examples above cover a landing page, a social campaign and a product video.

How long should a creative brief be?

One page is enough for most requests. If a client can't fill it in within ten to fifteen minutes, it's too long. Save longer discovery for big projects like a rebrand or a website build, and run it as a conversation.

Can I use this creative brief template in Google Docs or Word?

Yes. The template is plain text, so it pastes into Google Docs or Word as is. Turn the field names into headings, keep one master copy, and make a fresh copy for each project. In Word you can save it as a .dotx template.

What's different about an ad creative brief?

An ad creative brief adds the specs that paid ads depend on: the offer, the call to action, platforms and placements, every size and video length, how many variations to test, and the landing page each ad points to.

Who should sign off on a creative brief?

One named person on the client side, ideally the same person who will approve the finished work. Getting their yes on the brief before work starts prevents a new reviewer from changing direction at round two.