90% of the Briefs We Get Are Now AI-Influenced

The creative brief is the document everyone writes and nobody reads. It's also the first thing blamed when a campaign goes wrong. Ten pages of company background. A solution dressed up as a problem. If you've sent or received a brief like that, you already know the work suffers for it. Anna Broadhead sits down with three Publicis Pro leaders: CEO John Lonsdale, Chief Strategy Officer Martin Harrison and Managing Director Katie Pospischil. You'll come away knowing how to separate the client's problem from the agency's solution and how to turn B2B marketing data into insight a creative team can use. You'll also hear where AI in marketing helps with briefs and where it quietly makes them worse. Expect honest debate on brief ownership, AI-written briefs and the brand strategy shift from "what do we want to tell them" to "what do we want them to remember". This is for B2B marketing leaders who write briefs, sign them off or live with the results. If you want a downloadable template, look elsewhere. ## Key Takeaways - A client brief should state the problem, and the creative brief should state the solution. Martin explains what goes wrong when clients brief the answer. - Never tell a client their brief is wrong. John shares the golden rule from his first job, and Martin explains how to reshape the response so it still answers the brief. - "45% of people think this" is information. Martin's habit of flipping every stat (including the Radio Times readers who don't want to be intellectually challenged) gets you to the why. - John estimates 90% of briefs now arrive AI-influenced. Katie describes the hidden tax that puts on agency teams, and Martin explains why AI can't make the imaginative leap a strategy needs. ## Chapter Markers 00:00 The brief everyone writes and nobody reads 00:58 What a brief is for and who owns it 15:37 Sorting useful detail from noise 17:42 From data points to real insight 24:43 AI briefs, Roger Martin and inspiring a team 29:13 The Guinness pub briefing and memory over messaging 35:36 What B2B briefs should stop doing 38:55 Tudder, the bookies and the £50 brief 43:12 Wrap-up and next episode preview ## Useful Links & Resources - Publicis Pro: https://publicispro.com/ - Playing to Win by Roger Martin (referenced by Martin on data, strategy and the future) - How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp (referenced on single-minded propositions and memory structures) ## Connect With the Show - Website: https://publicispro.com/ - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/publicisprob2b/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/publicisprob2b/ What's the one thing you wish every B2B creative brief would stop doing? Martin wants fewer job-title audience descriptions. John wants clients to stop handing over the answer. Tell us yours in the comments, and share your best (or worst) briefing story. Subscribe to the UnTrended Podcast and send your questions using the link in the episode description. #UnTrended #B2BMarketing #CreativeBrief #AIinMarketing #BrandStrategy