5. “Give me the freedom of a tight brief” - David Ogilvy.

Imagine someone says: “Make me dinner.”

The best answer to that question isn't what they want you to make, but “Why?” Not in the sense of “Why on Earth would I make you dinner?” (although, that might be fair), but in terms of “What are they trying to achieve with this dinner? What’s the objective?”.

Are they trying to impress someone? Or lose weight?

Do they want something that makes them feel special, or just something to use up what's in the fridge before the Ocado van arrives?

Just like dinner plans, briefs need to be clear about what they’re trying to achieve. A brief that’s clear in what it is trying to do but perhaps underpowered in terms of product information will always lead to better work that the other way around.

The best communications (no matter the product, the audience or the medium) are clear and single-minded. We can't expect our marketing to be any more focused on achieving our objective than we are in stating it.

So, resist the temptation to add in every metric you want to improve, just in case your current project happens to improve it. Think about what's most reasonable to focus on for this piece of work, and then allow the work to focus on it.