Great topic and excellent post.

The Creative Brief is one of the most fundamentally valuable and equally dismissed tools in the marketing communications process.  I have seen, and been guilty of committing, several common, egregious abuses to and with this important piece of documentation from both the Agency and Client side.  Some of the significant crimes that I'm sure we are all familiar with include:

- Its Not That Hard - The basis for everything we do is simple; Objective - Strategy - Tactic.  If the Creative Brief cant state the Objective and relate the basic Strategy (Brand &amp; Media) in clear, concise language there is likely a lack of understanding of the Brand or the definition for success (or worse both).  A recipe for failure.

- The Cut &amp; Paste - All to often those who are tasked with generating this piece of guidance draft the document by cutting &amp; pasting larger portions of text from previous Briefs.  "If it was right before, it would be right for this"; "There isn't time to write a Brief"; "Every one knows this already" is a sign of lazy thinking.  It's not uncommon to see language or typos that don't make any sense because the section that was lifted isn't relevant.  If a project is important enough to warrant the use of any resources it is important enough to do the thinking.  An important role of the Creative Brief is to have the Account Manager / Marketer really stop and think about the challenge/opportunity that is being proposed.

Rules Kill Creativity - The Creative Brief is very often a point of contention as it is the most common "battlefield" in the age old struggle between Account and Creative.  However, what is often seen as either a means to control the "Creatives" or a yoke of restriction by the "Suits" is the best opportunity for translation and diplomacy.  You cant find success if you don't define the problem and setting parameters (be it time, budget, Brand values, tone, etc.) allows the incredibly valuable and finite resources of the Creative team to be focused and for deeper exploration.

The Over / Under - Too often creators of the Creative Brief loose sight of the intention and possibilities for the document and over-step; seeing it as an opportunity to be a copywriter or art director.  The purpose of the Brief is to define the challenge and provide the informational support to allow for best solutions to be found - not to solve the problem itself.  Equally the Creative Brief is the best opportunity to provide all the support and information for the Creative team but is often under-developed.  You never know where the spark of inspiration will come from so take the opportunity to be as complete as possible.

Written is Done - One of the biggest missed opportunities with the Creative Brief process is conversation.  A document dropped in an in-box or attached to an e-mail is a wasted investment of the time spent to create it.  The Brief as much as a strategic document should be the instigator of discussion between Account and Creative; Client and Agency.  A collective review of the document between the hands-on parties involved will create better solutions and a better process by creating a forum and guide for discussion and exploration.

These are just a few basics that will help anyone involved in the process be more effective, create better communications, protect investment and prevent Strategy from being lost in Translation.