Kickoff brief template for your new agency

Use this brief to give any PR operator a controlled source of context, decisions, evidence, dependencies, and access. The title refers to an agency kickoff, but the same template works for an in-house lead, freelancer, specialist consultancy, or hybrid team.

The company owner maintains the brief. Contributors can propose changes, while named fact and risk owners approve the sections they control.

Document control keeps the brief current

Copy this header into the working document:

1. Business context and assumptions set the scope

Decision context. [What business change, problem, or opportunity created this program?]

In scope. [Business units, products, markets, stakeholders, channels, and work types included.]

Out of scope. [Explicit exclusions and the owner of adjacent work.]

Assumptions. [Conditions believed to be true, evidence for each, owner, and review trigger.]

Known changes. [Product, financing, leadership, workforce, customer, policy, litigation, security, or market events that may affect the work.]

2. Objectives, stakeholders, and baselines define the intended change

For each objective, complete one row:

Separate objectives that serve different stakeholders. Do not combine recruiting, sales, fundraising, policy, and reputation into one generic awareness goal.

3. Positioning, messages, and evidence control the claims

Link the approved message architecture and evidence register. Summarize:

• [Stakeholder and problem or context]
• [Category or frame of reference]
• [Distinctive value and material tradeoffs]
• [Approved core messages]
• [Claims that require qualification]
• [Claims that are prohibited, expired, disputed, or awaiting review]
• [Primary records, methodologies, and reporting periods]
• [Named fact owners and correction process]

Mark whether each fact is public, confidential to the operator, available under an agreed media embargo, or restricted from external use. Messaging and positioning provides the full source-record structure.

4. The opportunity and issue pipeline exposes dependencies

Include planned developments and monitoring triggers. Do not ask the operator to turn an unsupported roadmap item into public news.

5. The stakeholder and channel map ties distribution to audience

List the priority stakeholders and the channels they use. Include relevant media types, direct communication, owned products, events, communities, analysts, creators, partners, and paid distribution. Record channel constraints such as accessibility, language, geography, lead time, sponsorship disclosure, or platform policy.

Named outlets and people should follow audience and subject fit. Reporter research covers the evidence required for media targets.

6. Risks, restrictions, and triggers define the review path

Include material relationships, conflicts, customer and investor permissions, active incidents, litigation, regulated claims, personal-safety concerns, and subjects that require local counsel. Describe the reason and owner instead of using an unexplained "no-fly list."

7. Roles and decision rights assign accountability

Complete the operating map:

Approval belongs to the person authorized for the decision. An operator may draft or recommend without owning the underlying product, legal, financial, customer, employee, or policy fact.

8. Spokespeople and source access require explicit boundaries

For each spokesperson, record the subjects they own, relevant experience, approved biography, languages, availability, training status, restricted topics, backup, and contact route. List available customers, partners, experts, critics, or other independent sources only after confirming their willingness and terms.

Specify who may schedule a source, what briefing is required, and who handles corrections or promised follow-up.

9. Workflow, calendar, and access preserve continuity

Link the PR calendar, intake form, task system, meeting cadence, emergency channel, source repository, press assets, monitoring, analytics, and decision log. For every system, record:

• company or vendor ownership
• role-based access and approver
• permitted data and confidentiality level
• retention, export, deletion, and transition requirements
• account recovery and incident contact

Use company-owned accounts where continuity requires them. Do not put shared passwords in the brief.

10. Measurement and learning connect work to the objective

For each objective, define activities, outputs, audience response, outcomes, organizational impact, data source, baseline, owner, reporting period, and causal limits. The AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework provides this measurement sequence.

Also track operating quality: fact errors, correction time, missed dependencies, response time, stakeholder complaints, safety or legal incidents, and assumptions invalidated.

Kickoff should end with recorded decisions

Use the kickoff meeting to resolve or assign open questions. Record the accepted scope, first priorities, dependencies, decision rights, service levels, source access, risk thresholds, measurement plan, and next review. Each unresolved item needs an owner and due event.

Agree which operator-created artifacts the company will receive, in which format, where they live, and how they transfer at the end of the work. Examples include research, target rationale, drafts, outreach records, interview notes, calendars, reports, and licensed assets. Contract terms and applicable law determine ownership and retention.