13 Campaign Brief

Campaign Brief Generator

Produce one complete campaign brief document. This is the operational handover document — it tells the execution team exactly what to make, to what specifications, by when, and to whose approval. It does not decide the campaign strategy; that is the role of 09-campaign-strategy. Apply the east-african-english skill for tone throughout. Do not generate the brief until all Required Input has been confirmed.

Distinction from 09-campaign-strategy: Use 09-campaign-strategy to decide WHAT campaign to run, who it is for, and what it needs to achieve. Use this skill (13-campaign-brief) to brief WHO will create the campaign content, HOW it should look and sound, and WHEN everything is due. The brief is a working document — it travels with the campaign from kickoff to sign-off.

Use When

• Use this skill for translating an approved campaign strategy into an executable team or supplier brief.
• Confirm that 09-campaign-strategy is not the closer route before proceeding.

Do Not Use When

• Use 09-campaign-strategy when its narrower output is requested.
• Do not publish, spend, change a live account, certify compliance, or invent missing client evidence.

Required Inputs

Outputs

Evidence Produced

Capability and permission boundary

Read and search access to the supplied artefacts are required; calculation or file-rendering capability is optional. Planning and drafting are read-only with respect to client accounts and source records. Editing the deliverable requires explicit authorisation; publishing, production mutation, destructive action, spend, and certification claims require separate explicit authority and evidence.

Degraded mode

If files, platform access, network, rendering, fonts, or calculation tools are unavailable, return the narrowest useful qualified operational campaign brief with owners, deliverables and approvals. Mark each blocked check not assessed, state the consequence, and provide the exact evidence needed to resume. Never convert an unavailable check into a pass.

Decision rules

Workflow

1. Confirm the requested decision, consumer, market, period and permission boundary; route to 09-campaign-strategy if its contract is closer.
2. Inventory the required inputs and their provenance. Stop any decision whose critical evidence is absent; recover by requesting it or recording a bounded assumption.
3. Apply the domain method in the core sections below, following the decision table whenever evidence conflicts or scope changes.
4. Verify calculations, dates, named platforms and claims against the supplied sources; label inference and uncertainty.
5. Produce the operational campaign brief with owners, deliverables and approvals, decision/source register and explicit next owner. Do not mutate live systems without separate authority.
6. Run the repository anti-slop ship gate. If a blocking factual, permission or evidence defect remains, fix it or withhold release.

Quality Standards

The output is client-specific, uses British English and the stated market/currency, distinguishes observed fact from inference, exposes gaps, and gives a checkable acceptance condition. Recommendations must be feasible within the confirmed budget, capacity and permissions.

Anti-Patterns

• Using an undated benchmark as the client's result. Fix: use account evidence or label the benchmark as a provisional comparator.
• Producing the operational campaign brief with owners, deliverables and approvals without approved 09-campaign-strategy. Fix: stop the affected decision or issue a clearly bounded partial output.
• Treating missing access or data as a successful check. Fix: record not assessed, its risk and the recovery input.
• Absorbing 09-campaign-strategy into this workflow. Fix: route the neighbouring output and hand over verified inputs.
• Publishing, spending or editing a live account during planning or review. Fix: obtain separate explicit authority and retain action evidence.

Worked example

Given verified approved 09-campaign-strategy, the skill produces a operational campaign brief with owners, deliverables and approvals with source dates and named assumptions. If that evidence cannot be accessed, it returns only the supported sections plus a recovery list; it does not fill gaps with East African defaults.

Read next

• 09-campaign-strategy for the neighbouring contract.
• anti-ai-slop during production.
• ai-slop-audit at the release checkpoint.

References

• Anti-AI slop production gate
• Finished campaign exemplars
• Creative review gate
• Follow the directly linked repository skills above and any domain references named in the core sections below. Verify current platform, price, legal and regulatory claims before use.

Required Input

Ask for the following before generating:

• Campaign name — the internal working title of the campaign
• Campaign dates — start and end date (including any pre-launch teaser period and post-campaign analysis window)
• Client name — trading name of the business
• Target persona — the persona name from 03-audience-personas this campaign is aimed at
• Key message — the single sentence the audience must feel or understand after seeing this campaign
• Deliverables required — list all assets required (e.g., Facebook feed graphic ×4, Instagram reel ×2, WhatsApp broadcast copy ×3, caption set ×8)
• Team and partner names and roles — who is responsible for what (designer, copywriter, videographer, social media manager, client-side approver)
• Approval contacts — who reviews first drafts; who gives final sign-off
• Budget per deliverable type — amount allocated per asset type (e.g., graphic design: UGX 500,000; video production: UGX 1,200,000)
• Country/city — defaults to Kampala, Uganda

Brief Document Structure

Generate all ten sections in order. Each section is clearly headed. Do not omit any section. The complete brief must read as a single, coherent document that any qualified team member could pick up and act on without further explanation.

Section 1: Campaign Background and Objective

Write 3–4 sentences covering:

• What this campaign is about — the product, service, event, or message being promoted
• Why it is happening now — the business reason, seasonal moment, or strategic trigger
• What success looks like — the primary outcome the campaign must achieve
• How this campaign connects to the broader social media strategy or business goal

Write in plain, direct prose. Avoid marketing clichés. A new team member must understand the full context from this section alone.

Section 2: Target Audience

State:

• Persona name — from 03-audience-personas
• 3 defining characteristics relevant to this specific campaign — not a full persona profile; only the characteristics that affect how this campaign should look, sound, or be delivered. Examples: "Price-sensitive; responds to value framing", "Mobile-first; consumes content in 15-second windows", "Aspirational; wants to see themselves in the brand"

Add a one-sentence note on how the audience's platform behaviour in Uganda/EA affects campaign delivery (e.g., "This audience is primarily reached via Facebook and WhatsApp; Instagram secondary").

Section 3: Key Message

State one sentence only. This is the core message — what the audience must feel or understand after seeing this campaign. It is not the slogan or tagline; it is the strategic truth the creative must express.

Format:

Key message: [One sentence]

Below the key message, add a two-sentence explanation: what this message achieves for the brand, and what it asks of the audience. This guides the creative team when making execution decisions.

Section 4: Campaign Concept

Describe the creative idea in 2–3 sentences. State:

• What makes this campaign distinctive — the hook, the format, the storytelling approach
• The creative territory (emotional, functional, humorous, documentary, testimonial, etc.)
• Any specific creative device to be used consistently across all deliverables (e.g., a recurring character, a visual colour treatment, a campaign hashtag, a question-led structure)

This section does not produce design briefs — it sets the creative direction so all deliverables feel unified.

Section 5: Deliverables List

Produce a table listing every asset required. Every deliverable mentioned in the Required Input must appear in this table.

Populate quantity, due date, and responsible party from the Required Input. Add rows for any additional deliverables not listed above.

Section 6: Content Specifications Per Deliverable

Social Graphics

Use these standard specifications for all static image deliverables:

Key elements every graphic must include:

• Brand logo (position: as per brand guidelines — typically top-left or bottom-right)
• Campaign headline or key message (legible at thumbnail size on mobile)
• Brand colours only — no off-brand colour use
• Clear visual hierarchy: one dominant image or graphic element, one headline, one CTA or supporting text

Video Specifications

Captions are required on all video deliverables without exception. A significant proportion of video on Facebook and Instagram in East Africa is watched without sound. Uncaptioned video fails a large part of the audience.

Captions

Every caption must include one clear CTA. Match the CTA to the campaign objective: awareness campaigns use "Share this", "Tag someone"; lead generation uses "Click the link", "Send us a message"; promotional campaigns use "Shop now", "Book your spot".

Section 7: Brand Do's and Don'ts

Reference the 04-brand-voice-intake document. Produce a campaign-specific summary — not a generic list that could apply to any brand.

Do's — 5 rules for this campaign:

1. [Specific to client and campaign — e.g., "Use the campaign hashtag on every post across all platforms"]
2. [Tone guidance — e.g., "Keep the tone warm and community-led; this audience responds to human stories, not corporate announcements"]
3. [Visual guidance — e.g., "Lead every graphic with a real person — no stock photography in this campaign"]
4. [Language guidance — e.g., "Use 'you' and 'we' — speak directly to the reader"]
5. [Platform-specific — e.g., "On WhatsApp, open every broadcast with a personal greeting; do not start with the product offer"]

Don'ts — 5 rules for this campaign:

1. [Specific restriction — e.g., "Do not reference competitor pricing — legal risk and off-brand"]
2. [Tone restriction — e.g., "Do not use pressure language: 'last chance', 'you're missing out' — this audience disengages from urgency tactics"]
3. [Visual restriction — e.g., "Do not use the hero image on a dark background — it loses detail at mobile resolution"]
4. [Language restriction — e.g., "Do not use the word 'cheap' — it conflicts with the premium brand positioning"]
5. [Platform restriction — e.g., "Do not post the same caption across Facebook and Instagram unchanged — adapt the tone for each platform"]

Section 8: Timeline with Deadlines

Produce a table covering the full campaign lifecycle: pre-production, production, review, approval, and live dates.

Populate dates from the campaign dates provided in the Required Input. If specific names are not yet confirmed, use role titles and add a note: "Assign names at kickoff meeting."

Section 9: Approval Process

State clearly:

• First reviewer — [Name and role]: reviews all first drafts within [N] working days and returns consolidated feedback (not multiple rounds of partial feedback)
• Final approver — [Name and role]: gives final sign-off within [N] working days of receiving revised materials
• Approval method — [e.g., shared Google Drive folder with comment access / email sign-off / Trello card / WhatsApp confirmation followed by email confirmation]
• If feedback is late: If the client or approver does not respond within the agreed window, the campaign timeline moves by the same number of days. Document this in a brief note to the client. Pause production — do not guess what the client wants.
• Emergency sign-off: For time-sensitive reactive posts within the campaign, the account manager may approve with a voice note confirmation from the client, followed by written confirmation within 24 hours.

Section 10: Success Metrics

State one primary KPI and three supporting KPIs. For each, provide the baseline (current performance before the campaign) and the target (what the campaign must achieve).

Add a one-sentence note on how results will be reported: when the post-campaign report will be delivered, in what format, and to whom.

Quality Criteria

• All ten sections are present and complete; no section is left blank or contains a placeholder without a note explaining what must be filled in at kickoff
• Deliverables table accounts for every asset mentioned in the Required Input — nothing is omitted
• All graphic specifications use the correct platform dimensions as listed; captions are required on all video deliverables without exception
• The key message is one sentence only and is clearly distinct from the campaign slogan or tagline
• Brand do's and don'ts are campaign-specific and reference the client's actual brand voice — not generic rules applicable to any campaign
• The timeline table covers the full lifecycle from kickoff to post-campaign report, with realistic sequencing between review and production stages
• The approval process states what happens when feedback is late — ambiguity here is a common cause of campaign delays
• Success metrics include baselines and targets; a KPI without a target is not a KPI

Five Outcomes gate before sign-off (added 2026-05-04 from Synechron Enterprise UX)

Canonical reference: docs/ux-foundations.md Section 3.

Every campaign brief must declare expected pass per the five outcomes table below. One No = no campaign launch. No exceptions for premium-priced campaigns.

How to apply at sign-off

Add a "Five Outcomes" subsection to the campaign brief with a one-paragraph Yes/No declaration per outcome and the evidence behind each Yes:

• Useful — Yes, because [persona X's goal Y is addressed by asset Z]
• Easy — Yes, because [the 3-second user-test result was X]
• Efficient — Yes, because [text-load fallback shows complete message]
• Pleasing — Yes, because [visual reference comparison passed]
• Accessible — Yes, because [alt text written, captions ready, contrast measured at X.X:1]

If any outcome cannot be declared Yes with evidence, the campaign cannot ship. The brief returns to the strategy or content stage to close the gap.

Why "Accessible" is non-optional

Most social-campaign briefs in the wild treat accessibility as cleanup. The Synechron rule treats it as a launch gate. For premium-priced engagements ($20k+) the cost of an accessibility-rejection at launch (legal exposure on regulated industries; brand damage on inclusive-marketing claims) far exceeds the cost of building accessibility in.