Update: to be up-to-date, check out the second draft of the AdHack Ad Brief.

Here it is, the business end of ad production, the Brief.

So why do you care?

The Brief helps you sell your ads. Sure, you might sell ads without a Brief, but a Brief boosts your chances.

The Brief acts as the bridge between ad planning and ad execution. Between the ideas, requirements and bumph and the ad itself.

All ad agencies use some form of a brief to communicate standard information required to create an ad. Many resemble mortgage applications, all boxes and lines and required fields. We figure you can think without boxes.

In an AdHack context, the Brief will be lean and mean. We’ll suggest it for guidance. We won’t require you to use it. But we recommend it.

The Brief just makes it easy for an ad buyer to say ‘yes’ to your ad. And easy beats hard. And yes beats no answer.

So I introduce the first draft of the AdHack Brief, to evolve as needed. Feedback and input, greatly desired.

1 — Goals
What are the desired outcome(s) from the ad. Create a list of them. Arrange the list in order of priority. Remember that the more goals, the more dilluted each one. Great ads tend to be focused on one clear goal. Say it and do it.

2 — Audience
Who does the ad to matter to? Focus on the key attributes of the people you want to reach, and only the attributes relevant to making the ad relevant to them. This might be a mindset, a profession, an anxiety, a trait. Any attributes that helps with executing the ad.

3 — Context
How will the audience encounter the ad? If the ad persists how might that change from the first encounter to later encounters? Consider other ads for the same product, competitors ads, physical space, timing. Anything that influences perception and action.

4 — Promises
A double whammy:

1. Ad promise: what does your ad promise to its audience? The audience should know it from the first impression. It might be a boasting ad, touting a product. Or a confessional story of an experience.
2. Product promise: what does the product promise to its users? This should be the lasting impression of the audience. It could be blunt and explicit (no more leaks!) or soft and suggestive (you’ll become a real man).

These 2 promises tend to be separate yet dependent on each other. Longer, more immersive ad forms (video, audio) need more emphasis on the ad promise while shorter, more evident ad forms (static images) focus on the product promise. But both need the other.

5 — Proof
How does your product promise become irrefutable? What external evidence can you offer to bolster your case and make it more believeable? Again, this can be blunt and explicit (4 out of 5 dentists) or soft and suggestive (a subtle cue of the value of use). It can also be negative proof of the consequences of not using a product.

6 — Tone
What note does the ad strike? Is it an insider or outsider? Is it loud or quiet? Aggressive? Comfortable? Peaceful? Energetic? What feeling do you want to create in the audience encountering the ad? Go into a little detail on the relevant tone needed to communicate the message to the audience. It must be consistent with other sections of the Brief.

7 — Requirements
What requirements must be adhered to? This can include technical (must be a certain duration / resolution / dimension / etc.), legal (cannot show people drinking the beer) and practical requirements (Hamburgler never speaks, he just says, ‘Rubble, rubble.’).

8 — Directions
Non-negotiable details. Specific directions to follow. Specific limitations of the ad. Nothing fancy, just clarity.

9 — Executions
How does your one ad extend to additional executions? How does it apply to promotional events? To another media type? To a follow-on ad? Sketch out how you imagine the ad evolving and how additional, possible versions of the ad could happen. Sometimes these alternate scenarios become winning scenarios. If you can’t win with reason, win with volume.

Update: Here’s also a great article from Slate on the 12 types of ads that pretty clearly lays out the formats for all ads. It’s like a map of ad genres. Recommended!