A creative agency can begin producing work quickly and still misunderstand what the business is trying to sell. Onboarding should give the agency a usable commercial brief, approved source material and a clear route to decisions. For UAE buyers, this also means identifying the languages, audiences and locations that the work must serve before the first concept appears.
A creative agency can begin producing work quickly and still misunderstand what the business is trying to sell. Onboarding should give the agency a usable commercial brief, approved source material and a clear route to decisions. For UAE buyers, this also means identifying the languages, audiences and locations that the work must serve before the first concept appears.
Explain the offer, intended audience, buying situation and action you want the audience to take. Distinguish a brand introduction from a product enquiry campaign or a distributor presentation. These require different information and should not be bundled under an undefined request for awareness.
Provide existing brand files, approved product descriptions and examples of past work with an explanation of what succeeded or caused confusion. Flag anything that is outdated. An old presentation should not quietly become the factual source for a new campaign because it was the easiest document to find.
Name a commercial owner, factual reviewer and final creative approver. If Arabic and English versions are needed, appoint reviewers capable of approving each language in context. Translation approval and design approval should meet before the agency exports production files.
Set a single feedback route. Ask internal reviewers to resolve contradictory comments before sending them to the agency. Otherwise the designer may receive instructions to make an advert more technical and simpler at the same time, with no authority to decide which objective takes priority.
List the deliverables by format, dimensions, language and intended use. Identify whether photography, illustration, copywriting, animation and printing are included. Confirm what the agency needs from your team and when those inputs are due.
Agree how source files, fonts, stock assets and usage permissions will be handled at handover. A finished image that looks correct is not necessarily an editable asset your next supplier can lawfully or practically reuse. Ask the agency to explain restrictions before you approve a visual direction built around them.
Use a briefing recap and one initial creative direction to test understanding. Check the message and audience fit before requesting every adaptation. A small misunderstanding becomes expensive when repeated across many sizes and languages.
Finish onboarding with an approved brief, delivery schedule, responsibility list and asset inventory. Those documents make creative judgement easier: everyone can discuss whether the work solves the agreed problem instead of debating preferences without a common reference.
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