How to write a good creative brief for banners

Most banner revisions do not come from a design error: they come from an order that did not say enough. A short but specific creative brief avoids that back-and-forth.

The questions to answer

1. Goal. What should the person do when they see the banner: buy, sign up, remember the brand?
2. Audience. Who are you talking to? A banner for young people and one for procurement managers do not sound the same.
3. Main message. One idea. If you need two sentences, you need two banners.
4. Offer and terms. Price, deadline, mandatory fine print.
5. Call to action. The exact text of the button.
6. Tone and brand. Colors, typography, logo, and how the brand speaks.
7. Sizes and languages. Which ones you need and where it will run.
8. Where it runs. The target platform and its weight and duration limits.
9. Dates. When it is approved, when it is uploaded, and when it goes live.

From the brief to the prompt (the description you write)

In BannerMotion, the brief becomes the text you describe the banner with. You do not need to copy it in full: what changes the result the most is the message, the tone, the headline, the button, and which image you want. Example:

Banner for the summer iced coffee promo. Fresh, youthful tone. Short headline, big button, and a photo of the cup on the right.

The more concrete it is, the fewer corrections you will need afterwards. And corrections have a cost: with Sonnet 5.5 each one is from 5 credits.

A template to start from

Goal:
Audience:
Main message (one sentence):
Offer and terms:
Button text:
Tone and brand:
Sizes:
Languages:
Target platform (maximum weight and duration):
Dates (approval, upload, go-live):

Closing the approval

The client approval is the last filter before publishing. What saves the most time is having the client see the animated banner, in each size, and comment right there, instead of receiving screenshots by email. Agree in advance how many rounds of changes the work includes and who has the final word.