The best creative work I've ever produced started with a brief I ignored.
Not completely. The problem was right. The audience was right. The objective was right. But the expected solution was wrong. Predictable. Safe. The kind of answer that gets approved because it's expected, not because it works.
So we answered a different question. One the client didn't ask. One they didn't know they needed answered.
The brief said: show product superiority through feature comparison. We showed brand personality through cultural attitude. The brief wanted rational. We delivered emotional. The brief asked for explanation. We gave demonstration.
It terrified everyone internally. It tested poorly. It required enormous conviction to present. And when we did, the client bought it in the room. Because it solved their actual problem, not their stated problem.
Here's what I've learned: briefs tell you the problem. They don't tell you the answer. And often, they don't even tell you the real problem. The real problem is buried in the context, the politics, the constraints they mentioned in passing.
The worst creative follows the brief literally. The best creative reads between the lines and solves for what's actually needed, not what's been requested.
But this requires trust. Trust that you understand the business better than the brief suggests. Trust that your judgment about solutions is worth defending. Trust that the client hired you to think, not to execute their thinking.
I've had briefs that asked for tactics when they needed strategy. Briefs that asked for evolution when they needed revolution. Briefs that asked for more when they needed less.
Following those briefs literally would have delivered exactly what was asked for and exactly zero value.
Sometimes the brief is perfect. Follow it. But sometimes the brief is a starting point, not a destination. And the answer they need is the one they didn't know to ask for.