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Briefing · Creative Strategy · Agency

You waste 33% of your money in the briefing

A weak brief wastes budget before the creative work starts. A strong brief translates strategy into a task that people can understand, judge and execute.

With Prof. Dr. Sebastian Wolf, Professor of Advertising and Strategic Brand Management · Stuttgart Media University

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Artwork for The Evergreen Playbook episode "You waste 33% of your money in the briefing" featuring Prof. Dr. Sebastian Wolf.Video coming soon

Show notes

David Göz speaks with Prof. Dr. Sebastian Wolf about one of the most underestimated leverage points in marketing: the brief.

Sebastian shares a practical briefing playbook — from recognising when you are in a briefing to judging creative work against the original brief. The conversation covers why templates do not replace thinking, why vague objectives create subjective feedback loops, and how rebriefing helps check whether the translation between client and agency actually worked.

Sebastian also runs Meisterbriefing, a resource for marketers, strategists and agency teams who want to brief better.

In my opinion, the brief is the most important document in marketing. More important than analytics reports or your brand identity deck. Nothing is as important as the brief, and it's really easy to nail it if you understand the four steps I'm going to tell you about.

— Prof. Dr. Sebastian Wolf

Briefing and brief writing isn't as much writing as it is thinking and talking and communicating.

— Prof. Dr. Sebastian Wolf

People focus too much on the document, the brief, and too little on the briefing, the communication itself.

— Prof. Dr. Sebastian Wolf

Think it. Don't write it. Think the brief. It's really the essence of a strategy and not just some document you can push from one side to another.

— Prof. Dr. Sebastian Wolf

If you just copy paste, you don't reduce it to the main ideas that you want to get across. And then people are confused.

— David Göz

The Playbook

The core principles from this conversation.

  1. 1 Recognise briefing — it happens more than you think
  2. 2 Answer five questions before you brief anyone
  3. 3 Treat the brief as thinking, not paperwork
  4. 4 Decide: should this brief inspire or set boundaries?
Read the full playbook

The Guest

Portrait of Prof. Dr. Sebastian Wolf

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Wolf

Professor of Advertising and Strategic Brand Management · Stuttgart Media University

Sebastian Wolf is a professor at Stuttgart Media University and the creator of Meisterbriefing. Before academia, he worked for more than ten years as a copywriter, creative director and strategist in agencies.

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Further reading