How to Craft an Effective Video Brief for Your Production Team

Some of the video briefs we’ve received over the years have been… well, brief. 

We totally get it - when you’re working up a wider campaign, the video content is only one piece in a larger puzzle and you’ve often got a hundred other things to think about. 

If you’ve ever worked with us, you’ll know that the Bold Yellow team are really good at turning even the least-developed video ideas into something wonderful - that’s what decades of experience are good for. 

But generally-speaking, a brief that’s had a bit of thought put into it is a Good Thing all round. That’s because it helps us clarify what you want to achieve, what’s doable within the budget, and basically ensures we’re all on the same page from the outset. 

So what does an effective video brief look like? Read on.

What’s the overall objective? 

Try to summarise in a short sentence or two what you see as the purpose of the video. Is it about introducing your brand to new customers? Launching a new product? Telling a time-sensitive story? Celebrating an event? Everything else follows from this - so try to give us a solid objective. 

What are the key elements to include?

You will probably already have a good idea of some key aspects of the video. For example - whether the video should be animation or live action, include particular interviews with relevant spokespeople, or feature a voiceover. There may also be key visuals that need to be included, for example specific relevant b-roll to help illustrate the story. If you know any of that at the outset - let us know. 

Who is your target audience? 

We don’t need detailed demographics - but we want a sense of who you need the video to resonate with. Are you targeting 18-24s? Tech enthusiasts? Concerned parents? The clearer the picture, the more we can tailor the video to really appeal to that audience. 

Where is the video going? 

This may iterate as your campaign thinking develops - but it’s good to know the main platform(s) you’re targeting, and whether it’s a paid or organic campaign. This will also help inform… 

What’s the format and length? 

A 30s vertical (9:16) video for Instagram Reels needs a different approach to a 2 minute 16:9 video for your website - and while we can certainly deliver both of those (and anything in between), it will make life a lot easier if we have a good sense of the deliverables from the outset. It will also potentially impact on the budget.

What are the key messages? 

If you’re looking for us to get involved in scripting and narrative structure - and please do, because we’re really good at that - it will help us a lot if you can set out some of the key messages you need the video to hit. Some bullet points and a few links to more info will be all we need to get going. 

Any thoughts on style / tone / creative direction? 

You may already know that the video needs to fit within a wider campaign that has a very defined look and feel. You may just know you want it to be approachable and fun. It also helps us if you can share any examples of relevant videos you’ve seen and liked - and equally, any examples of what you absolutely don’t want it to be. 

It’s also helpful to know if you have initial ideas about use of on-screen graphics or branding - and if so, links to brand guidelines are always really useful for us. 

Timeline and budget 

We’ll deal with the easiest one first - timeline. For now, just let us know when the video needs to go live - and working backwards from there, any obvious interim deadlines you know you need to meet. We can work through the finer detail of the production schedule at a later stage. 

When it comes to budget, we appreciate that it may be relatively open at the briefing stage - but if you can give us even a fairly loose ballpark or range of budget, it will help us to focus on a response to the brief that is affordable for you and achievable by us. We’re always fair when it comes to budgeting, and we can often give you a few options at different price points within an established range, which will help you decide the approach that’s best overall. 

Whether you’ve got time to write a detailed brief, or just want to chat through some of these questions over the phone - we’ve always got the time to listen and understand what your objectives are.

We want to ensure we’re delivering something that exceeds your expectations, so let’s get the basics locked down from the start.