What is the campaign's outcome, in one sentence?
Write what the campaign is for in one sentence with a verb and an object the FTE can measure from connected data: qualified leads from a segment, sign-ups for a launch, bookings for a season. State the target subset it applies to and the deadline. If the sentence needs an and, it is two campaigns.
Verify: the outcome maps to a target in the role's Targets tab with an evidence source.
- Outcome: ______
- Target subset: ______ Deadline: ______
Who is the audience, specifically?
Describe the audience in terms the channels can target and the Brand Brain recognises: segment, size, sector, role, the problem they have, and the protected audiences the campaign must never reach, such as existing customers on a retention list or a competitor's staff. State the sources the FTE may use to research the audience.
Verify: the protected audiences are on the role's protected list, not only in the brief.
Which channels run, and what is each one's cap?
List each channel with its own spend cap, the account it runs in, and any platform-specific rule. State that the cap lives at the account level in Setup and cannot be breached by any proposal, that the FTE's own token budget for analysis and drafting is separate and drawn from the organization's wallet, and that the morning brief shows both. State the total cap and that it is below the baseline spend for a first campaign.
Verify: each account's cap is set in Setup before launch, and the sum matches the brief.
- Channel ______ — account ______ — cap ______
- Channel ______ — account ______ — cap ______
- Total cap ______ (below baseline ______)
Which claims are prohibited, and what are the creative rules?
List the claims no creative may make: outcome or effectiveness claims without an approved source, comparative claims against named competitors, regulated statements in your sector, anything the brand guidelines forbid. State the voice, the words avoided, and the visual rules. The fact gate checks every creative against this block before it reaches Approvals; a creative that fails comes back to the FTE, not to you.
Verify: a deliberately prohibited claim in a test creative is blocked and identified.
Which actions are permanently gated, and which detections always escalate?
State the actions that wait for a named approver at every autonomy level: the launch itself with its full package, any budget increase above a stated threshold, any new audience, any creative touching a regulated claim. State the detections that always escalate with a proposed response: a spend spike, a platform policy flag, a performance collapse on one creative. Name the approver for each.
Verify: none of the gated actions appears as a promotable class in Setup.
- Launch package → ______
- Budget increase above ______ → ______
- New audience, regulated creative → ______
- Spend spike, policy flag, collapse → ______
What are the success criteria, written before launch?
Write what success looks like in the outcome's units against the baseline, and write what failure looks like: cost per outcome above a stated level, a channel that does not move, a creative that never passes the gate. State that dual attribution is read, the platform's number beside the independent view, and that anything the platform cannot measure is labelled unmeasured. Criteria written after launch are rationalisations.
Verify: the criteria are in the brief before the launch package is approved.
How does the FTE use the brief, and what does it write afterwards?
The approved brief becomes a mission with a goal, a subset, a deadline, a budget, and visible progress. The FTE proposes the campaign plan with each element labelled sourced or assumed, then the creative and channel setup, each gated and each checked against block 4. During the campaign the brief reports progress against block 1 and spend against block 3, and detections from block 5 arrive with proposed responses. At the end the FTE writes the review in the first person against block 6: what worked, what did not, what was unmeasured, what it recommends.
A brief written to this structure makes the review a reading of the record rather than an argument about what the campaign was for.