South Africa, March 3 -- Today, an "open brief" is usually just a vague brief. It is the byproduct of an author who simply didn't have the time or space to write a tight one, relying on the prevailing hope that leaving things open-ended might lead to a surprising outcome. But in a discipline under pressure from strict deliverables and KPIs, a surprise is rarely a good thing.

Wrapped in the constant anxiety of ROI and suffocated by tight deadlines, creatives handed a vague brief do not take wild swings. They play defensively. They spend their billed hours trying to guess what the client actually wants, meticulously generalising their ideas to ensure they hit a hidden target.

The truth is, a precise brief is the only thing that guarantees...