Why this matters
The creative brief is the page every designer, copywriter and media buyer works from. When it is vague, or worse, wrong, the agency pays for it in revision rounds and the client pays for it in patience.
Ask ChatGPT for a brief in one sentence and it hands you something that looks finished: an audience you never mentioned, channels nobody budgeted for, and goals like “increase brand awareness by 50%” that no one agreed to. Send that to the team and they build the wrong campaign.
In this module you use the interview prompt instead. ChatGPT asks for the client’s real goal, audience and their doubt, budget and channels, and the must-haves, one question at a time, sums up what it understood, and only then writes a brief your client can sign off on.
What you’ll build
A creative brief from Northgate Creative, a made-up agency, for its client Tidewell Coffee Roasters (also made up): 300 new coffee subscriptions between March 2 and April 26, aimed at café regulars who think subscriptions lock you in, with $6,000 of paid social, a loyalty email and café table cards, one offer (first bag free), the line every piece must carry, and the sign-off and due dates.
Plus the interview prompt saved as a template in a Google Doc, with two blanks to fill for your next client.
What you need
- Nothing to start the practiceChatGPT and Google Docs are practice copies. Nothing is sent or saved.
- A ChatGPT account, to do it for realAny plan works. For client work, use a business plan that doesn’t train on your data.
- Your kickoff notesThe client’s goal, audience, budget, channels, voice, must-haves and dates. If you don’t know an answer, that is a question for the client, not for ChatGPT.
- Your agency’s rules on client informationUnreleased prices, sales numbers and anything under NDA stay out unless your policy allows it.
Concepts
3 ideas you’ll use in the practice.
A quick prompt makes ChatGPT guess
ChatGPT doesn’t know your client, so a one-line request gets the most average brief it can imagine. The blanks are easy to spot. The made-up details are not: an audience, channels and KPIs that look plausible and are simply invented.
Those are the expensive mistakes, because the creative team builds on them.
One question at a time, then a summary
The interview prompt asks for up to five questions, one at a time, with no assumptions. That is how a good account lead runs a kickoff: answer one thing well, then the next.
The summary step is the safety net. You read every bullet before ChatGPT writes, and fix anything it misunderstood while it is still one line, not a whole brief.
Say what is out, not only what is in
The best answers in the lesson are the limits: no TikTok, no influencers, no discount except the first bag, and never “best coffee in Richmond”, because nobody can prove it.
Limits keep the team from building work the client will reject, and keep claims in the ads that the client can stand behind.
Practice
Do every step yourself in a practice copy of the real tool. It checks your work, and “Do it for me” finishes any step you get stuck on.
Do it for real
Now repeat it in your own account. Tick each step as you go.
Downloads
- Creative brief interview prompt (.txt)The quick prompt, the interview prompt, the four answers from the lesson and the blank template.
Quick check
3 questions to check you’ve got it.
1. The quick brief targets “Millennials and Gen Z, ages 18 to 34.” What is the problem?
- The age range is too wide
- You never said that; ChatGPT invented it, and the real audience is regulars aged 30 to 55
- Nothing, it sounds right
Show the answer
You never said that; ChatGPT invented it, and the real audience is regulars aged 30 to 55. Invented details that look plausible are the costly ones. The interview asks for the real audience.
2. Why does the interview prompt ask for a summary before ChatGPT writes?
- To make the chat longer
- So you can fix a misunderstanding while it is one line, before it becomes a whole brief
- Because ChatGPT needs permission
Show the answer
So you can fix a misunderstanding while it is one line, before it becomes a whole brief. Checking the summary is faster than correcting a finished brief.
3. Which answer keeps a claim out of the ads that the client can’t prove?
- “Warm and a little nerdy about coffee”
- “Don’t say best coffee in Richmond”
- “$6,000 for paid social”
Show the answer
“Don’t say best coffee in Richmond”. Must-avoid lines belong in the brief, so nobody writes a claim the client can’t stand behind.
You reached the end of AI for Consulting & Agencies
Every client kickoff can now end with a brief the client signs off on. Pick your next course, or reuse the interview prompt for your next proposal.
Pick your next course →