What should a retail media creative brief include? An agency's checklist

"Same as last time, but for Conad"

Sara runs a five-person studio that adapts key visuals for FMCG brands. Friday, 5:12 pm, a brief arrives: "Same KV as last time, Conad gondola end, 1400 × 400, by Wednesday."

Millimetres or pixels? Print, so probably millimetres. Bleed? The last Conad job had 5 mm, but that was a flyer. Which pack shots: the four from the last job, or the new range? Safe area? Nobody knows.

Sara writes back with six questions. The brand manager is travelling and answers on Monday afternoon, half of them. The designer starts on assumptions. On Tuesday the retailer's spec arrives: 3 mm bleed and a 40 mm safe zone at the bottom for the shelf rail. The file is rebuilt on Wednesday night.

The business problem

For an agency, an incomplete brief means one of two things. Either it waits, and the deadline gets tight, or it guesses and pays for it in rework that's rarely billable. Both damage margin and the relationship with the client.

The agency can't fix this alone. The real spec belongs to the retailer, the files to the brand, and the brief passes through an inbox.

How does RMM give agencies complete briefs?

• The spec is part of the brief. Size with an explicit unit, orientation, bleed, safe area and call to action come from the retailer's published touchpoint, not from someone's memory.
• One download for everything. Master artwork, open files with links and fonts, the spec documents, the safe-area and final-output references, and pack shots named by EAN.
• New look or adaptation, said clearly. Each brief says whether you keep the key visual as it is or create a new execution, with the objective, tone of voice and mandatory elements.
• Ask for time without a phone call. If the deadline doesn't work, you propose a new date inside the brief and the brand accepts or declines it.