What is a shopper marketing agency brief?

A shopper marketing agency brief is the document that hands a shopper marketing need to an external agency partner — covering the background and objective, retailer and shopper context, a defined scope of deliverables, budget guardrails, a timeline, success metrics, and an approval process. This skill produces that brief in one document so an agency can start work without a lengthy kickoff call.

How is this different from the Shopper Activation Planner skill?

The Shopper Activation Planner builds the actual shopper marketing strategy and tactics — the objective, the shopper insight, and the retailer-specific plan itself. This skill assumes that thinking may already exist, or is being handed to a partner to develop, and instead structures the brief that commissions an external agency to execute it: scope, budget, timeline, and approval process. Use the activation planner to define the strategy; use this to hand strategy or a broader program off to an agency partner.

Which AI models does this prompt work with?

Any capable chat model — ChatGPT, Claude, or Google Gemini. It is model-agnostic, so marketing teams often save it as a Custom GPT or a reusable skill and reuse it every time a new agency engagement or RFP comes up, keeping every brief in the same structure regardless of who writes it.

Can I use this to write an RFP for multiple agencies?

Yes. The brief format works both as a kickoff document for an existing agency partner and as the core content of an RFP sent to several candidate agencies — the output ends with a note on how to use it either way. Keep budget ranges honest in an RFP context; agencies scope proposals very differently depending on whether a number is a hard ceiling or a rough planning figure.

Shopper

Shopper Marketing Agency Brief

Brief an external shopper marketing agency so the work starts aligned.

What is the Shopper Marketing Agency Brief?

The Shopper Marketing Agency Brief is a free AI skill that turns a shopper marketing need into a structured brief for handing the work to an external agency. You give it the brand, the retailer or channel context, the objective, and your budget and timeline; it returns the background and objective an agency needs to start, the retailer and shopper context that shapes the work, a defined scope of deliverables, budget guardrails and a milestone timeline, the success metrics the agency will be measured against, and an approval and review process. It is built for shopper and trade marketing managers who need an agency partner to move fast without re-explaining the retailer relationship on every call. Because it separates what the agency owns from what stays in-house, the brief prevents scope drift once the relationship is underway. Grounding the objective in live food and beverage demand data helps the agency pitch creative built around where shopper interest is actually heading, not a stale brief.

Who it's for

Shopper and trade marketing managers commissioning agency work
Marketing directors managing an external shopper marketing agency roster
Brand managers briefing an agency on a retailer-specific program
Procurement or marketing ops leads scoping an agency statement of work

What you get

A background and objective section the agency can start from
Retailer and shopper context that shapes the creative
A defined scope of deliverables
Budget guardrails and a milestone timeline
Success metrics the agency is accountable to
An approval and review process

How to use it

1Paste the prompt into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
2Fill the bracketed inputs (brand, retailer, objective, budget, timeline).
3Answer its clarifying questions about what the agency owns versus in-house.
4Ask it to turn the brief into a formal statement-of-work outline.

See it in action

Example input

Brand: fictional 'Golden Anchor Seafood Co.', frozen seafood. Retailer: 'Pemberton Grocers', a 60-store regional chain. Need: an agency to build a Q4 holiday seafood-centerpiece shopper campaign across in-store and digital. Budget: approximately $180,000. Deliverables we expect: creative concept, secondary display design, retail media creative, and a post-campaign report.

Example output

Shopper marketing agency brief — Golden Anchor Seafood Co., Q4 holiday campaign

Background & objective
Golden Anchor Seafood Co. is briefing an agency to build a Q4 holiday shopper campaign positioning frozen seafood as an easy centerpiece option at Pemberton Grocers, a 60-store regional chain. The objective is to drive incremental holiday-season trial and basket size among shoppers who default to red meat or poultry for holiday meals, using in-store and digital touchpoints during the November-December window.

Retailer & shopper context
Pemberton Grocers' holiday shopper skews toward traditional meal planning; seafood is not currently a habitual holiday centerpiece choice in this shopper base. Treat that as the founding tension the creative should address — the agency's job is to make seafood feel like a legitimate, low-effort holiday option, not a niche swap. [Confirm any existing Pemberton holiday shopper data before finalizing this brief.]

Scope of deliverables
- A holiday campaign creative concept spanning in-store and digital.
- Secondary display design for a Pemberton in-store placement (format and location to be confirmed with the retailer).
- Retail media creative for Pemberton's digital ad network.
- A post-campaign performance report covering the metrics defined below.
Out of scope: media buying and placement negotiation stay in-house; the agency owns creative and design only unless the scope is expanded.

Budget guardrails
Total budget: approximately $180,000, inclusive of agency fees and production. Recommend requesting a cost breakdown by deliverable (creative concept, display production, retail media creative, reporting) before final sign-off, so budget isn't front-loaded into concept work at the expense of production. [Insert your actual fee-versus-production split expectation once known.]

Milestone timeline
- Weeks 1-2: agency onboarding and retailer/shopper context review.
- Weeks 3-5: creative concept development and first-round presentation.
- Weeks 6-7: revisions and final concept sign-off.
- Weeks 8-10: display and retail media production.
- Launch: early November, ahead of the holiday shopping window.
- Post-campaign: report due within 2 weeks of campaign close.
Work backward from your intended November launch date to confirm these windows are realistic for Pemberton's own display and media submission deadlines.

Success metrics
- Incremental sales lift during the campaign window versus the prior year's holiday period.
- Display sell-through rate at Pemberton stores where the secondary placement runs.
- Retail media engagement and conversion metrics per Pemberton's reporting.
- Qualitative creative effectiveness, assessed at the concept review stage before production spend is committed.

Approval & review process
- Concept review: [name the internal stakeholders who must approve creative before it proceeds to production].
- Retailer approval: confirm whether Pemberton requires its own sign-off on in-store display design or retail media creative before production, and build that review into the timeline above.
- Final sign-off: [name who has final budget and creative authority].

Agency ask
This brief is ready to share with 2-3 shopper marketing agencies for a scoped proposal, or with an existing agency partner as a formal project kickoff. Recommend requesting a deliverable-by-deliverable cost breakdown in any proposal response, so the $180,000 budget is transparent before work begins.

Want me to turn this into a formal statement-of-work document, or draft the RFP email to send to candidate agencies?

The prompt

Here's the start of the prompt. Download the free bundle for the full, ready-to-paste version — plus the installable Claude Skill and Custom-GPT instructions.

# Role
You are a senior shopper marketing lead who has briefed and managed external agencies on retailer-specific programs. You write briefs that let an agency start fast without re-explaining the retailer relationship, and you scope deliverables clearly enough to prevent drift once the work begins.

# Context I'll provide
- Brand: [BRAND]
- Retailer or channel: [RETAILER / CHANNEL]
- Objective: [OBJECTIVE — what this program needs to achieve]
- Deliverables expected: [DELIVERABLES — e.g. creative concept, display design, retail media creative, report]
- Budget: [BUDGET]
- Timeline: [TIMELINE / key dates]
- Existing agency relationship or new RFP (optional): [CONTEXT]

Frequently asked questions

What is a shopper marketing agency brief?: A shopper marketing agency brief is the document that hands a shopper marketing need to an external agency partner — covering the background and objective, retailer and shopper context, a defined scope of deliverables, budget guardrails, a timeline, success metrics, and an approval process. This skill produces that brief in one document so an agency can start work without a lengthy kickoff call.
How is this different from the Shopper Activation Planner skill?: The Shopper Activation Planner builds the actual shopper marketing strategy and tactics — the objective, the shopper insight, and the retailer-specific plan itself. This skill assumes that thinking may already exist, or is being handed to a partner to develop, and instead structures the brief that commissions an external agency to execute it: scope, budget, timeline, and approval process. Use the activation planner to define the strategy; use this to hand strategy or a broader program off to an agency partner.
Which AI models does this prompt work with?: Any capable chat model — ChatGPT, Claude, or Google Gemini. It is model-agnostic, so marketing teams often save it as a Custom GPT or a reusable skill and reuse it every time a new agency engagement or RFP comes up, keeping every brief in the same structure regardless of who writes it.
Can I use this to write an RFP for multiple agencies?: Yes. The brief format works both as a kickoff document for an existing agency partner and as the core content of an RFP sent to several candidate agencies — the output ends with a note on how to use it either way. Keep budget ranges honest in an RFP context; agencies scope proposals very differently depending on whether a number is a hard ceiling or a rough planning figure.

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