The Brief Bros.

Author, creative director and old friend Cameron Day returns to The Brief Bros. as the first guest to join us five times. Today, he talks with me and Henry Gomez about his new book ChAIos and the brawl he regales readers with as he wrestled with OpenAI's ChatGPT, which he dubs Chet G. Petite. If you want a first-hand, blow-by-blow expose on how to not just use AI as an ad creative, but how to...

In Part 2 of our conversation with  Cameron Day , author of  Mad Man.  The talk turns from advertising’s past to its uncertain future. Cam teases his next book,  ChAIos.  It's an irreverent and eye-opening guide to understanding and working with AI in the creative world. Join me and  Henry Gomez , your hosts on  The Brief Bros . We explore what it means to stay human, and creative, when the ma...

Advertising veteran  Cameron Day  joins  The Brief Bros. —for the fourth time. This visit, Cam talks about his raw, hilarious, and unfiltered new book,  Mad Man: F **ed-Up Tales from the Post-Mad Men Ad Trenches.  Henry Gomez  and I dive into the wild stories, lessons, and scars from Cam’s four decades in the ad world. It’s a brutally honest look at the business we love—and love to hate. Join us.

We introduced you to  Mark Pollard  last week. He may be the most traveled teaching strategist on the planet. Mark is known as your "strategy friend." And he's the founder and principal of  Sweathead. It's his globe-hopping workshops on advertising strategy. He's back for Part 2  of his conversation with me and  Henry Gomez  on  The Brief Bros.

Mark Pollard  may be the most traveled teaching strategist on the planet. He's known as "your strategy friend" and is the founder and principal of  Sweathead. It's his globe-hopping workshops on advertising strategy. Mark joined  Henry Gomez  and me on  The Brief Bros.  For not one but two chats. All the way from Colombia, South America, between teaching sessions. Mark shares his...

My friend  Noel Zamot  is our guest this week on  The Brief Bros . Noel has never worked in marketing or advertising. What he knows about creative briefs he's learned from talking to me. So why is he a guest this week? Because of Noel's deep training and expertise in a technology that scares a lot of people in our industry: AI. A little background: Noel served as an Air Force Colonel (ret)...

This week on  The Brief Bros. ,  Henry Gomez  and I share with you five websites rich in data, robust in insight, and reliably credible. Intrepid brief writers, these are your rabit holes. Maybe new ones, maybe old ones you forgot about. And, I throw in a sixth website that I find juicy. You might too. So six great research venues, waiting for diggers to unearth something unexpected. Don't mis...

Craig Crawford  is our guest today on  The Brief Bros.  He did what many creatives dream about, but few act on. He launched  Black Noise , a new creative agency in December 2024. Craig joined  Henry Gomez  and me to talk about his top-shelf resume. And the fascinating path that took him from native South Africa to LA. Plus Craig and I share a common thread: we both worked at  Team One Advertising...

You are an advertising agency. You are aware of the existential threat posed by AI. Not only to you, as a creative agency, but also to your industry. Why would you then use this technology, AI, to cheat? In order to win an award? An award some fear—yourself included—might render your agency, your industry, obsolete by the technology you used to cheat? This is the conundrum  Henry Gomez  and I diss...

Henry Gomez  and I would not be the  Brief Bros.  if we didn't bring you compelling insights and informed guests. So we apologize for failing to measure up this week. Instead we underwhelm you with a little puffery. No slight to Henry, who zings with his patented clarity and probity. Me? Well, watch and decide for yourself. And after all, every podcast has the right to throw an intellectual so...

The author of  Truth, Lies and Advertising ,  Jon Steel , returns to  The Brief Bros . And  Henry Gomez  and I delight in nerding out with Jon, talking strategy, briefs, briefing and AI. Not to mention one of his most celebrated accounts, the got milk? campaign. Plus he talks a bit about cricket. But not too much. We are honored that Jon could return to our show, all the way from Perth, Australia.

Maybe this episode will compel  Mark Pollard  to find room in his crazy travel schedule and join us on  The Brief Bros .  Henry Gomez  and I can only hope. But first, kudos to Mark for this fun, inspiring and must-have PDF called  Creative Briefs 101 . Available here from Mark's Instagram page. Today, Henry and I share our thoughts on only three of Mark's unique observations to help brief...

Eight years after the publication of its white paper, Better Creative Briefs, the  Association of National Advertisers released  new research  in June 2025. And that's our topic today on  The Brief Bros .  Henry Gomez  and I do an overview of their findings. And let me be upfront: I was interviewed and credited in the 51-page PDF. A handful of sampe briefs populate the research, including an e...

Originally aired September 21, 2022 This week, Henry Gomez and I are joined on The Brief Bros. by a luminary in the field of marketing: Professor Mark Ritson . Our guest has earned a well-deserved reputation for pulling no punches in his commentary on and assessment of marketers and their brand management. Plus Henry is an alum of the two wildly popular and well-attended mini-MBA programs Ritson t...

True or false: when you write a brief for a B2B client, you can't use a B2C brief template. It's an oldie but goodie, one I've heard for years.  Henry Gomez , too. And perfectly timed after our episode last week about  Go Daddy  at Cannes. Today on  The Brief Bros . we dispel the myths around B2B creative briefs. And we do it in ten minutes. Are they alike? Or are they different? Show us the money...

Special thanks to our friend and loyal viewer  Brian Sherwin  at Della Famina in New York. Because of Brian,  The Brief Bros . discusses a popular win at Cannes. Brian shared a break-down of a Cannes Grand Prix winner in B2B for  Go Daddy . The information he shared with me comes from  Joe Burns , a noted strategist with an impressive resume. And  Henry Gomez  and I have a fun conversation. We tal...

A shout-out to our friend and past guest on  The Brief Bros. ,  Lance Saunders . He shared with us a fascinating article about  The Open Brief . It gave  Henry Gomez  and me a brilliant topic for today's discussion. And it triggered memories of past lives where we both had experience with a version. Is the open brief a valuable concept, a path to creative innovation? Or an invitation to disast...

Our old friend,  Chaz Wigley , returns to  The Brief Bros . He reminds us why his  100 Things Planners Should Know  is a font of wisdom. His insights, collected after decades as a strategist, are the building blocks for a stellar career. Chaz shares his favorites among the 100 Things. But this conversation is mostly about the bigger picture. About where strategy is today, the role of brands, the i...

Returning to our Lightning Round debates,  The Brief Bros.  today ask: Which is more important on the creative brief—brand truth or human truth? Howard sides with Brand Truth.  Henry  lines up with Human Truth. In this short episode, we offer insights to help brief writers tackle their next brief. What's in your brief?

Four-plus years in,  The Brief Bros.  finally get around to asking an important question: When did the creative brief make its first appearance? Henry Gomez  did quite a bit of research on this. Because it's what good strategists do. So we decided to do a brief history of the document. Who was the first to use the term, creative brief? Stephen King? Stanley Pollitt? Tune in and find out what w...

Part Two of  The Brief Bros .'s Lightning Round, inspired by my buddy  Giles Edwards , who puts his podcast guests through a series of five or six quick-answer questions. So we ask, Which is more important on a brief, the insight or the SMP? Henry Gomez  tackles Insight, and I give you my best thinking on the Single-Minded Proposition. Now don't be fooled into thinking one part of the brie...

Today on  The Brief Bros ., we borrow from our buddy  Giles Edwards  who puts his podcast guests through what he calls a Lightning Round. Each guest is hit with a series of fast-delivered questions and expected to deliver fast answers. So  Henry Gomez  and I took this concept and adapted it to our show. This is the first in an on-going series. Each of us takes one question on a brief and makes the...

Our friend  Marc Lewis  joins  Henry Gomez  and me today for a major announcement: The  School of Communication Arts  in London now offers a six-month fully online course for portfolio development. And he's got a special offer for viewers of  The Brief Bros .: a coupon code worth $500 off tuition—BROS500. The April cohort is underway, and the US is well represented, with almost half the attendees....

Creative work presented to the client gets killed with alarming frequency. The average number of rounds today is...five...before the client signs off. Scary, yes. But today  Henry Gomez  and I talk about the immediate problem: how to recover, regroup and come back with your best thinking. The task requires leadership from both the brief writer/stragetist and the creative director. Howard and Henry...

In another "Nuts 'n bolts" discussion,  Henry Gomez  and I talk about the rare but not unusual occasion when your client says, "Start over." This is different from those presentations when the client rejects the work, but not the brief. Something more serious happens and you're instructed to begin again. Henry and I will tackle the former challenge in an upcoming episod...