What brand review is checking
Every check traces to a document. If a check can’t be traced to one, it isn’t a brand check.What a reviewer may not reject work for
This half matters as much as the first. Without it, brand review becomes an unbounded taste veto and briefs stop meaning anything.- Personal preference about a layout, a photo, or a turn of phrase.
- A change of mind about the strategy after the brief was approved.
- Anything not written in one of the seven documents above.
- Something the brief explicitly permitted.
When work needs brand review
Approve the thing that is new. Re-reviewing production work that reuses cleared material is the main reason review queues back up.
Getting through in one round
1
Run the creative review checklist first
The creative review checklist covers most of what brand review will look at. Most rejections are things the producer could have caught.
2
Submit the version that will actually ship
Including every crop and placement. An asset approved at master size and rejected at square costs a whole round.
3
Name the brief
Review is against a brief. Work submitted without one gets reviewed against the reviewer’s assumptions instead.
4
Flag anything you knowingly bent
A deliberate exception with a reason attached usually gets approved. The same exception discovered by the reviewer reads as a mistake.
The outcome
Brand review returns one of three things, and the middle one is the most useful:- Approved. Record the version and date on the brief.
- Approved with conditions. Named, specific fixes; no second review needed once they’re made.
- Rejected. Cite the document and the rule. A rejection without a citation is a preference.
Related resources
- Approval process Approvers, order, turnaround, and escalation.
- Legal review process The parallel review, checking different things.
- Creative review checklist The pass before submitting.
- Brand guidelines The index to all seven documents review checks against.
- Brand onboarding What to read before producing brand-facing work.