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Creative Producer Playbook

This playbook shows you how to use Boa to create production-ready creative briefs, reduce revision cycles, and deliver work backed by real performance data.
Creative Producers use Boa to bridge strategy and execution — turning insights into clear, actionable briefs that designers and agencies can execute with confidence.

Your top 3 goals with Boa

1. Create data-backed creative briefs

Ground every brief in real performance patterns. Show your team what good looks like and why it matters.

2. Reduce revision cycles

Clear, specific briefs reduce back-and-forth. Use Boa to provide visual references, rationale, and must-haves that eliminate ambiguity.

3. Understand the “why” behind creative direction

When Creative Directors or Performance Marketers request changes, use Boa to understand the performance data behind their ask.

Weekly workflow rhythm

1

Monday: Understand creative direction and context

Time investment: 15-20 minutesGoal: Start the week aligned on what you’re producing and why.Recommended Chips:
  • Genre Deep Dive — Understand current patterns in your category
  • Competitor Landscape — See what’s working for competitors
What to do:
  1. Review creative requests from Creative Director or Performance Marketer
  2. Run Genre Deep Dive to understand context
  3. Note top-performing patterns (tone, theme, pacing, visuals)
  4. Save visual references for your brief
Deliverable: Context and pattern notes for briefs
Context gathering example

Monday context gathering

2

Tuesday-Wednesday: Create production-ready briefs

Time investment: 30-45 minutes per briefGoal: Turn insights into clear, actionable creative briefs.Recommended Chips:
  • Creative Brief Builder — Structured brief creation
  • Creative Breakdown (if needed) — Understand specific top performers
What to do:
  1. Use Creative Brief Builder for each campaign
  2. Include:
    • Clear objective and hypothesis
    • Specific creative direction (tone, theme, pacing, character)
    • 3-5 visual references with annotations
    • Must-haves and guardrails
    • “What Good Looks Like” benchmark
  3. Add production specs (format, duration, aspect ratio)
  4. Review with Creative Director or Performance Marketer
Deliverable: Production-ready creative briefs
3

Thursday: Hand-off and answer questions

Time investment: 20-30 minutesGoal: Ensure your team or agency understands the brief.What to do:
  1. Hand off briefs to designers, video editors, or agency
  2. Walk through key elements:
    • Show visual references
    • Explain the “why” (performance rationale)
    • Clarify must-haves and guardrails
  3. Answer questions and provide additional context if needed
Deliverable: Aligned team ready to execute
4

Friday: Review work and diagnose gaps

Time investment: 15-20 minutesGoal: Catch issues early and provide feedback grounded in data.Recommended Chips:
  • Creative Breakdown (if needed) — Diagnose draft work
  • A/B Comparison — Compare drafts to benchmarks
What to do:
  1. Review draft work from your team
  2. If something feels off, run Creative Breakdown on the draft
  3. Compare to top performers (is tone aligned? pacing correct? hook strong?)
  4. Provide specific, data-backed feedback
Deliverable: Feedback for iteration (if needed)

Favorite Chips for Creative Producers


Fast wins: your first 2 weeks with Boa

Week 1: Create your first data-backed brief

Day 1-2: Research and context
  • Run Genre Deep Dive for your current project
  • Run Competitor Landscape to see what’s working
  • Save 5-10 visual references
Day 3-4: Build the brief
  • Use Creative Brief Builder to structure your brief
  • Include:
    • Clear objective
    • Specific creative direction
    • Visual references with annotations
    • Must-haves and guardrails
    • “What Good Looks Like” benchmark
Day 5: Hand-off and refine
  • Share brief with your team
  • Walk through visual references and rationale
  • Answer questions and clarify
Outcome: Your first production-ready brief backed by data.

Week 2: Diagnose and iterate

Day 1-2: Review draft work
  • Get draft work from your team
  • Run Creative Breakdown on the draft
  • Compare to top performers
Day 3-4: Provide feedback
  • Use Diagnose insights to give specific feedback:
    • “Hook needs to be faster (top performers hook in 3 sec)”
    • “Tone should be more epic (see reference #2)”
    • “CTA placement should move to end”
  • Iterate with team
Day 5: Final review
  • Compare final work to brief and benchmarks
  • Run A/B Comparison if unsure
  • Approve or request final tweaks
Outcome: Delivered creative that matches brief and benchmarks.

Creating high-quality creative briefs

Essential brief components

Every brief you create should have: 1. Clear objective and hypothesis
Objective: Drive installs for new fantasy RPG game
Hypothesis: Epic, hero's journey narratives will resonate because 
top performers use this theme 3x more than bottom performers.
2. Specific creative direction Don’t say: “Make it exciting”
Do say: “Epic, cinematic tone — think Lord of the Rings, not Fortnite”
Don’t say: “Fast pacing”
Do say: “Hook in 3 seconds with action, then slow-burn world-building”
Don’t say: “Show the hero”
Do say: “Lone hero, close-up aspirational framing, show transformation arc”
3. Visual references with annotations For each reference:
  • Include thumbnail or screenshot
  • Note performance context (“Top 5% in genre”)
  • Highlight what to notice (“Fast hook,” “Epic tone,” “Character framing”)
  • Explain why it’s relevant (“Demonstrates pacing we’re targeting”)
4. Must-haves and guardrails Must-haves:
  • Show gameplay in first 5 seconds
  • Include clear CTA at end (“Download Now”)
  • Use cinematic, wide-angle shots
  • Feature epic orchestral music
Guardrails (avoid):
  • No humor (tests poorly in genre)
  • Don’t use slow intros
  • Avoid UI-heavy gameplay
  • No generic stock music
5. Production specs
  • Format: 16:9 (landscape), 9:16 (vertical)
  • Duration: 30 seconds
  • Aspect ratios: 1920x1080, 1080x1920
  • File format: MP4, H.264
  • Deliverable date: [date]
The more specific your brief, the fewer revision cycles you’ll have. Invest time upfront to save time later.

Common scenarios and how to handle them

What to do:
  1. Clarify objective and hypothesis with Creative Director
  2. Run Genre Deep Dive or Competitor Landscape for context
  3. Run Creative Breakdown on 2-3 top performers they reference
  4. Use Creative Brief Builder to structure the brief
  5. Include visual references and specific direction
  6. Review with Creative Director before hand-off
Timeline: 1-2 hours for research + brief creation
What to do:
  1. Run Creative Breakdown on the draft
  2. Compare to the brief (what’s different?)
  3. Compare to top performer references (where are the gaps?)
  4. Provide specific feedback:
    • “Hook is at 5 seconds, should be 3 seconds (see reference #1)”
    • “Tone feels playful, brief calls for epic (see reference #2)”
  5. Share Boa insights with designer to show “why”
Timeline: 15-30 minutes for diagnosis + feedback
What to do:
  1. Run Performance Diagnosis on the underperforming creative
  2. Compare to genre benchmarks
  3. Identify specific gaps (hook? tone? CTA?)
  4. Create revised brief addressing gaps
  5. Share learnings with team (document for future)
Timeline: 30 minutes for diagnosis, 1 hour for revised brief
What to do:
  1. Prioritize by:
    • Urgency — Launch date
    • Impact — Budget or strategic importance
    • Complexity — New campaign vs iteration
  2. For high-priority projects: Full Creative Brief Builder process
  3. For iterations: Use Performance Diagnosis to identify specific changes
  4. For low-priority: Simplified brief or template
Timeline: Ongoing prioritization and triage
What to do:
  1. Walk through visual references in the brief
  2. Run Creative Breakdown on the references in real-time
  3. Show them the “why” behind each direction choice
  4. Provide additional examples if needed (run Discover for more)
  5. Document common questions and add to future briefs
Timeline: 15-30 minutes for walkthrough

Pro tips for Creative Producers

Tip 1: Show, don’t just tell

Always include visual references in your briefs. “Epic tone” is subjective; showing a reference creative makes it concrete.

Tip 2: Explain the “why”

Include performance rationale for each direction choice. When your team understands why it matters, they execute better.

Tip 3: Use “What Good Looks Like”

Include a benchmark creative and say: “This is the quality bar we’re aiming for.” It instantly clarifies expectations.

Tip 4: Diagnose drafts early

Don’t wait until final review. Run Creative Breakdown on rough drafts to catch issues early and save time.

Tip 5: Build a brief library

Save your best briefs as templates. Over time, you’ll build a library of proven structures for different campaign types.
The best Creative Producers use Boa to eliminate ambiguity. Clear briefs + visual references + performance rationale = fewer revisions.

Quality checklist for briefs

Before handing off a brief, check:
  • Clear objective and hypothesis stated
  • Specific creative direction (tone, theme, pacing, character, visuals)
  • 3-5 visual references included with annotations
  • Must-haves and guardrails clearly listed
  • “What Good Looks Like” benchmark included
  • Production specs provided (format, duration, deliverable date)
  • Performance rationale for each direction choice
  • Brief reviewed with Creative Director or Performance Marketer
If you can check all these boxes, you’re handing off a high-quality, production-ready brief.

Workflow templates for common projects

New campaign brief

  1. Run Genre Deep Dive + Competitor Landscape
  2. Identify top patterns (tone, theme, pacing)
  3. Use Creative Brief Builder
  4. Include 5+ visual references
  5. Hand off with walkthrough
Time: 1-2 hours

Campaign iteration brief

  1. Run Performance Diagnosis on prior campaign
  2. Identify specific improvement areas
  3. Create simplified brief focusing on changes
  4. Include before/after references
  5. Hand off with explanation of changes
Time: 45-60 minutes

Fast-follow competitor brief

  1. Run Creative Breakdown on competitor creative
  2. Understand performance drivers
  3. Create brief incorporating similar patterns
  4. Include competitor creative as reference
  5. Hand off with urgency context
Time: 30-45 minutes