How To: Creative Briefs for Churches

I've seen a lot of approaches to new projects within the church. Some include multiple round-robin meetings that seem to never end. Some directions are delivered from on high. More often than not, there's not a team at all - just one person with a deadline and hopefully a good idea. (This may have something to do with the church structure itself though; read more here). It's shocking that with so many policies and processes, that our creative teams often fall short of even the most basic of structures. So in an effort to at least start with something, I bring to you the simplest of structures that even the most anti-type-A creative can stomach: the creative brief, unplugged addition.

What you'll need:

A piece of paper or a whiteboard because we both know that makes things more official
A pen or marker
30 minutes of your (and hopefully your team's) time

What you'll do:

Draw out 4 quadrants (fancy term for boxes; we're keeping it official here, people)
Write each of the following questions in it's own quadrant
Save the last question for you know, last. It doesn't want to be put in a box. Give it it's own space or it's own piece of paper, or maybe make it the title of this whole thing - your call.

1. What are we selling?

I went back and forth on this one quite a bit. In my experience, churches don't like the "s" word. Ultimately, I say we keep it real - we are selling something. Whether it's an idea, for free, an experience, you name it. So if this bugs you, feel free to change it to a lesser loaded word. Perhaps "advertising" or "promoting." I'll stick with selling.

This seems like a simple question, but it tends to be the simpler questions that keep us stumped. If your team can't agree on what exactly you're meeting on then it may suggest a lack of clarity on leadership's part. Do you need to have another meeting prior to this one? Did your four week sermon series morph into an all summer theme complete with kick-off and community outreach event? If you aren't clear on the "what," then stop here. Get clarity. Don't be afraid to spend the entire time hashing this out.

2. Who are we selling to?

This is your quintessential target market question.

After working with hundreds of churches, the most common pitfall I hear goes back to the old emotions vs. thinking struggle. You want to be inclusive. You don't want to say, "this event isn't for you." At the same time, maybe it's not for everybody and that's okay. Focusing on a specific person or demographic doesn't mean that you don't care about others, it simply helps you to emphasize to that group, this time. If you have multiple kids, you understand. You don't have favorites, but one-on-one time is important.

Keep in mind, when you target everybody, you reach nobody.

3. What do they think?

Are you noticing that these all build on each other yet? Take your first answer (your "what") and combine it with your second answer (your "who"). What do the people you're talking to already think about what you're communicating? If it's a sermon series on say, marriage, consider how many married couples are in the room. Consider your divorce rate. Keep in mind other marriage resources that may contribute to their view. Think through your theology. Perhaps your conclusion is, "these people think marriage is forever," or maybe they think "marriage is hard," or even "I'll never be married."

In this part, you meet people where they are at. You can't teach someone something new if you don't know where their foundation is. Likewise, you can't sell them something they don't yet need.

4. What do you want them to think?

Time to put those communication skills to the test. We know what we're selling. We know who we're talking to and what they think of us. Now how do we change that? Sometimes I hear things like "we're not trying to change people," or "they already think what I want them to." If that's the case, I want to challenge you to go just one step deeper. Push back on that a little bit. If you are trying to teach a person something that they already know, then what's the point? You're wasting your time.

Take a moment to really consider that.

This may mean that you'll need to begin developing some decision making authority with your senior leadership if you haven't before. As a church, you may shy away from hot button topics but even politically correct ones have two sides. We don't want to be communicating white noise in an already media saturated culture, so make sure you have something useful to contribute.

Conclusion: Why?

If you manage to get this far, this is what the advertising world calls the "USP" or Unique Selling Proposition. Are you eating what you're cooking? How or why does your message/event/project solve the problem or the gap that you've figured out above? Then, what makes you unique.

Being in Texas, there's a church on every corner, so striving to always do something that's never been done before can seem daunting. Instead of focusing on what others are doing, try to put yourself into your target's spot. Even if an idea is borrowed from another church or a Pinterest inspiration, it's still new to them and it might be exactly what they need, at this time, in this place. You have the ability to uniquely reach people right where they are because you know them better than anybody else.

Try to make this last part into a single sentence. It'll help your designers, copywriters, videographers, etc. have a clear creative direction. A brief will also help them to have enough structure to build on, but enough space to create. It takes them along the same thought journey that you had and allows them to come to the same conclusion on their own.

If you're looking for more in-depth or detail oriented briefs, check out these free resources: