I am pleased to report that after I conquered my normal pre-class combination of impostor syndrome, fear of laptop failure, and over-caffeination that the Modern Marketing Brief training session was a success. We had a smart and engaged group of marketers in the session that focused on how briefs (and briefings) need to evolve to become more impactful. There was plenty of rich discussion and super-useful perspectives shared among the class. I think I scribbled down the most notes of anyone in the room.
Over the course of the morning, we covered the role of the brief and the qualities of a strong briefing (which have not changed). We then explored the nature of modern marketing programs and marketing processes (which have changed). The bulk of our time focused on 10 key changes that marketers can adopt to make their briefs (and briefings) more relevant and valuable for 2019 and beyond – with plenty of examples and applied group learning.
When I started to design the course, I had a great conversation about briefs with my friend and fellow strategy consultant Hilton Barbour. As usual, Hilton shared a point that really resonated with me – that we have become so fixated on the briefing document that we miss the larger picture of what that document is meant to enable. This rings true with my experience, and I structured the course accordingly. During the session we zoomed out to consider the work and changes that need to happen before and after the creation of a brief. Additionally, we explored the context of the brief, as marketing programs exist in a dynamic business environment connected to other briefs - not in an isolated vacuum. Orienting the session to focus on ‘how to start a marketing program effectively’ vs. ‘how to complete a template correctly’ helped immensely (thanks Hilton!)
After I pack-up at the end of every training session, I take a deep breath and review the participant evaluations. I was really pleased to see that participants found this brand-new training session valuable - 100% would recommend to a friend - and I received some great tips on how to tweak the curriculum (all of my participant evaluations are posted online and unfiltered here). I look forward to running the Modern Marketing Briefs course again in 2019, hopefully this time with a few less pre-class jitters.