What creative agencies in Malaysia really need from marketers before the work begins

Every memorable campaign begins with an idea. But long before the creative concepts, storyboards or taglines come together, there is another ingredient that often determines whether the work succeeds at all - the brief.

At its best, a creative brief does more than outline deliverables. It defines the business challenge, aligns expectations and gives both marketers and agencies a shared understanding of the problem they are trying to solve. When that foundation is strong, creativity has room to flourish.

However, agency leaders across Malaysia say that is not always the reality. Instead, briefs can arrive with unclear objectives, missing context, unrealistic timelines or undefined budgets, leaving agencies to fill in the gaps with assumptions before the real work has even begun.

While every client and project is different, the creative leaders A+M spoke to agreed on one thing: the strongest ideas rarely come from better brainstorming alone. They come from better conversations at the very beginning.

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Start with the problem

For Muma Malaysia managing director and co-founder Pang Li Li, a strong brief does not need to be lengthy, but it does need to answer a few fundamental questions - what is the business challenge, who are we trying to influence, what behaviour are we trying to change, and what makes the brand different.

“Clarity is what gives creativity the confidence to be bold,” she said, adding that the best briefs provide context, constraints and a clear definition of success.

Tanner Nagib, founder of Beatnk, shared a similar view:

A strong brief doesn't need to be long, but it does need to be clear.

“What problem are we trying to solve? Why does it matter now? What does success look like?”

Meanwhile, Skribble CEO Teng Chan Leong said the strongest briefs strike a careful balance between providing direction and leaving room for creativity.

“A good brief has several components: a clear outcome, a clear boundary, and a clear context,” he said. “The brief has to be balanced, and it should never be developed in isolation.” Instead, he believes briefs should be shaped collaboratively with agency partners.

At a glance, a good brief should feel like an open conversation already being had, instead of a blank slate waiting for new ideas.

Gary Boon, creative director at Wofollow, was equally emphatic that clarity starts with defining the real business problem. “Honesty about the problem is the only ingredient that truly matters,” he said. “I've seen briefs that list ‘awareness’ and ‘conversion’ as objectives, that's a wish, not a brief.”

Across all four agencies, the common thread was that a brief should define the business problem and establish clear direction before jumping into deliverables. They argue that when objectives, context and constraints are understood upfront, agencies are far better placed to develop ideas that are both creative and commercially effective.

When assumptions take over

The consequences of an unclear brief extend beyond creative frustration. Agency leaders say unclear briefs often force teams to make assumptions before creative development even begins. More often, they lead to agencies solving the wrong problem altogether, with assumptions replacing information that should have been shared from the outset.

Beatnk's Nagib said uncertainty around objectives, budgets, timelines or decision-making processes forces agencies to make educated guesses before strategic thinking can even begin.

“The biggest challenge isn't necessarily the missing information itself. It's the assumptions that fill the gaps,” he said, adding that those assumptions can result in unnecessary revisions and ideas being judged against criteria that were never clearly defined.

Muma's Pang shared a similar concern, warning that agencies can end up producing “the right answer to the wrong problem” when the underlying business challenge is not fully articulated. Rather than intentionally withholding information, she believes many marketers are themselves trying to navigate complex business issues, making dialogue even more important.

“The briefing process should be a conversation rather than a transaction,” she said. “The more openly both sides can discuss the challenge, the better the eventual solution tends to be.”

For Teng, one of the most common pitfalls is treating the initial brief as final. He recalled working with a real estate developer whose original request focused narrowly on selling remaining inventory through a predetermined channel and budget.

Several conversations later, the brief had evolved into something far more comprehensive, with revised objectives, a more realistic budget and a clearer understanding of the business challenge.

“The lesson on our end was that we shouldn't take a brief at face value, and should always offer a clarification session,” he said. "For the advertiser, the lesson was that a brief can be developed together with their partners.”

Wofollow's Boon shared a similar experience where a product launch brief shifted significantly after it became apparent the client had yet to align internally.

“If you can't write the brief clearly, you haven't solved it internally yet,” he said.

Agencies aren't a shortcut around internal alignment. We work best when we're brought in to solve a defined problem.

Partnership, not paperwork

While agencies acknowledge that no brief will ever be perfect, they say stronger outcomes depend on open, ongoing collaboration between marketers and agency partners.

For Pang, the brief should never be viewed as a handover document. “The biggest lesson was that a brief should never be viewed as a handover document. It is the starting point of a conversation,” she said, adding that investing time to align on the challenge before discussing solutions almost always leads to stronger work.

Teng echoed that view, arguing that briefing should itself be collaborative rather than a one-way exercise. “The brief should never be developed in isolation,” he said. “At a glance, a good brief should feel like an open conversation already being had, instead of a blank slate waiting for new ideas.”

Transparency also emerged as a recurring theme. Teng said some marketers still assume withholding timelines, budgets or targets creates leverage during the pitch process. In reality, he argued, openness often produces better value for both sides. He shared:

Brands get the best deal by being easy to work with, not by having the smallest, most opaque budget.

Nagib believes the issue ultimately comes down to how agencies are viewed within the business. “Treat your agency as a partner, not simply a supplier,” he said. “Great agencies shouldn't just execute instructions. They should be helping clients uncover opportunities, identify risks, and sometimes reframe the problem entirely.”

Boon drew perhaps the strongest analogy of all, likening agency relationships to long-term commitments rather than transactional engagements. “Treat the partnership like a marriage,” he said. “It only works when both sides are honest, make no assumptions, and are genuinely working toward a shared future.”

Ultimately, the four agency leaders converge on a simple point: better creative rarely starts with better ideas alone.

It starts with a clearer understanding of the problem, greater transparency throughout the briefing process and the willingness for clients and agencies to solve challenges together, rather than from opposite sides of the table.

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