Write a useful creative brief

Tell Wavemaker the outcome, audience, format, exact words, references and limits, with examples for stills, video ads, UGC, voiceover and music.

Updated 2026-10-22

Write your brief

1. Open New chat. For a video, choose a type in the composer bar, such as UGC ad or Launch film. If the brief is empty, Wavemaker fills in a starter brief with blanks in brackets; replace each blank.
2. Say what you are making, who it is for and where it will run.
3. Write out anything that must appear exactly: product names, prices, dates, claims, spoken lines and on-screen text.
4. Add your references with +, and say in the brief what each one is for.
5. Set the frame, length and resolution in the format menu, or state them in the brief.
6. Say what must not change and how much you want to spend.
7. Send. For a large job, ask for a plan or a first draft before the final.

A brief can be up to 64,000 characters, and one message can carry up to 40 files. A short, specific brief usually works better than a long one.

What every brief needs

If you name the platform and placement, the agent can check the finished file against that placement's published specifications, such as its frame sizes and length limits.

Choose a format

The format menu sits in the composer bar beside the type buttons. Its chip shows the frame and length, for example 16:9 · any length. Until you choose something, the menu sends nothing and the agent decides from your brief.

Types

Each type is a video. Choosing one sets its usual frame and a starting length, which you can change.

Every type also offers Any length. Selecting the chosen type again clears it.

When you send with a type selected, the agent is asked to deliver one video of that type at the frame, length and size you chose. It is a request, not a check: delivery doesn't verify the frame or length, so review the result. Your words are not changed. The format applies to a new message only; direction you send while a reply is running doesn't carry a format.

Frame and resolution

Resolution offers Auto, 720p, 1080p and 4K; Auto leaves it to the agent. The resolution names the short side of the frame, and a frame wider than 16:9 keeps the 16:9 width. Without a type, a frame or resolution you choose is passed to the agent as a note, which works for stills too.

Briefs by output type

A still image

Say what the image is for, the frame, the subject and any text that must appear in it. Attach the product photo or logo and say what each is. Ask for the number of options you want to compare.

Make three 4:5 product stills of our amber glass candle for an Instagram feed post. Use the attached photo as the product reference and keep the label legible. Warm evening light on a linen tablecloth. Put the headline Slow evenings in the top third. No other text.

See Create and edit images.

A video ad

Choose Launch film or UGC ad, or name the frame and length. Give the hook, the key message and the closing line, and say where it will run.

Make a 15-second 16:9 launch film for the Halden trail shoe. Open on the outsole gripping wet rock, show three quick hero shots, and end on the line Built for the long way round with our logo. Use the attached product photos and logo. Music should be driving but not aggressive. No voiceover.

A UGC ad

Describe the creator, what they say and the b-roll. If you have a script, give it word for word.

Make a 20-second UGC ad for TikTok in-feed for our oat-milk cold brew. A woman in her late 20s talks to camera in her kitchen: "I stopped buying coffee on the way to work. This tastes better and it's ready when I am." Cut to b-roll of pouring over ice. Captions on every line. End with Try it this week.

A voiceover

Give the script exactly, the kind of voice and the pace. If you have a voice saved in your Library, add it with Add from Library with the purpose voice.

Record a voiceover of this script, about 30 seconds, calm and warm, mid-pace, American English: "Every bottle starts with one spring. We bottle it where it rises, and we bring it to you within a week."

See Voices and Video and audio.

Music

Give the mood, genre, length and how it should end. Say whether it needs vocals and where hits or changes should land.

Compose a 30-second instrumental track for a product video: light acoustic guitar and soft percussion, building at 20 seconds and ending on a clean final chord. No vocals.

For a music video, attach your song, choose Music video and pick Full song to cut to the whole track.

Give each reference a job

Select + beside the brief, then Upload files or Add from Library. Each Library item you pick gets a purpose, which starts as the item's kind. Change it to say what the item is for, such as product, character, voice or style: lowercase letters, numbers, dashes or underscores, starting with a letter, and a different purpose for each item. The agent receives each item with its purpose.

In the brief, say how to use each file: "Use the attached photo for the bottle shape and label only; ignore the background." If you have brand kits, the Brand chip in the composer chooses which one the agent reads for this message. See References and Brand kits.

State limits and must-keep elements

• Budget. Set a Planning budget in the quality menu: the most this message may spend. You can also write a limit in the brief, for the next reply or the whole conversation, such as "Don't spend more than 200 credits on this conversation." The agent records it, and the service stops spending past it. A limit for one reply ends when your next message starts. See Choose quality, models and presets.
• Must-keep elements. List them plainly: exact text, logo placement, colors, product angle, a character's look. Say what the agent may change.
• Approval before costly steps. To approve the work in stages, ask for a plan or a draft first and end with "Wait for my go-ahead", as in Plan in stages. Step by step in the quality menu asks before every step, but the web app can't approve those steps yet. See Step by step.
• Models. If a kind of media must use a particular model, pick it under Show model choices. The agent then uses it or stops to ask. Naming a model only in the brief is a request, not a lock.

Plan in stages

For a long or expensive piece, ask for the cheapest useful step first:

Before making anything, write a shot list and a 30-second script for a launch film for our standing desk, and tell me what it will cost. Wait for my go-ahead.

Then ask for stills or a draft cut, review, and only then the final. Draft quality in the quality menu usually costs less while you explore.

Give feedback that can be acted on

Name the result and the exact change, and say what already works: "Keep the opening shot; shorten the middle section and make the final caption larger." To aim a change at one result, select Refine on it. See Choose, compare and revise a result.

Your first creative conversation · Choose quality, models and presets · Video and audio

Related guidance

• Create and edit an image
• Choose quality, models and presets
• Use references, characters and styles
• Choose, compare and revise a result
• Your first creative conversation
• Video, speech, music and finishing