The Brief Bros.

Henry Gomezhttp://henrylouisgomez.com and I bring you another Creative Review this week. As we try to do with these Reviews, we focus on real products. Northern Tool + Equipment fits the bill perfectly. NT+E is one of the nation’s leading retailers of high-quality tools and equipment for professionals and DIYers. Today we discuss and dissect three spots: one :30 and two :15s. Agency of Record: Col...

Henry Gomez and I welcome one of our more devoted viewers and fans, Paul MacFarlane. He’s also a fellow traveler committed to writing and advocating for great creative briefs. His work as a creative director and brand strategist for his own company, The 1101 Experiment, demonstrates how he puts walks the walk. Paul came to our attention months ago when he started liking and commenting on our Linke...

Henry Gomez and I welcome our friend Bob Hoffman, whose new book Adscam: How Online Advertising Gave Birth to One of History’s Greatest Frauds, and Became a Threat to Democracy is the theme of today’s episode. Bob is the first guest to make a return visit to The Brief Bros. The title of his new book says it all, but Bob gives us even more. In a scathing indictment of Adtech and the tracking it spa...

Henry Gomez and I welcome Patricia Yanez, Associate Director, Brand & Original Content Marketing at ESPN. Patricia came to my attention through our friend Professor Richard L. Gant at NYU, a past guest on #thebriefbros. Patricia gave a talk to Professor Gant’s Event Marketing & Strategies class. Turns out, Patricia is a former student of Professor Gant’s. And she’s a fan of my book on the creative...

What comes before the creative brief? Strategy. And what, exactly, is strategy? Good question. The answer is debatable. Henry Gomez and I usually talk about the elements of a creative brief. It’s a document that comes after the strategy has been articulated. All too often, the brief is written without a clear strategy, or any strategy at all. That’s what we talk about in today’s episode. I doubt w...

Henry Gomez and I tackle another “nuts and bolts” creative brief topic: brand tone of voice. I have often said in my workshops that if any part of a brief can be cut and pasted from another brief, the “tone of voice” may be a candidate. The brand tone should be the same from one campaign to the next. But after this discussion with Henry, I’ve changed my mind. Why? It’s too important, and the act o...

Henry Gomez and I take you back in time once again to review three classic television spots. First up is called “Stunt City” by Lowe London for Sure anti-perspirant. Next, a Fallon TV spot for John Lewis called “Monty the Penguin.” Finally, a spot called “The Epic Split” for Volvo Trucks by Forsman & Bodenfors. Henry and I agree that revisiting classic advertising is both fun and instructive. We’r...

Henry Gomez and I try something new—again—in this week’s episode of #thebrierbros. We share with you two creative briefs written by a student for class project. This brief writer is now a working professional strategist and (full disclosure) I have used both of these briefs in my creative brief workshops. Henry and I dissect the two briefs, one for Zippo Lighters, the others for pet adoption from...

This week, Henry Gomez and I take great pride in welcoming Steve Harrison, author of Can’t Sell Won’t Sell, a sober and compelling argument against the ad industry’s sad slide into prizing social justice over selling. Steve has earned his bona fides as a creative thinker and leader, having won a pile of awards as European Creative Director at OgilvyOne and Global Creative Director for Wunderman. H...

This week, Henry Gomez and I are joined by another great creative from the Twin Cities, Tim Brunelle. Tim is a writer, creative director, strategist, leader and a fellow advocate for creative briefs. Tim came to our attention from our friend Mark Jenson, lecturer at the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communications and a past guest on The Brief Bros. Henry and I ha...

This week, Henry Gomez and I are joined by a luminary in the field of marketing: Professor Mark Ritson. Professor Ritson has earned a well-deserved reputation for pulling no punches in his commentary on and assessment of marketers and their brand management. Henry is an alum of the two wildly popular and well-attended mini-MBA programs Professor Ritson teaches online. Professor Ritson has the dist...

This week, Henry Gomez and I try something new and different: we share with you a real creative brief by a real ad agency. So we review both the brief itself and one TV spot that came from the brief. The agency is Crispin Porter Bogusky, a powerhouse creative shop whose work for Burger King, among other brands, shook up the industry in the mid-2000s when this brief was written. The brief is for BB...

This week, Henry Gomez and I return to Classics Creative Review with three television spots on The Drum’s list: World’s Best Ads of All Time, based on a reader survey. We start with a spot from Thailand called “Smoking Kid” by Ogilvy for the Thai Health Promotion Board. Next up is our review of a spot for Barbie dolls called “Imagine That” created by BBDO San Francisco. Finally, a spot for John We...

This week, Henry Gomez and I are joined by an industry veteran and legend, Gary Goldsmith. Today he is the Department Chair of Creative Direction for ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. But his resume includes stints as creative director at DDB and TBWA\Chiat\Day, as well as chairman and CCO of Goldsmith/Jeffrey before his shop was acquired by Lowe/Interpublic Group. Henry and I had a wonderf...

Henry Gomez and I welcome Charlotte Mair, named by Ad Age as one of the Leading Women Europe 2021. She is the founder and managing director of her own cultural marketing agency, The Fitting Room. Charlotte’s story will resonate with American viewers. She started with virtually nothing in her bank account, and built a major branding and cultural marketing agency from scratch. We talked about her be...

Henry Gomez and I welcome Giles Edwards from the UK, creative director and co-founder of Gasp! (https://gasp.agency). Giles is also the host of a podcast called Call To Action. Giles interviews creative talent on his podcast, but today, he’s our guest. He discusses his beginnings, the challenges of starting his own agency, and what he’s learned from speaking with his guests. He’s fast approaching...

Our ongoing series of Classics Creative Reviews continues this week with so, well, classics. Henry  and I begin our Classics review with a 1983 spot for the Yellow Pages by Abbot Mead Vicar in the UK. Next up is a Dancer Fitzgerald Sample classic for Wendy’s called Where’s the beef? Lastly, Fast Talker for FedEx, created by Mullen in Boston. Three classics reviewed by two classics for our ongoing...

Two thought pieces caught our attention this week. The first is by John Long titled “What’s with all the advertising leaders hating on advertising?” The other is by our friend George Tannenbaum called “Ding-Dongs of Doom” on his blog. Each essay has its own argument, but Henry Gomez and I found some common points that rang home with us. John’s point about senior marketing leaders’ attitudes about...

A recent guest on TBB, Mark Jenson, lecturer at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the U of Minnesota, recommended a book called "Rethink the Business of Creativity." Henry Gomez and Howard Ibach discuss a chapter from a book about how many creative teams at an advertising agency should be briefed on a project: one or many or all the teams? The question provokes a pretty b...

This week, Henry Gomez and I return to Creative Brief Basics, a “nuts and bolts” topic. It’s old news that never gets old: Target Audience. Some brief writers forget how to dig to understand who their communication is meant to speak to. The lazy answer sometimes is, “Well, everyone.” Everyone needs a _______. Whether it’s insurance, household staples, clothes, some brief writers fall into a trap a...

Week Two of Cannes 2022, Henry Gomez’s continuing adventures. This week, he and I review four Cannes winners. They are: “Super Human,” Grand Prix winner, Film by 4Creative London/Somesuch London. “Detectives” for Apple, Gold Lion, Film, by O Positive LLC Santa Monica, CA. “Liquid Billboard” for Adidas, Grand Prix, Outdoor, by Havas Middle East Dubai. And “Draw Ketchup” for Kraft Heinz, Gold Lion,...

Today we celebrate my friend, partner and co-host of The Brief Bros., Henry Gomez, who went to Cannes this year with his colleagues from Zubi Advertising in Miami and won a Silver Lion for work the agency produced for Burger King. In this episode, Henry takes us on the wild but ultimately joy-filled ride he and his team took over many years to achieve this triumph. Join me and Henry as we share wi...

Mark Jenson is an old friend. I’ve been making virtual guest appearances to speak to his advertising students since 2018. He teaches at the University of Minnesota. Mark was instrumental in facilitating Henry and me in our recent multi-episode project to write a creative brief on The Brief Bros for Hulu. Since Henry and I are both educators, it made sense to ask Mark to join us to talk about the s...