Brief encounters: no hope insight.

(From The Economic Times)

Byline: Ravi Balakrishnan & Harihar Narayanswamy

It's lived far too long, considering it's called a 'brief' in the advertising circuit. With changes sweeping across every aspect of the advertising business, can briefing be left far behind?

While the time-honoured tradition of client servicing executives being briefed by the clients and, in turn, proselytising to the creatives in agencies does continue, it just may be on its way out.

Speaking about the changes in the process over the years, Piyush Pandey, group president and national creative director, O&M, says, "I think it's become less formal. Not always, but the better ones are more open to interpretation. This ensures that the brief will not be just replicated in the final product. The process has become far more dialogue-oriented: it used to be more assembly line in the past, but now goes to-and-fro before people reach an agreement."

One step towards building a better brief is making the process inclusive. There seems to be a greater trend towards getting people from the creative and …