Creative briefs form a critical part in ensuring the successful delivery of effective digital experiences. A brief is typically the document or documents where all the vital information is provided. This includes background on the client and their business. This information really helps the creative and development teams gain a broader understanding of defined business objectives and also details what will define success in the project at hand. The brief could even include information like the feel and tone for the messaging. Often, this would be supported by brand standards and style guides that should be adhered to. If possible, clients typically include the company’s strategic positioning and point of difference. The more supporting information provided, the easier it is for the brief to be communicated. It is also a good idea to get some insights into what the client’s competition is and what the competitive landscape looks like. It is also important to identify what the competition offers that the client currently doesn’t or can’t. The goal is to identify how the client can differentiate their company from the competition and how our experiences can help them do that.

The brief should clearly define the “TARGET AUDIENCE” and identify:

• Who the end viewer or customer is
• Who the client is trying to reach with this project
• How they are hoping to connect with them
• The demographic information available
• Any behavioral insights that may be available about the audience – Understand and reflect the client’s mission and vision
• Any special concerns or challenges vital to the strategic direction to ensure a complete understanding
• The project stakeholders – and involve them at the project’s critical path points at key times in the decision-making process

The brief should also detail what the expected end deliverables, desired timelines and defined budgets for the project will be. This part is often overlooked, but it is critical in order to be able to begin the project.

​As part of our engagement, my teams typically help the client along this journey. We collaborate with them to establish clear and certain measurable or quantifiable objectives that will define success. By defining these established objectives, we can then begin to create a brief together. This truly helps our clients plan budgets, set realistic timelines and often increases the desired creative services we deliver. Our goal at the end of this scoping phase is to begin with a creative strategy that covers all aspects of the digital experiences that will be created. This process enables our firm to develop unique and compelling digital experiences that meet our clients’ specific goals and needs.

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The first phase of any collaborative digital experience is getting a better understanding of our client’s business objectives in order to help them establish and plan their ongoing content needs. We put these goals into context by evaluating effective digital solutions from both a business and customer perspective. This provides us with the framework we need to develop an effective creative strategy that covers all aspects of the digital experiences that will be created. We identify each unique medium and screen on which the clients’ messages will be delivered. We then proceed to create a consistent on- brand digital content strategy and develop digital creative standards for delivery along all potential mediums to maximize omni-channel points of engagement. This process enables our firm to develop unique and compelling digital experiences that meet our clients’ specific goals and needs.

In order to deliver a truly integrated digital experience, the importance of effective content is VITAL as a catalyst for overall network and marketing success. It is imperative that content becomes better and more performance-focused. New and improved approaches to content development, closely tied to measurement of objectives, are necessary in order to ensure success. Ultimately, efficient content production techniques must be adopted to ensure maximum value and acceptable operational costs.

As part of a digital experience strategy phase, that my teams put together with almost every engagement, we outline for each medium (e.g., digital signage, interactive kiosk, mobile, tablets, AR/VR etc.) and, for every screen or canvas within those mediums, what the role of each will be, what potential messaging and visuals could be used, the frequency at which the content should be refreshed, an optimal playlist and messaging strategy, and also identify the hardware and software frameworks to best deliver this content.

The first step when developing this digital experience strategy is to establish clear and certain measurable or quantifiable objectives. “Measurable or quantifiable,” in this case, refers to being able to see the achievement of the objectives in more than one manner. Digital signage is sometimes trickier at identifying and measuring its capacity for efficacy in multiple environments. As such, some objectives might not be easily measured in the traditional sense, but certain tactics can be utilized to still gather useful supporting measurement.

Through the study of supplied materials, discussions, and learnings, we determine certain objectives with our clients, for example:

• Enhancing digital experiences by captivating the audience
• Informing customers to a greater degree in order to deliver content of immediate value
• Delivering relevant and diverse types of content to keep customers from “tuning out” Promoting new products or featured items
• Supporting marketing programs
• Delivering brand reinforcement
• Improving awareness to unique offerings
• Helping to drive traffic to key areas within the store and support wayfinding
• Helping to match customers with the best products tailored to their needs
• Creating two-way engagement through interactive experiences
• Building brand loyalty, shifting and improving brand perception
• Helping to increase basket size via up-sell and cross-sell
• Helping extend the experience beyond the store visit through mobile or future online engagement

From established objectives like these examples above, we can then begin to create a plan that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the content and help improve the effectiveness of future content needs. This truly helps our clients plan budgets for creative services and results in our clients setting aside sufficient funds for ongoing content creation.

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Today’s connected consumer is empowered like never before. Digital experiences help shape our daily lives and routines. Digital signage is table stakes these days, and most brands and retailers have already adopted this medium as a form of digital communication for physical spaces. Digital signage has evolved greatly over the past several years, maturing from just being a one-way communication medium to a more effective and connected two-way interactive experience that extends even farther through other screens and connection points. Our screen of choice today is our mobile device. It is our connection to society, our personal assistant and our most trusted advisor.

No one makes many purchase decisions these days without going through a wide process that can involve visiting a physical store to find what we like, using smart phones to compare prices and read reviews, going on social media to seek the opinions of friends, and then sometimes completing the purchase on-line. This is the basis for today’s ‘digital shopper.’ To be successful, brands and retailers must think about what their shoppers actually demand from the digital path to purchase. While this way of targeting consumers has completely disrupted advertising, the relationship between shopper and retailer is still very simple. Shoppers give time, money and effort to purchase, and in return, they receive items, customer service and hopefully satisfaction. When it comes to meeting shopper needs, any digital experience that can save time, money or effort (or all of the above) will have a good chance of success. Any experience that does not deliver against at least one of these basic needs will likely fail.

As we move into 2020, data, AI, customer profile information, shopping behaviors and history and other insights are empowering brands to more accurately match what consumers like and are interested in buying. These evolved level of insights are in turn helping to provide a deeper level of personalization in digital experiences. By providing more relevant content to consumers, the power of digital experience is becoming even more influential and effective. Bringing together the convenience of the online experience with the tactile allure of the physical environment is the sweet spot to deliver more engaging shopping experiences. The main focus will undoubtedly be focused on the customer. Consumers shop based on impulse and make purchase decisions emotionally. Sometimes, this is more driven by a desired emotional response than getting the lowest price. Customers choose to develop bonds with brands because they buy into their culture, portrayed lifestyle and sense of community almost as much as practical benefits like price, convenience or satisfaction.

To be successful, tomorrow’s digital experiences must look to deliver on two key factors:

1. Remove customer friction points
   
2. Deliver richer experiences through storytelling

Digital experiences have the ability to completely immerse customers in a brand lifestyle, culture and essence. Telling richer stories in the physical environment is how brands can hope to tug on those emotional heartstrings that can ultimately persuade purchase. Brand engagement is transforming thanks to the power of storytelling. Pairing practicality and emotion is how brands will succeed at converting customers along the digital path to purchase as digital experiences continue to evolve and mature.

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