Why PROs must always give a clear brief

Getting the early stages right of PR campaigns is vital. If a campaign fails to pinpoint its aims, or communicates to the wrong audience, no matter how brilliant the creative work is it’s not going to get results. So if you are briefing PR specialists, objectives need to be crystal clear and you must know exactly who you are targeting.

“If a brief is not accurate then how can the client or prospect expect the response to be accurate?“ says Rikki Weir, board director at PR agency Cirkle. It is not just the client who needs to take time with the brief, it is also the agency’s responsibility to make sure it interprets it correctly. Weir says: “If a brief appears unclear when given, PROs should have the confidence to speak up and ask for clarification. We often find that writing the brief for/with clients is a foolproof method and they appreciate the input and leadership from the outset.”

As well as being clear about the aims, and audience, a good brief needs to have a well-thought-out media strategy and a plan to evaluate the campaign and, of course, a realistic budget. In researching this feature, it was surprising how many PR agencies came forward claiming that they had been asked to work for free.

Craig McGill, managing director of PR agency Contently Managed gives one example where a client thought that a tiny reward would be enough to pay for a comprehensive campaign: "One drinks brand wanted a top-tier service for six months, but wasn't going to pay anything. Instead, it told the PR firm it would throw a party at the end of the period – as long as it was happy with the results."

As well as being prepared to pay a PR specialist for a campaign, clients should only ask for PR advice if there is genuine intention to build a professional relationship, rather than fish for ideas for free. Being penny-pinching initially can work out expensive in the long term. It is a wise investment to work with PR experts who offer the best advice and service rather than choosing the cheapest who then fail to meet key communication aims.

As well as receiving briefs from clients, PROs also receive briefs from the media. These are great opportunities to showcase brands, but these chances can be wasted if PROs fail to deliver, by providing content that suits their clients, rather than the commissioning editors. Author and journalist Peter Bartram says that over the years, he has briefed literally hundreds of PR people to provide articles for newspapers and magazines he has edited. He complains: “One thing that sometimes goes wrong is that PROs allow their client to change the brief – I have known cases where it's been changed to a completely different subject! As I point out in seminars, this is fatal and undermines the long-term relationship between an editor and PR professional. Editors commission more work from PROs who meet the brief they've been given."

Effective communication is always a two-way process. It is up to those briefing to be precise about what they want, and it is up to PROs to meet these aims exactly. And if it isn’t clear what the objectives are, ask!

Five tips from Job Muscroft, managing director of marketing specialists Face 
and member of the creative collective Co-Creation Hub-London, on how clients, agencies and media can ideally work together to meet any PR objectives:

1. Client leadership
You need to have the right person in charge of the brief, someone with the vision to shape a tight and realistic brief and make quick decisions about which ideas to bank, park and progress.

2. The right stakeholder team
When choosing the team to meet the brief you need to ask a few questions: Which departments and agencies do I need buy-in from? Who can inspire customers about our product? Who has a creative mindset? Who can help from a brand, PR, technical or supply-chain perspective?

3. Roles and responsibilities
When you have shortlisted a team, give them clear roles and responsibilities throughout the process. Ensure you have creative types working directly with customers and more analytical types observing and feeding back at key decision points.

4. Experts
You should identify key experts to be involved in the process, for example it is crucial to involve PR experts to take communications forward. The role of experts as inspiration for creativity should not be underestimated, think about bringing in trend and cultural experts alongside more specific technical experts.

5. Have fun
Finally, when you have this solid foundation in place remember to have fun with your audience, whether they are consumers or other businesses. Create a "yes and" atmosphere where all ideas are welcome.