How We Brief Creators (And Why Most Brands Get It Wrong)

I read a creator brief last month that was eleven pages long. Eleven. For a 60-second video.

It included a shot list, a script, three pages of “brand guidelines,” a list of 14 things the creator couldn't say, a mandatory colour palette for their backdrop, and — my personal favourite — a note that said “please make it feel authentic and unscripted.”

Authentic and unscripted. With a shot list.

I see this all the time and it genuinely baffles me. You're hiring a creator because they have a voice, an audience, a perspective that your brand doesn't have access to. And then you hand them a script. Why? Just make an ad. Save everyone the trouble.

What a Good Brief Actually Looks Like

At Mosaic, our briefs are usually one page. Sometimes less. Here's what goes in:

The context: What's the product, what's the campaign about, who are we trying to reach. Two or three sentences max.

The feeling: Not a mood board with 47 reference images. Just a sentence or two about the energy we're going for. “Warm, personal, like you're showing this to a friend.” That kind of thing.

The non-negotiables: Legal stuff, disclosure requirements, any product claims that need specific wording. We keep this as short as possible.

The creative freedom: This is the biggest section. We tell the creator what the boundaries are and then explicitly say: everything inside those boundaries is yours. Your voice, your setting, your style, your edit.

That's it. One page. Sometimes less.

Why This Works Better

The data on this is actually pretty clear, though not everyone wants to hear it. Creator content that feels genuinely personal consistently outperforms heavily branded content. The engagement rates are higher. The share rates are higher. The sentiment in comments is better.

People can tell when a creator is reading from a script. They can feel when the energy is forced. And they scroll past it. Every time.

The best content we've ever produced came from briefs where the creator was given almost total freedom. The street food campaign — four cities, minimal direction, incredible results. The waist chain project — we gave the creators the cultural context and said “tell your story.” That's what they did. And it was better than anything we could have scripted.

The Trust Problem

I think the real issue is trust. Brands don't trust creators to represent them well. Which is ironic, because they chose those creators specifically for their ability to connect with an audience.

The over-briefing is a control mechanism. If you dictate every shot, every word, every angle, then you can guarantee the output matches your brand guidelines. But you also guarantee that the content will feel like an ad. And the whole point of creator marketing is that it doesn't feel like an ad.

You can't have both. You either trust the creator or you don't. And if you don't, maybe you shouldn't be working with creators at all.

A Practical Suggestion

If you're a brand and your creator briefs are longer than two pages: cut them in half. Then cut them in half again. Keep the legal requirements, lose the shot list. Keep the brand values, lose the script. Give the creator a conversation, not a manual.

You will be surprised — genuinely surprised — by how much better the work gets when you stop trying to control it.

Trust me. I read eleven pages last month. It produced exactly the kind of content you'd expect from an eleven-page brief: technically correct and completely forgettable.