Who's in the Brief?

We call them a "target" audience, language more likely to help Raafat el Hagan than an art director. Or we refer to them simply as customers and consumers, something which implies that is all people do: wait around to buy or devour the things we package, place and promote.

Our mundane approach is, of course, not intentional. There are few unskilled agency or client executives in the Arab communication industry; and we don't set out to write cheesy, eyeball-rolling portrayals. In fact, I've lived the New York agency scene; and practitioners from this region are quite capable of giving execs abroad a run for their money.

Yet the context of our daily tasks seems to affect how we craft each part of the brief. We do deal with far more rushed deadlines than necessary, as well as limited research budgets if any; and we can be more fixated on making campaign material than inspiring it. So we scrape together a description that's either far too literal or lateral—hoping fruitlessly that creatives will stop whinging long enough to understand who their work should wow.

We certainly need to be specific; but what does "Arab expatriates, aged 25 - 40, 8000+ SAR income" really tell us? Could they be ambitious, Francophone traders who are obsessed with team sports; and spend all they earn on creature comforts? Or perhaps frugal engineers, prone to spend their evenings musing in the mosque; and who carefully plan their household budgets, allowing only an occasional splurge on branded technology goods.

But we know all that, right? Account Planners (adspeak for neurotic research analysts) told us years ago that we must be less generic and more human. That's why agencies everywhere—within WPP, Omnicom, InterPublic, Publicis and others—changed formats and re-educated us.

Now we individualize. When we sell watches, we note things like "Masood is a 26 yr. old business student at the University of Hayala. He likes to start every morning with a fresh cup of tea; and then check the time." Or, if we're selling _____ [fill in the blank with soap, detergent, soup, diapers, etc.], we write: "Moza is a 35 yr. old mother of 3. She goes out of her way to feed her family the healthiest food...." And we continue several paragraphs in this vein until we say something about her interaction with the brand.

Some of what we write is accurate. But it's also often shrouded in our creative conjecture on what the reality must be. After all, we understand our brand so we must know everything about who buys it.

We could, however, do a little more, if for no other reason than to appease art directors who rightly but annoyingly grumble that briefs don't always enthuse (although there is much they themselves could do; but that's another piece).

Spend more time among the people we want to persuade.

Clients rarely plop down $20,000 on exploratory focus groups. It may be more useful to actually go where your audience is. For example, drink your morning coffee in a bank branch if you're selling financial services; and talk to depositors and loan applicants there. Take notes; and put those in the brief.

Follow the rule of the common denominator.

People are individuals; yet we try to address millions of them. So, rather than regale creatives with the exploits of Masood and Moza, identify the traits they share. A Leo Burnett Chicago brief carried this depiction: "Young men who are facing a transition in life. These are men with options, not losers, low-lifes or slackers. They are beginning to think about their future." This along with other, focused bits of the brief led to an effective and award winning campaign.

Keep it short, focused and relevant.

Describing the audience should—like the rest of the brief—be precise, concise and meaningful. The whole document should rarely be longer than a page. So if you use more than 5 or 6 sentences, consider editing.

Of course, there really isn't the perfect way to describe would-be patrons of a brand—a fact industry veterans know better than I. Yet while our ads are improving, the best ones are those that have the most concise, informative briefs—including audience profiles—behind them. So the more consistently passionate we are about defining our audience, the more likely we'll be to attract them.