There's a great discussion forming over at The Creative Brief Project. Lots of good insights and posts from Planners around the world about the current (and future) state of creative briefs and strategy development. A big thanks to Edward Cotton at Influx for creating and leading the group...
It was here that I was directed to Made By Many's manifesto for agile strategy development. It's much like agile software development but for brand strategy.
That's really good, isn't it? You can read MxM's full post here. There are some quotes and insights in the post from Rework that prove helpful. One in particular helps articulate the need for a purpose driven brand strategy:
"When you don't know what you believe, everything becomes an argument."
Nike's purpose driven strategy of "if you have a body you are an athlete" is incredibly centering. Leads to consistently great work. Which is largely why today on Creativity, Nike had three pieces of featured work from three different agencies spanning two different countries. And not only is it great work, imagine the time saved organization-wide by not constantly arguing about strategy or purpose? The concept of agile strategy development could really help more organizations craft purpose driven strategies...