Campaign Brief Template for Communications

What it is

A campaign brief is your single source of truth for campaign planning and execution. It documents the strategic thinking, creative direction, tactical approach, and success criteria that everyone—internal teams, agencies, stakeholders—works from. A good brief prevents scope creep, aligns expectations, and gives teams the clarity they need to do their best work.

Think of it as the contract between strategy and execution: everything you commit to achieving and how you’ll achieve it.

When to use it

Use a campaign brief when you’re planning:

Multi-channel marketing or communications campaigns with defined start and end dates
Product or service launches requiring coordinated activity
Awareness or behaviour change campaigns with specific objectives
Agency-led creative development or media buying
Internal campaigns (recruitment, culture change, policy adoption)

Don’t use a campaign brief for:

Always-on communications activity (use Editorial Calendar instead)
Single-tactic executions (a press release doesn’t need a full brief)
Crisis response where speed trumps documentation
Early-stage exploration before strategy is clear

Inputs needed

Before you start, gather:

Business context: What’s happening in the organisation/market that makes this campaign necessary?
Campaign objective: What specific outcome are you trying to achieve?
Audience research: Who are you targeting? What do you know about their behaviours, motivations, barriers?
Budget: What’s available to spend? Any constraints?
Timeline: When must this happen? What are the immovable dates?
Assets: What do you already have? What needs creating?
Stakeholders: Who needs to approve what?

The template

1. Campaign Overview

Campaign name:

[Working title for internal reference]

Campaign period:

[Start date] to [End date]

Background & context:

[What’s happening in the organisation or market that makes this campaign necessary? 2-3 sentences on the situation we’re responding to.]

Campaign objective:

[One clear sentence: what does success look like? Make this specific and measurable.]

2. Target Audience

Primary audience:

[Who is this campaign primarily designed to reach?]

Demographic profile:

Age range:
Location:
Income/socioeconomic:
Other relevant demographics:

Psychographic profile:

Values and motivations:
Current attitudes toward [topic/brand/issue]:
Key barriers or objections:
Media consumption habits:

What we want them to do:

[Specific behaviour change or action we’re asking for]

Why they’d care:

[What’s in it for them? What problem does this solve or benefit does it create?]

Secondary audience(s):

[If relevant, who else needs to hear from us? How does messaging differ?]

3. Strategic Approach

Single-minded proposition:

[The one thing we want the audience to take away. One sentence, maximum 15 words.]

Key messages:

[First supporting message]
[Second supporting message]
[Third supporting message]

Tone of voice:

[How should this campaign sound? Choose 2-3 descriptors: authoritative, playful, urgent, empathetic, innovative, etc.]

Creative direction:

[What’s the creative idea or approach? This could be a concept, a format, a narrative device. If working with an agency, this might be “to be determined” but include any mandatory elements or creative constraints.]

Mandatories:

[Required brand elements, logos, disclaimers]
[Legal or regulatory requirements]
[Accessibility standards]

4. Channel Strategy & Tactics

Channel mix:

Channel	Role	Tactics	Budget allocation
[e.g., Paid social]	[e.g., Audience reach & targeting]	[e.g., LinkedIn sponsored posts, Meta campaigns]	[e.g., £15,000]
[e.g., Owned content]	[e.g., Depth & credibility]	[e.g., Blog series, email nurture]	[e.g., £5,000]
[e.g., PR/Earned]	[e.g., Third-party validation]	[e.g., Media outreach, thought leadership]	[e.g., £8,000]

Channel rationale:

[Why this mix? How do channels work together?]

5. Campaign Timeline & Milestones

Pre-campaign (preparation):

Date	Milestone	Owner
[Date]	[Activity]	[Team/person]

Campaign period (live activity):

Date	Milestone	Owner
[Date]	[Activity]	[Team/person]

Post-campaign (evaluation):

Date	Milestone	Owner
[Date]	[Activity]	[Team/person]

6. Budget & Resources

Total budget: [Amount]

Budget breakdown:

Creative development: [Amount]
Media/paid amplification: [Amount]
Production: [Amount]
Agency fees: [Amount]
Contingency (10%): [Amount]

Internal resources:

[Role]: [FTE commitment]

External resources:

[Agency/vendor]: [Scope of work]

7. Measurement & Success

Success looks like:

[Qualitative description—what does “working” look like in practice?]

Primary KPIs:

Metric	Target	Measurement method
[e.g., Leads generated]	[e.g., 500 qualified leads]	[e.g., CRM tracking]
[e.g., Awareness lift]	[e.g., +15% brand recall]	[e.g., Pre/post survey]

Reporting:

Frequency: [Daily/weekly/monthly]
Format: [Dashboard/presentation/written update]
Audience: [Who receives reports]

8. Governance & Approvals

Approval workflow:

Stage	Approver(s)	Deadline
[e.g., Creative concept]	[Name/role]	[Date]
[e.g., Final assets]	[Name/role]	[Date]

Sign-off authority:

[Who has final say on campaign go/no-go decisions?]

Escalation process:

[What happens if timeline slips, budget is exceeded, or results underperform?]

9. Risks & Contingencies

Risk	Likelihood	Impact	Mitigation
[Potential issue]	[High/Med/Low]	[High/Med/Low]	[How you’ll address it]

AI prompt

Base prompt

I need to create a campaign brief for [CAMPAIGN NAME/TYPE].

Context:
- Campaign objective: [SPECIFIC MEASURABLE OUTCOME]
- Target audience: [WHO - with demographic and psychographic detail]
- Campaign period: [START DATE to END DATE]
- Budget: [AMOUNT]
- Background: [WHY THIS CAMPAIGN IS NEEDED]
- Key dates/milestones: [ANY IMMOVABLE DEADLINES]

Please create a comprehensive campaign brief that includes:
1. Campaign Overview (name, period, background, objective)
2. Target Audience (demographics, psychographics, desired action, motivation)
3. Strategic Approach (single-minded proposition, 3 key messages, tone, creative direction, mandatories)
4. Channel Strategy (channel mix table with role, tactics, budget)
5. Timeline & Milestones (pre-campaign, live, post-campaign activities)
6. Budget & Resources (breakdown and team requirements)
7. Measurement (success description, 3 primary KPIs with targets, reporting approach)
8. Governance (approval workflow, sign-off authority)
9. Risks & Contingencies (3-4 key risks with mitigation)

Make the brief detailed enough to brief an agency or align a cross-functional team, but concise enough to remain usable.

Prompt variations

For agency briefing:

Add: “This brief will be used to brief creative and media agencies. Include clear creative parameters, any brand guidelines they must follow, and specific deliverables required.”

For B2B campaigns:

Add: “This is a B2B campaign targeting [ROLE/INDUSTRY]. Focus on business outcomes, longer sales cycles, and account-based approaches rather than mass reach.”

For behaviour change campaigns:

Add: “This campaign aims to change behaviour around [TOPIC]. Include barrier analysis, behaviour change model being used (e.g., COM-B, stages of change), and how we’ll measure behaviour shift not just awareness.”

For product launches:

Add: “This is a product launch campaign for [PRODUCT]. Include market context, competitive positioning, launch phases (tease, reveal, availability), and clear sales/conversion goals.”

For internal campaigns:

Add: “This is an internal employee campaign. Focus on employee engagement channels, manager enablement, two-way communication mechanisms, and cultural/behavioural outcomes.”

Human review checklist

Before using your campaign brief, verify:

Example output

Future You — Savings Product Launch

Campaign period: 1 March – 31 May 2026 (12 weeks)

Background: Launching a new high-interest savings account targeting 25-35 year olds who want to save but find existing products confusing or offering poor returns. Competitive market, but differentiated product (no withdrawal penalties, 4.5% AER, gamified goals).

Objective: Acquire 15,000 new savings accounts and £50m in deposits within 12 weeks.

Primary audience: Urban professionals aged 25-35, earning £30k-£60k. Digitally native, sceptical of traditional banks, want to save but frustrated by complexity and poor rates.

Single-minded proposition: Save for the future you want, without sacrificing the life you’re living now.

Channel mix: Paid social (£60k for reach), influencer partnerships (£25k for credibility), podcast ads (£18k for considered reach), PR (£12k for validation).

Primary KPIs: 15,000 accounts opened, £50m deposits, CPA <£9.50, +12% brand awareness lift.

Key risk: Competitor launches better rate mid-campaign. Mitigation: pre-approved messaging pivot emphasising flexibility over rate.

Message House — Develop your key messages section into a comprehensive messaging framework
Channel Strategy Matrix — Expand your channel mix with detailed rationale and resource mapping
Content Calendar (Two-Week) — Translate your timeline into detailed content production planning
Approval Workflow — Build out your governance section into a complete approval process

Tips for success

Involve stakeholders early: Don’t brief the campaign and then ask for approval. Get input during brief development to build buy-in.

Be specific about constraints: “Limited budget” is vague. “£140k total, with 55% minimum allocated to media” is clear.

Make the creative direction actionable: “Be innovative” doesn’t help a creative team. “Show future/present self interaction, avoid stock photography, use real customer scenarios” does.

Budget for contingency: 7-10% contingency isn’t pessimism—it’s acknowledging that production costs vary and opportunities emerge.

Plan the evaluation upfront: If you decide how you’ll measure success after the campaign launches, you’ve already lost the opportunity to gather baseline data.

Common pitfalls

Confusing campaign objective with business objective: “Increase revenue by 15%” is a business objective. “Acquire 15,000 new customers” is a campaign objective. The campaign contributes to business goals but isn’t solely responsible for them.

Generic audience descriptions: “Women 25-45” isn’t an audience insight. It’s a demographic bracket that includes hundreds of different people with different needs.

Too many messages: If you have six key messages, you don’t have any. Three maximum, ideally one single-minded proposition supported by proof points.

Timeline ignoring approval reality: If legal review typically takes two weeks and you’ve given them three days, your timeline is fiction.

Briefs written for the file, not for use: If your campaign team never refers to the brief during execution, it was a compliance exercise not a strategic document.

Campaign Brief