# Campaign brief — Real estate The campaign brief with four fields a property campaign needs: which listing or development this is for, what the price guide says, how it is being sold, and the fixed date everything works backwards from. Everything else is the general brief, unchanged. One outcome, one metric, one message, one approver by name, and a definition of done with a date in it. ## How to use it 1. Copy this file, or the CSV version if you would rather work in a sheet. 2. Write the fixed date first, then work every other date backwards from it. 3. Write the business outcome in the vendor's terms, not in marketing terms. 4. Read the baseline off your own recent campaigns in this market and bracket, then set the target from it. 5. Name the approver by name, and record what portion of the budget the vendor is paying. 6. Leave Baseline and Target blank until they are read rather than guessed. 7. Close the brief the week after the fixed date, whatever the result was. ## The columns **Brief name** (Text). What this brief is called, by listing reference, so the campaign it produces can be reported back to the person paying for it without anybody searching an ad account. **Business outcome** (Text). What the vendor gets if this works, in their terms: the property sold at or above reserve on auction day, a full first inspection, a registered field of bidders. **Primary metric** (Text). The one number this brief is judged on, which should be inspections attended or registered buyers rather than enquiries. **Baseline** (Number). What that number is today for this corridor and bracket, read from your office's own recent campaigns. Blank until it has been read; a figure from another market describes another auction. **Target** (Number). What the metric has to reach for this to have worked, set after the baseline and agreed with the vendor before the campaign starts rather than explained after it. **Audience** (Text). Who this is for, and in property that is mostly geography: the corridor, the suburbs that feed it, the life stage the floorplan suits. **Offer** (Text). What is actually being offered to a buyer: two open inspections a week, a pre-auction information pack, a private appointment on request. The offer here is access. **Message** (Text). The one thing the buyer has to believe about this property, specific enough that it could not be said about the listing next door. **Proof** (Text). What makes it credible: comparable sales sourced and dated, the floorplan shown large enough to read, the aspect visible rather than described. **Landing page** (URL). The exact destination: the listing page on the office's own site or the portal listing, and never a general agency page that lists every property at once. **Channels** (Text). Where this runs, and what each is there to do. The portals carry the search demand; the social surfaces reach the corridor that is not searching yet. **Flight start** (Date (YYYY-MM-DD)). The first day this may spend, which is never earlier than the photography is delivered and the portal listing is live, because paid traffic before either wastes a week of a fixed period. **Flight end** (Date (YYYY-MM-DD)). The last day, inclusive, and set by the auction, the close of expressions or the end of the launch period rather than by a number of weeks. **Budget (minor units)** (Integer). The whole budget for this brief, in the smallest unit of its currency, as a whole number, and never more than the vendor marketing agreement allows. **Currency** (ISO 4217 code). The ISO 4217 code the ad account bills in, which is the currency the vendor's agreement is written in and the one their report will be in. **Guardrails** (Text). What this brief may not do whatever the results say: publish a guide the vendor has not agreed, spend after the fixed date without a new agreement, fund the office's own presence. **Approver** (Text). The person who can say yes to this, by name, which for anything the vendor sees is the listing agent. **Definition of done** (Text). What has to be true for this to be closed: a date in the week after the fixed date, the result against the baseline, and the person who writes the vendor's report. **Listing or development** (Text). The property or project this brief is for, by its reference. It is what makes the campaign reportable back to whoever is paying for it, which in property is often the vendor. **Price guide** (Text). What the market is being told, in the words the agency will use, with the date it was agreed. A campaign whose guide moves mid-flight is a different campaign from the one briefed. **Method of sale** (Text). Auction, private treaty, expressions of interest, off-plan. It decides the fixed date, the shape of the spend and what the campaign is asking a buyer to do. **Fixed date** (Date (YYYY-MM-DD)). The auction, the close of expressions, the launch weekend. The one date that cannot move, which every other date in the brief is written backwards from. ## The campaign brief | Brief name | Business outcome | Primary metric | Baseline | Target | Audience | Offer | Message | Proof | Landing page | Channels | Flight start | Flight end | Budget (minor units) | Currency | Guardrails | Approver | Definition of done | Listing or development | Price guide | Method of sale | Fixed date | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ## Before you commit it - The listing reference and the fixed date are both in the brief. - Every other date is written backwards from the fixed date. - The price guide is recorded with the date it was agreed. - The method of sale is named, and the message matches it. - The vendor-paid portion of the budget is written down. - Baseline and target are both read from your own campaigns, or both blank. - The definition of done falls in the week after the fixed date.