A bad brief does not make a bad video. It makes a video that arrives late, after three versions nobody really wanted. A brief does not need to be long. It needs to answer five questions, in this order.
Here are those five questions, what to put in them, and a one-page brief template to download and fill in.
The motion design video brief template
Brief or specification?
In large groups, procurement often asks for a "specification". For a video, it is the same thing as a good brief: you do not describe the video shot by shot, that is the studio's job. You set what is not negotiable: the goal, the audience, the message, the approvers, the constraints, the deliverables and the date. A twenty-page specification does not say better what a one-minute video must do; it says it worse.
1. What should happen after the video?
Not "raise awareness of our offer". Rather: "a prospect who watches it asks for a demo", "a sales rep can explain the product without notes", "an employee understands the new organisation without calling their manager". If you cannot describe the expected behaviour, the video does not have a goal yet, and the agency will invent one for you.
This point drives everything else: length, tone, format. A 90-second presentation video and a four-minute training module are not written the same way.
2. Who watches, and under what conditions?
A prescriber between two appointments on a tablet. A CFO in a board meeting, on a projector, with no sound. A new joiner on the intranet on day one. Each situation forces choices: mandatory subtitles, larger on-screen text, slower pace, no music.
Also state what the audience already knows. The worst brief asks to "explain everything" to an audience that already knows two thirds of the topic.
3. What is the one message to remember?
One sentence. If you write three, the agency will pick one, or worse, try to fit them all in. The other messages become supporting arguments, or another video. This sentence is the test for every version: do people remember it after a single viewing?
4. Who approves, in what order, and on what?
This is the question briefs forget, and the one that costs the most. List the approvers: marketing, legal, medical, leadership, subsidiaries. For each, specify what they approve (substance, form, notices) and at which stage (script, storyboard, animation). A legal comment on a script takes ten minutes to fix. The same comment on a finished animation costs a week.
Also state the non-negotiable constraints: brand guidelines, legal notices, data that cannot be shown, languages to deliver. An agency that finds out at the end of a project that a German version is needed will remake the film.
5. What exactly do you expect, and by when?
Deliverables: formats, lengths, versions, source files or not. The date: the release date, not the day you "would like to have something". The budget, or at least a range. A serious agency will tell you whether the three are compatible before starting, not at delivery.
What you do not need to provide
References of videos you like are useful but optional. A script, no: that is the agency's job, and a script written by marketing is almost always too long. A storyboard, even less.
The one-page template
Goal (expected behaviour), audience and viewing context, single message, approvers and constraints, deliverables and date. Five blocks, one page. This brief takes thirty minutes to write and saves two weeks of production. It also anchors the scoping call: we read it together, correct it, and it becomes the project's content contract.
The template adds two blocks that matter in large groups: the table of approvers, with what each one approves and at which step, and the non-negotiable constraints.
The motion design video brief template
The brief is only the first step: our guide to corporate motion design video covers formats, prices, production and approval.
