Get out of the building
When working with most creative agencies, you'll find they spend a great deal of time and effort on something that is usually called a creative or design brief. This brief is based primarily on input from the client, with a bit of (usually) secondary desk research thrown in, and a great deal of thinking done about how to creatively solve the client's business problem. Once it's been signed off by planning, creative and client, it's delivered to the creative team and used to develop an advertising campaign.
This has been the process for as long as most of the creative industry remembers. But it's missing something. Well, several somethings, really.
