The brief is the only part of a campaign that editors actually read, and it is the thing every edit is measured against when the campaign ends. It is worth an hour.
It is also the document that decides what you pay for. An edit that broke the brief earns nothing and you are not charged for it, which means a precise brief is not bureaucracy. It is the mechanism.
Where the brief sits
The builder runs Type, then the subject of the campaign, then Budget, then Brief, then Review.
Music campaigns ask for the track on step two.
Content campaigns ask for the campaign on step two.
Logo campaigns ask for the brand on step two.
By the time you reach the brief you have already decided what is being promoted and what you are paying. The brief is where you say what an edit has to do.
Two lists, and the second one matters more
Requirements are split into what gets an edit approved and what gets it rejected. Editors see both exactly as you write them.
Most people spend their effort on the approved list. The rejected list is the one that earns its keep. It is where you say what your brand cannot be next to, and it is the list a reviewer leans on hardest at the end of a campaign.
Write the rejected list as though somebody is going to argue with you about it, because occasionally somebody will. "Nothing political" is a debate. "No political content, no news footage, no real-world violence" is not.
What belongs in a brief
Keep it concrete. Every line should be something a person can check by watching the edit.
- What is being promoted, in one sentence, including anything an editor would not know from the name.
- What the edit should be about, if the subject matters. Genre, fandom, mood, use case.
- Anything that must appear, and for how long. A logo on screen for three seconds is checkable. A logo that is prominent is not.
- What the edit must not contain. Be specific and be exhaustive.
- Any caption, tag or wording requirement.
- Examples. Two or three posts showing the shape you want beat a paragraph describing it.
- The resources an editor needs. Logo files, artwork, footage, a link to the sound.
What to leave out
A brief is not a brand book. Rules an editor cannot check while making the edit are noise, and noise makes the rules that matter harder to find.
- Anything about style you do not actually mind. Every constraint narrows the pool of editors who will take it on.
- Aspirations. "Make it go viral" is not a requirement.
- Rules you are not prepared to reject an edit over. A rule you will not enforce teaches editors the rest are optional too.
The limits are part of the brief
Alongside the written rules, a campaign can set numbers: the most any one post or account can earn, a minimum view count before an edit earns at all, a minimum engagement rate, a follower floor, a minimum duration, and a cap on how many edits one account may submit.
These are printed on the campaign page with everything else, so an editor sees them before starting rather than discovering them afterwards. Set the ones you need and leave the rest alone.
One thing worth knowing before you write it
How much the brief is carrying depends on the campaign type. A music campaign is tied to a TikTok sound, so there is an objective link between an edit and the campaign.
Logo and content campaigns have no equivalent. They are read by a person against your brief, which means the brief is doing all of the work. If you are running one, spend the extra half hour.