Agency Briefs
Writing an agency brief
Write an agency brief that explains the problem, desired outcome, scope, constraints and information needed for a useful proposal.
An agency brief should state the business problem, the result you want, the work you may need and the limits an agency must respect. It should give candidates enough detail to propose and price an approach, while leaving room for a better recommendation.
If the cause of the problem is uncertain, ask for a defined diagnostic stage. Do not present a guessed solution as settled scope.
Start with the decision behind the work
Open with what is happening and why it matters. “We receive enquiries, but few meet our sales team’s qualification rules” gives an agency more to work with than “we need more traffic”. Identify the customers or users affected, the current evidence and anything you only suspect.
State the outcome in business terms. Say how your team would recognise progress and who owns that measure. Include a baseline if you have one; if not, ask candidates how they would establish it. Do not insert a target solely to make the brief look complete.
Describe the assignment
Say whether you want a diagnosis, a defined project or recurring work. List known outputs, such as a research report, approved pages or a campaign plan.
For each output, explain its intended use. If the agency should recommend outputs, say which decision its proposal must help you make.
Name related work outside the request. A website brief, for example, should say whether content rewriting, integrations, migration and staff training are included, excluded or still to be priced. The brief can set these boundaries without becoming the final contract.
Give the agency the conditions it must work within
Record the available budget or a credible range, the deadline and whether either can move. State the markets, systems, brand requirements, accessibility needs and approval steps that matter to this project. Explain why a fixed condition is fixed.
Keep preferences separate from requirements: an existing platform may be mandatory for compatibility, while a preferred design tool may be negotiable.
Make your team’s contribution visible. Who can provide data, review claims, make technical changes and approve spending? An agency needs this to plan work that depends on client decisions or access.
Fixed vs preferred conditions in an agency brief
- Fixed conditionMandatory due to compliance or integration requirements (e.g., must use existing CRM system)
- Preferred conditionDesired but negotiable (e.g., ‘prefer Figma for design collaboration’)
Provide useful background, with gaps marked
Attach a short account of the product or service, intended audience, current channels and relevant past work. Include existing assets, reports or technical information where they help candidates understand the assignment. Label dates, definitions and known limits on performance figures. If two internal teams disagree about a problem’s cause, describe the disagreement rather than silently choosing one account.
Do not hold the brief until every question is answered. List unresolved questions and ask agencies how they would investigate them. Where an unknown could materially change effort, invite a staged proposal: an initial investigation with a specified output, then a separately scoped delivery stage.
Add audience and market context
Where audience understanding will shape the work, describe relevant psychographic characteristics as well as who the audience is. Keep this tied to the assignment: candidates need to know which audience insight should inform their proposed approach.
For brand work, include relevant competitor context. A comparison of competitors in Victoria can help identify a space where the brand may stand apart; make clear which parts are established and which are still being explored.
Tell candidates how to respond
Give every invited agency the same current brief and a contact for questions. Ask for a proposed approach, deliverables, timetable, team roles, client dependencies, exclusions and assumptions.
Request a cost breakdown that separates agency work from third-party costs such as media or software where relevant. Ask candidates to identify what they would need to inspect before giving a firm price.
A short response format exposes differences without dictating the solution:
| Brief field | What to write |
|---|---|
| Problem and evidence | What is happening, for whom, and what supports that account? |
| Desired outcome | What change matters, and how would it be recognised? |
| Assignment | What decision or output do you want the agency to deliver? |
| Boundaries | What is fixed, preferred, excluded or unknown? |
| Client inputs | Who supplies information, access, decisions and approvals? |
| Proposal request | What approach, assumptions, dependencies and costs should the agency explain? |
Before sending, ask someone unfamiliar with the project to read the brief. Can they tell what the agency is being asked to solve, which facts are uncertain and what a quote must cover?
Revise any sentence that makes an assumption sound like an approved requirement. Keep the dated version sent to each candidate so later clarifications can be shared consistently.
Edit for clarity
Treat the brief as a strategic distillation, not an exhaustive history of the organisation. Keep background that explains the goals and direction of the work; remove detail that does not help candidates understand or respond to the assignment.
Use direct language a designer or developer can understand, not jargon or marketer-speak. A concise brief is easier to use when its purpose, audience and requested work are clear without candidates having to interpret internal terminology.
In this guide
- Turning a business problem into an agency scopeTranslate an observed business problem into agency work packages, deliverables, dependencies and exclusions without assuming the solution.
- Stating constraints without prescribing every solutionSeparate firm requirements, preferences and untested assumptions so agencies can propose workable solutions within real limits.
- Preparing the information agencies need to quote accuratelyPrepare project volumes, existing assets, client inputs and open questions so agency quotes show what is included and assumed.
