How to Write the Perfect Video Brief
Hint: You Shouldn’t Do It Yourself
Ever sat staring at a blank document titled ‘Creative Video Brief’, the cursor blinking mockingly? Or maybe you’re the opposite: you’ve come prepared with a fully-formed brief, complete with a script and shot list, ready for someone to just press ‘record’.
Whether you’re faced with a blank page or a finished script, the solution is the same, and it’s the most important piece of advice in this entire guide: You should not write your video brief alone. And by alone, we mean within your organisations brand echo chamber.
Let’s be blunt. Handing a video team a locked-in brief and telling them to just shoot it is a recipe for a missed opportunity. We love the enthusiasm, but for us to simply run with it without question would be a massive disservice to you. You’re hiring us for our expertise, and that includes the ability to spot potential problems and find creative solutions you haven’t thought of. If you were a video expert, you wouldn’t need us!
Our professional integrity means we simply can’t nod, take your money, and agree to an approach if our experience tells us it won’t get you the results you need. Would you be confident if you had drawn some basic plans for a new house, and when you gave it to your chosen builder, they just glanced at it and went off to start building it? We have a duty to tell you if your chosen path will lead to a video you won’t be happy with. It’s about protecting your investment and making sure it pays off spectacularly.
The secret to an incredible video lies in collaboration. The magic happens when you, the expert on your brand, team up with us, the experts on storytelling.
So let’s say it one more time: don’t write the brief without a video professional by your side. Your real mission is to become an information gatherer. Collect the crucial strategic ingredients, and then, together, we can craft a brief that’s a launchpad for creative brilliance.
Here are the five key areas to explore to get that information.
1. Video Brief: What’s the Point? Define Your Project’s Purpose
Every video must have a purpose. But let’s go deeper than just ‘entertain’ or ‘educate’. We believe the goal of great video content is to inspire a change in your audience. So in your video brief, we need to establish how you want them to think, feel, or act differently after watching.
The best way to pin this down is to define the desired shift with a simple phrase:
“I want to inspire the audience to change their mind/attitude/behaviour from mental status A, to mental status B.”
- Status A is where they are now. Perhaps it’s indifference to your service, or a specific belief they hold, like: “Using a mobile phone whilst driving isn’t that bad.”
- Status B is the transformation you want to see. It’s the ‘aha!’ moment, the desired outcome: “Wow, using a mobile phone whilst driving is really dangerous, I’m going to stop doing that from now on.”
Nailing this A-to-B journey is the absolute foundation of your video brief.
2. Video Brief: Who Are We Talking To? Brand, Audience & Empathy
Now it’s time to get into the hearts and minds of the people involved: your brand and your audience. Empathy is your superpower here. For your vidoe brief, you need to create rich, detailed pictures of who you are and who you’re talking to.
Think about iconic brands like Harley Davidson, Apple, or Coca-Cola. What words and feelings come to mind? What defines their customers? They’re not just selling motorbikes, computers, or fizzy drinks. They’re selling freedom, innovation, and happiness.
Apply that same logic.
- Describe your brand’s identity. Are you a wise mentor? A playful innovator? A reliable best friend?
- Describe your audience persona. Go beyond demographics. What do they worry about? What makes them laugh? What are their secret ambitions?
The more vivid these descriptions are, the easier it will be to create a video brief that genuinely connects.
3. Why Should They Care? Your Value Proposition
You know your product is brilliant. But how does that brilliance actually make a difference in your customer’s life? This step in the video brief is about understanding the real-world impact of what you offer.
It’s crucial to distinguish between your intended value and the perceived value.
- Intended Value Proposition: This is what you believe you offer. Think about the specific features of your product, the gain creators (how it adds benefits), and the pain relievers (how it solves problems).
- Perceived Value Proposition: This is what the customer actually gets from it in their life. What goal are they trying to achieve, and how does your offering help them get there? What will they truly gain in a real-world context?
Great video content lives in the sweet spot where what you intend and what they perceive line up perfectly.
4. Video Brief: What Does It Look Like? Brainstorm Imagery That Matters
At last, we get to the pictures! Video is a visual medium, after all. But the imagery you choose has to do more than just look pretty; it has to tell the right story.
Have a brainstorm and jot down ideas for three distinct categories of imagery:
- Imagery for the ‘WHAT’: These are visuals that explain what your brand actually does. Think product shots, software screengrabs, or your service in action. It’s the literal story.
- Imagery for the ‘HOW’: This is imagery that shows how your brand delivers. It could be shots of your skilled team, your state-of-the-art technology, or your unique process. It builds trust and credibility.
- Imagery for the ‘WHY’: This is the big one. These are visuals that help explain why your brand exists. Think of the smiling faces of satisfied customers, the positive impact on the community, or visuals that evoke the core emotion behind your mission. This is what inspires.
It doesn’t need to be as detailed as a storyboard, just a written description that helps give your vidoe brioef a vision to work with.
5. Video Brief: Where Does It Fit? The Audience Journey
A video rarely exists in a vacuum. It’s a single step on a longer customer journey. Understanding where your video fits is essential to its success.
This five-step process has been a staple in marketing for decades. For your video brief, you need to define which stage it’s for:
- Need Recognition: Helping someone realise they have a problem you can solve.
- Information Search: Introducing your brand to people who’ve never heard of you.
- Evaluating Alternatives: Providing the details they need as they compare options.
- Purchase: Giving them that final nudge to convert.
- Post-Purchase: Supporting them after the sale to build loyalty and advocacy.
A video for the Awareness stage will look and feel completely different to one for the Post-Purchase stage. So, decide which stage you’re targeting, which platforms it will be on (LinkedIn, YouTube, your website?), and crucially, what the next step is after they’ve watched it.
You’ve Done the Hard Work! Now, Let’s Talk.
See? You haven’t written a single line of a formal brief, but you’ve just gathered all the strategic gold dust a creative team needs to get started.
This is the information that turns a good idea into a great video. Armed with these answers, you can now have a truly productive conversation with a video professional. Together, you can take these core ingredients and cook up the perfect, actionable video brief that will lead to a video that doesn’t just get views—it gets results.
Ready to turn your insights into an incredible video? You’ve now got the strategy, we’ve got the creative spark. Get in touch today, and let’s write your perfect brief together.
