7 Different Types Of Brief

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Contractual
Negotiated
Formal
Informal
Commission
Tender
Competition

What is a brief?
A brief is essentially a letter that provides you with information on what
your task is should you chose to accept it. The brief should provide
information about what is required, when is it required by and exactly how
the writers of the brief would like it to be, providing you with as much
choice and chance to show creativity as they so please.
There are 7 types of briefs in this world as you can see above, I would like
to discuss the positives and negatives of each of these briefs, starting with
contractual.
Contractual Brief
A contractual brief is literally what it says in the name, it is a type of brief
that contracts you to do as you are asked, once you chose you accept it
you have no choice. A case where a brief like this would be used is when a
media company is employed by the client in order to complete something
(project) set with the specific guidelines that this client wants. It is usually
a contractual brief as it is very important for the media company to follow
the exact instructions of the client and stay within the brief, almost like a
law. If they fail to do this there may be consequences such as legal actions
taking place or perhaps a full refund and more to the client. Companys
such as the BBC would follow a brief like this. An advantage of a
contractual brief would be it gives the company an idea of what the client
wants and how to achieve it, along with initiating a stable price range
where the client and the employer will agree on the set income. A
disadvantage would be that the client may be given a heavy workload
which will strain them along with never being able to follow the same
organisation plan as each clients will require different things.

Below is an example of a contractual brief.

Formal Brief
A formal brief is a document that includes all the necessary detailed
information about what the client wants the company to achieve, the brief
will usually be easy to read, understand and will be straightforward which
refrains from including any unwanted information that doesnt help and
potentially confuses people. A problem with this brief is that it may not be
classified as a legal document. An advantage of this type of brief is that as
the document itself is clear, as well as specific and concise, it lacks in any
form of complexity and refrains from including extended legal terms with
its walls, it is not always a legal binding document which could be seen as

a positive or negative thing but will take some tension out, the company
can express their opinions and therefore suggest, as well as having the
ability to work around the contract. Disadvantages of this brief would be
that the contract is very general in some senses, as opposed to the
structure of a regular contract which is displayed in a lot more detail. The
employer as well as the client may disagree on the terms of each others
decisions and as there is no legal binding it can be quite a risky
brief/contract to sign up to.
Below is an example of a formal brief.

Informal Brief
An informal brief is less professional than that of a traditional brief that
would outline the project verbally, as this particular type of brief does not
require any means of a written document. There is a discussion conducted
between the client and the employer, where they will come to a general
agreement over the details of the contract. An advantage of this type of

brief is that there is no real guideline to the brief and it is very free
meaning that the company in charge of the task can make of it what they
like and the employer will be allowed to manoeuver and influence their
own opinions into the document before the client finalises and finances it.
A disadvantage of this type of brief would be that the expectations
proclaimed by the client may differ and change, along with interfering
with the employers plans, who may not want to perform a task involves a
heavy workload and could potentially disinterest the client into giving
them work, and they may look elsewhere for an individual to complete
their project.
Below is an example of an informal brief

Negotiated brief
A negotiated brief is the nicest of the briefs in my opinion, this is where
the client and the employer will come to a specific and specified
agreement upon the brief of the given project, this will include the final
ideas of both the employer as well as the client, it is important that the
client and employer/company agree on the brief as well, or it will cause
inevitable problems in the future when the time comes that they both
have individual ideas. Advantages of this brief would be that it brings the

ideas of the client and the employer together that could perhaps create
even better ideas than they originally had, it merges them into one
creating a brief that is suitable for both, employer and client. This means
that they are less likely to quarrel and argue in the future over the terms
of the legal agreement and contract. A disadvantage of this type of brief is
that when the client and the employer have to Negotiate their brief they
may come to disagreements that could result in the employer losing the
potential work and the client having to look again for perhaps a worse
finished product at the end, they may deny the requirements stated by
the client as well which means that the client may siphon their project out
to someone else.
Below is an example of a negotiated brief.

Commission Brief
A commission brief is
where a large corporation
such as a newspaper The Sun, The Daily Mail, employ an independent
company to create their product/project for them much like Disney and

Pixar do. It is notable that this type of brief is negotiated between two
media companies, as opposed to an external client who may receive the
product once it has been established. Again there are advantages and
disadvantages, an advantage is that the independent production company
will be paid for creating the specific product, and may receive a fraction of
the profit that will be generated by the actual product once is has been
distributed to all its target audience and intended consumers. A
disadvantage for this would be that when the product has been launched,
the large company may develop a sense of corporate greed, and not give
the independent institution enough credit for their work and contribution
towards the finished product. Or pay them a sufficient amount of money
for all their hard work. This creates an unfair advantage which may lead
the independent business to complain to the large company, which could
prevent them from working for the giant corporation in the future as of the
new intensity.
Below is an example of a Commission Brief.

Tender Brief
The definition of a Tender Brief is when a client will produce an
advertisement stating that they require a media product to be created for
example. Then, a potential employer such as a production company
initiates a brief, a budget, as well as a proposal, which is then pitched to
the client in order to secure their chance of obtaining the work that was
previously advertised by the employer. The client will then decide upon
the most impressive proposal featured fro, their group of candidates. An

advantage of this could be that as there is a lot of competition, the

employer will be more determined and motivated to produce a highquality proposal that will secure them the work for the client, therefore
this will up the game and ideas of the other proposals which will benefit
the client even more. This will also make the production company more
productive as a company, as they will be thinking of the income in which
they will receive upon the completion of the task provided to them. A
disadvantage would be for this type of brief that because of the
competition, an employer is likely to be disheartened over losing the work
set by the client, to another company. It can be difficult for an employer to
gain work and could potentially get a bit nasty and gritty as its
competitive. It can be difficult for an employer to gain work, due to the
other employers who also want to get the job. A company has to expect
failure so that they can look for temporary employment elsewhere.
Below is an example of a Tender Brief.

Competition Brief
Last but by no means the least important, a competition brief which is
created in order to be accessible to all of the production companies which
are participating in creating a project/product. It is notable that each
corporation completes their own brief, outlining their ethos. AL of the
finished projects created by these chosen production companies and then
judged to see who had the best finished product. The most impressive on
is crowned winner, and is taken into publication by the client. An
advantage of this may be that because of the heavy competition, the
employer will strive to pitch themselves to the client in the most sufficient
way, behaving in a professional manner which is likely to impress the
client and may, in turn, provide the employer with work. A disadvantage
of this type of brief would be that even though this type of brief is
generally free to join, the winner of the competition may have to pay a
free for being crowned winner of the competition, Although gaining
reputation and perhaps an opportunity to work for bigger and better
things, it may cost you time and money doing other paid productions for
smaller more personal clientele and if you dont win, you wont get
recognised as much for this achievement even if you are runner-up. There
is a slight possibility that the winner may be unhappy with the siphoning
out some of their income to the client. However, this is a part of their job
and they chose to do it, and they will have to learn to accept it if they
want to pursue a career within this specific field of work.
Below is an example of a Competition Brief.