Brand Playbook

A brand playbook is the operating manual for running brand work day to day, covering decisions, routes and responsibilities as well as look and language. It answers who does what — where guidelines answer only what the work should look like.

The distinction shows up the first time somebody needs a decision quickly. A guidelines document says what the palette is — it does not say who approves a campaign, how long that takes, or what happens when a deadline collides with a review.

It also has a commercial use. Agencies pricing a scope read the approval routes to estimate how many review rounds they should expect, so an honest playbook produces more accurate quotes.

A playbook covers those. It is written for the people executing rather than for the people designing, which is why it tends to be shorter and considerably more specific.

Its natural failure is going stale. A playbook describes how the organisation currently works — and organisations change faster than documents do.

Key takeaways

• The playbook covers process, ownership and decision routes, not just visual rules.
• It is written for executing teams, including agencies and freelancers.
• Approval routes with named roles and stated timings prevent most escalations.
• A playbook needs a review date, because it describes a way of working that changes.

How it works

Most playbooks are organised around recurring situations rather than around assets. Launching a campaign, responding to a complaint, briefing an agency and naming something new are each given a route with named owners.

Each route states four things: who decides, who must be consulted, how long it should take, and what to do when the answer is unclear. That last item prevents the most common failure, which is a silent stall.

Contact details do more work than anything else in the document. Most escalations are caused by not knowing who to ask, and a current name against each decision resolves them before they start.

Exceptions need a route rather than a prohibition. Teams facing a situation the playbook did not anticipate will act anyway, so a stated way to ask is what keeps those decisions visible.

Written style belongs in the playbook as much as visual rules do. The Government Digital Service maintains published style guides covering style points for content, which is the same function at a larger scale.

Compliance boundaries need stating in plain terms. The Advertising Standards Authority’s CAP Code is described as “the rule book for non-broadcast advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing communications”, and a playbook should say when to consult it.

Examples

Playbooks differ mainly in who they are written for and how much of the organisation they cover. The three below serve an in-house team, an agency roster and a franchise network.

A retailer writes its playbook for a rotating agency roster. Each campaign manager receives it at onboarding, and the approval timings are contractual rather than advisory.

A business software firm includes paid media rules in the playbook. Its media buyer works to stated limits on competitor naming and claim wording without seeking approval each time.

A franchise network publishes a lighter version for franchisees. It covers social media marketing (SMM) permissions in detail, because that is where local deviation causes the most trouble.

Related terms

Several documents govern brand work, and their scopes overlap confusingly. The entries below separate the operating manual from the specialised plans and the delivery capacity.

• Account based marketing playbook: a playbook for one specific sales motion, not the whole brand.
• Marketing operations outsourcing: the function that usually maintains the playbook.
• Managed marketing outsourcing: an arrangement where a partner executes to the playbook.
• Copywriter: the role most affected by the tone and vocabulary sections.

FAQ

How is a playbook different from brand guidelines?

Guidelines define the brand’s appearance and language. A playbook defines how work gets done: who briefs, who approves, how long it takes and who resolves disputes.

How long should it be?

Short enough to be read once and searched thereafter. Playbooks above roughly forty pages are consulted for the contact list and ignored otherwise.

Who writes it?

Marketing operations or the brand team, drawing on the people who actually run the processes. Written in isolation, it describes an idealised organisation.

Should agencies receive the whole document?

Usually yes, minus commercially sensitive sections. Partial disclosure produces agencies that follow the visual rules and miss the approval routes.

How often should it be reviewed?

Annually at minimum, and immediately after any reorganisation. An out-of-date escalation path is worse than none, because people follow it.

Does a small organisation need one?

A short one, yes. Even three people benefit from writing down who approves what, particularly once freelancers are involved.

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