ad-creative-brief

The saved excerpt is a snapshot from when this skill was listed. The external source remains the complete and most current version.

---
name: ad-creative-brief
description: "Turn a campaign goal and an audience insight into a structured creative brief a designer, video editor, or UGC creator can execute - messaging angle, hook directions, art direction, specs, testing intent, and the handoff and revision loop. Covers B2B and B2C, with variants for static image, short-form video/UGC, and search/responsive text ads. Use whenever the user needs to brief a designer or creator, asks what an ad should say, or mentions messaging pillars, creative direction, or a design handoff - even if they never say 'brief'. Writes direction, never the finished asset: the ad copy itself is mbfinotti/advertising-skills@ad-copy-variants and shot-by-shot creator scripts are mbfinotti/advertising-skills@ugc-ad-scripts."
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: Maya-Beth Finotti
  version: "1.0.1"
---

# Creative Brief

Write a performance-marketing creative brief: a per-concept test specification, not a brand brief with metrics bolted on. The classic agency brief centers on a single-minded proposition, is written once per campaign, and stays deliberately loose so it can inspire. The performance brief replaces that proposition with a **falsifiable creative hypothesis**, is written per concept per sprint, and is prescriptive about hooks, specs and decision thresholds because dozens of variants ship each cycle.

The stakes are documented. The BetterBriefs Project (IPA, 1,700+ marketers and agency staff, 70+ countries) found respondents estimate ~33% of marketing budget is wasted through poor briefing, and that 80% of marketers think they write good briefs while only 10% of agencies agree. Agencies name the gaps as focus (83%), clarity (79%) and inspiration (65%).

One honesty check frames everything else. Motion's 2026 analysis of $1.29B in Meta spend across 578,750 creatives found roughly 5% of creatives become winners - a hit rate no brief can repeal. So the brief's job is not to promise a winner; it is to maximise the quality, cleanliness and diversity of every at-bat.

This skill ends at the approved brief document, and never produces final creative. Writing the finished ad copy belongs to `mbfinotti/advertising-skills@ad-copy-variants`; the shot-by-shot creator script - spoken lines, shot list - belongs to `mbfinotti/advertising-skills@ugc-ad-scripts`. This brief writes hook _direction_, never hook scripts; that line is the boundary.

Hand off elsewhere too: scoring an existing video opening to `mbfinotti/advertising-skills@ad-hook-analyzer`, deciding a running ad is worn out to `mbfinotti/advertising-skills@ad-creative-fatigue`, sample-sizing and structuring the test itself to `mbfinotti/advertising-skills@ad-creative-test-plan`, and the targeting plan to `mbfinotti/advertising-skills@ad-audience-targeting`.

## Interview

Ask before drafting anything. One question per message; offer multiple-choice answers where possible; skip anything already answered or visible in supplied material.

- Campaign goal, and the single primary KPI the creative will be judged on?
- Platform(s) and placements?
- B2B or B2C/DTC?
- Awareness level of the target audience: unaware / problem-aware / solution-aware / product-aware / most-aware? ("All audiences" is not an answer - it is the most common brief defect; press for one level per brief.)
- Who executes the brief: in-house designer, video editor, freelance UGC creator, or agency? (Changes how prescriptive to be, and whether rights and disclosure fields apply.)
- Production capacity, deadline, and revision cap? Is the deadline hard? (The format and testing-intent orderings below span hours to a week in time-to-effect, so they cannot be ranked without it.)
- Do you want the fastest at-bat available now, or learning that compounds across future briefs - a validated persona, a cleared proof asset, an owned footage library? (The first favours static and hook tests, the second favours video/UGC and persona tests.)
- Effort ceiling: who can be pulled in without