Program Brief

Marketing Program Brief

Translate an ambitious idea into something leadership can approve and the team can run. Do not neutralize the idea to make the brief easier to measure.

When to invoke

• When proposing a campaign or recurring Marketing program
• When developing a social channel, affiliate program, or research franchise
• When proposing an event, podcast, partnership, or PR initiative
• When leadership needs an idea expressed as an owned, costed, measurable pilot
• When a strong creative premise needs an explicit subscriber or Consulting path
• When several programs need sequencing and investment gates

Workflow

1. When supplied, inherit the approved Compound Marketing decision-record version, locked decision IDs, protected language, and open questions.
2. Write the one-sentence ambition in the future tense as a state Every intends to create.
3. Explain why the idea belongs in the current Marketing strategy.
4. Name the primary and secondary audiences.
5. Preserve the creative premise and the operating mechanism.
6. Define the smallest pilot that can produce a useful result or learning.
7. Map the subscriber, paid, Consulting, fame, or authority path.
8. Name one owner and the necessary support.
9. Record direct and fully loaded costs, the measurement window, and decision date.
10. Define scale, revise, or stop before launch.

Before approval, compare the brief with the inherited decision record. Restore any dropped decision or protected phrase, record a human-approved change, or keep the conflict visibly open.

Required standard

Every brief must answer:

• What future state are we trying to create?
• Why this idea, for Every, now?
• Who is it for?
• What specifically happens?
• What makes it distinctive?
• How does attention become a free subscriber, paid subscriber, or Consulting lead?
• What is the primary metric?
• Which diagnostic signals explain the result?
• What does the pilot cost in cash and team time?
• Who owns it, who supports it, and who approves material spend?
• What result changes the next decision?

Load references/template.md for the working format and references/portfolio-rules.md when sequencing several programs.

Dependencies

• foundation/marketing-os
• marketing-science/measurement
• positioning/{relevant brand} (loaded dynamically)

Quick checklist

• Does the first sentence make the idea desirable?
• Did compression preserve the distinctive mechanism and creative world?
• Is there one owner?
• Is the audience explicit?
• Is the subscriber or Consulting path visible?
• Does the brief name and preserve every inherited locked decision that governs it?
• Is the primary metric different from the diagnostic signals?
• Are cost and capacity included?
• Is there a decision date and gate?