How to Brief a Marketing Agency in Kuwait: The One-Page Brief

Brief a marketing agency with one written page covering the business goal and the number that defines success, who buys, what you sell, the budget split into media and fees, your constraints and approvers, the deadline, and the data you will share. Send the identical page to every agency you are considering, so their responses answer the same question and can be compared line by line rather than by how polished each pitch looks.

Why one page. A long deck buries the number that matters under history and mood boards, and each agency will pick out a different priority. One page forces you to decide what success is before anyone quotes a fee. A brief is not a contract either: scope, ownership and exit terms belong in the agreement you sign later, covered in what a marketing contract in Kuwait should say.

Why it matters more in Kuwait. Many owners here brief agencies through a WhatsApp voice note or over coffee, and each agency then writes up its own version of what it heard. Three agencies end up pitching for three slightly different businesses, and none of the proposals can be compared. A written page, in the language your own team reads, removes that problem before it starts.

Describe the problem, not the tactics. Write that you need more repeat orders before Eid, not that you want twelve posts and a TikTok account. Tactics in the brief turn agencies into order-takers and hide which of them can actually diagnose a business. Choosing between the agencies on your shortlist is a separate step with its own questions, set out in how to choose a marketing agency in Kuwait.

The goal and the number. State one business goal with one number and one date, for example 250 online orders a month by the end of March at a cost per new customer of KD 7 or less. Avoid goals such as more awareness unless you name how they will be measured, and if brand building is part of the job, name a proxy such as branded search, as explained in performance vs brand marketing.

The baseline. Say where you are today: orders or enquiries per month, average order value, what you currently spend on ads and on which platforms, and what a new customer costs you now, if you know it. Without a baseline, an agency cannot tell whether your target is a modest step or a leap, and any target it accepts without one is a guess.

The audience. Describe who actually buys: Kuwaitis, expats or both, the language they buy in, the areas and governorates you deliver to, whether they pay by KNET, card or cash on delivery, whether they buy for themselves or as gifts, and where they find you, whether Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Google or a friend. Real order data beats a persona drawn from imagination.

The offer. List your best sellers and their prices, your margin range, delivery times and fees, and what you are willing to offer, such as free delivery above a threshold or a maximum discount. Say what makes a customer choose you over the same product in a mall. Mention stock limits too, because a campaign that sells out a hero product in week two needs a different plan.

Budget, split into media and fees. Media is what the platforms receive; fees are what the agency receives. State both, or state a total and ask each agency to show its split. Worked illustration: on KD 2,500 a month, a KD 1,000 fee leaves KD 1,500 for media, while a KD 700 fee leaves KD 1,800, which is 20 percent more media. Also ask whether media is charged to your own card or billed through the agency.

Constraints. Write down what cannot happen: claims you cannot make, competitors you will not be compared with, products that must not be advertised, words and images that clash with your brand, and any approval your category needs before an ad runs, with who obtains it. Add that every ad account, pixel and page stays in your company's name, for the reasons in who owns your ad accounts.

Approvals. Name one person with final say and a turnaround, such as 48 hours. In family businesses, where several partners may comment in one group chat, an unnamed approver is a common reason campaigns launch late. Build in time after your sign-off too: Meta says its ad review is typically completed within 24 hours but can take longer, and ads can be reviewed again once they are live.

Arabic sign-off. Say which deliverables you need in Arabic, which in English and which in both, and whether the Arabic should be Kuwaiti dialect or formal Arabic for each use. Name the native speaker who approves the Arabic, and ask for it to be written from the brief rather than translated from the English. Arabic and English versions of every ad double the approvals, so plan the calendar for that.

Give the date that matters, then work backwards. A launch date, not a wish for as soon as possible. A new agency needs time to review your accounts, check tracking, plan, shoot and collect approvals, and a reasonable planning assumption for a relationship that includes a photo or video shoot is at least four to six weeks from brief to launch. Treat that as a working estimate rather than a rule, and ask each agency for its own timeline.

Ramadan 2027 arrives early. Astronomical calculations reported by Gulf News put the start of Ramadan at around Monday 8 February 2027, subject to the moon sighting, with Eid al-Fitr forecast for around 10 March. That places Kuwait's National Day on 25 February and Liberation Day on 26 February inside the month. Content should be made before Ramadan starts, so a brief for that season belongs with agencies by October or November 2026.

Share your margins and your problems. Give landed cost or margin by product or category, delivery cost, KNET and card fees, and the share of cash-on-delivery orders refused at the door. An agency that knows your margin can tell you whether your target cost per customer is profitable; one that does not is setting targets blind. Mention what has gone wrong before, since a known problem is cheaper than a rediscovered one.

Share results and access in stages. At the proposal stage, send exports or screenshots of the last twelve months of orders and ad results rather than giving account access to every agency. Give access only to the one you appoint, through the platforms' own permission settings rather than a shared password: Google Ads has a read-only access level, and Meta's business portfolio lets you grant a person only the tasks you choose.

The brief below is for a made-up business, and every figure in it is an illustration. Business and goal. Example Bakhoor Co. sells bakhoor, oud oils and home fragrance online, delivering to all six governorates with KNET, card and cash on delivery. Goal: grow from about 150 to 250 online orders a month by 31 March 2027, through Ramadan and Eid, at a blended cost per new customer of KD 7 or less.

Audience and offer. Mainly Kuwaiti women aged 25 to 50 buying for their homes and as gifts, mostly in Arabic, who find us on Instagram and Snapchat; a smaller English-speaking group of expat gift buyers. Average order KD 22, gross margin about 55 percent before delivery. Hero products are three bakhoor blends at KD 8 to KD 15 and a KD 35 Ramadan gift box. Free delivery above KD 20; no discount ever above 15 percent.

Budget, constraints and approvals. KD 1,500 a month in media, paid by our card directly to the platforms, plus up to KD 900 a month in fees; quote any shoot separately. All accounts stay in our company's name. No health or medical claims and no comparisons with named competitors. Arabic in Kuwaiti dialect, written from this brief. The owner approves within 48 hours and our store manager signs off all Arabic. Key message: your home's Ramadan scent starts here, in Arabic «ريحة بيتك برمضان تبدي من هني».

Timeline and what we will share. Proposals by 15 October 2026, start on 1 November, Ramadan content shot by mid-January, with Ramadan expected around 8 February, subject to the moon sighting. We will share monthly orders for the last twelve months, margin by product, our refused cash-on-delivery rate, and read-only access for the agency we appoint. Please reply with your first 30-day plan, the named team, your fee and media split, how you would measure the goal, and two Arabic samples.

Did they engage with the number? A good response restates your target and says whether it looks realistic, with the assumptions behind that view, such as your margin, reply speed or tracking. A response that ignores the number, or accepts it without a single question, has not engaged with your business. Neither has one that promises a result before seeing any data, because nobody controls what Kuwait shoppers will do.

What did they ask back? The strongest replies usually arrive with questions: how many cash-on-delivery orders are refused, how quickly WhatsApp messages are answered after iftar, whether stock can cover a good week, who approves the Arabic. Questions show an agency diagnosing before prescribing. A beautifully designed proposal with no questions at all often turns out to be a template with your logo added.

Put the replies in one sheet. For each agency, record the monthly fee, the media it leaves, the deliverables counted per month in each language, the named people, the time to launch and the numbers it will report. Watch for fees quoted as a percentage of spend, which rise whenever media rises, and for deliverables described as categories rather than counts, since those are the ones that shrink later.

Check the Kuwait details. English-only samples for an Arabic-speaking audience, a Ramadan plan that starts production during Ramadan, or a proposal that needs your accounts registered to the agency are each reason enough to drop a reply. Shortlist two, meet the people who would actually do the work, and ask for a short paid first phase before any long commitment, the approach set out in the agency selection guide linked above.