The launch of Shutterstock’s Smart Brief addresses the growing visual demands of today’s digital ecosystem. But with more marketing channels available to businesses, creating the right content to represent your brand is critically important.
Smart Brief looks to simplify and expedite the process of developing your creative brief so creators can get started with your project right away. According to Shutterstock, Smart Brief will cut the time it takes to draft briefs by allowing collaboration with clients. So, clients can leverage the collaboration tools to get the branded content they want for their company.
The goal is to reduce the approval process time, which can be drawn out with traditional communication tools. In fact, this is what Sylvain Grande, SVP of Product & UX at Shutterstock, highlights in the press release.
Furthermore, Grande says the traditional creative process is labor-intensive, time-consuming and leaves a lot open to interpretation. But with direct communication and a platform which asks the right questions, this can be solved. Smart Brief uses innovative technology to automate and simplify this experience.
What is a Creative Brief?
A creative brief is a document which outlines the details of a creative project between clients and agencies or freelancers. Producing quality briefs with all the information creatives need is key to getting projects completed accurately and on time.
According to Grande, “A good brief that captures the brand voice serves as the foundation of any campaign and is absolutely essential to its success.”
The complications in creative briefs arise when the communication channels get bogged down. Depending who creates it (the client or the creator can) there needs to be a more efficient way to get it done. And collaboration is key to making it happen.
Shutterstock Smart Brief Features
The technology in Smart Brief was created after analyzing hundreds of briefs and client interviews. The conclusion Shutterstock came up with is, the process needs to simplify brief input to get accurate results.
Three key strategies are part of the process in Smart Brief. And just as the name suggests, they are brief but smart.
It all starts with intelligence or data. The platform only asks relevant questions as you move through the process by capturing accurate inputs. This gets rid of unnecessary information, which eventually results in conflict between the client and creators.
Once the intelligence is in hand, it is time to bring in both parties together to collaborate. At this stage, the client can make recommendations, accept changes, view all versions of the project, and bring additional team members for more input.
When the client accepts the brief, they can now make changes at a later date. The flexibility in Smart Brief lets you make changes throughout the year as your needs fluctuate. As a client you can adjust control, production value, and service level per project.
Smart Brief is part of Shutterstock Custom, a platform that connects brands with creators to develop branded custom content quickly. It is also offering three pre- and post-production services and support as part of this launch.
The new improved service and support will offer Rapid Ideation to individualize brief concepts customized to your brand with new ideas; eCommerce Optimization to drive engagement and purchases on major e-commerce marketplaces by generating the assets; Convert to Pins and Mobile Video function which will turn existing images or videos into formats that are ready to share on different platforms.
You can go on Shutterstock Custom and experience Smart Brief along with the new pre- and post-production features.
Image: Shutterstock