How to Brief a PR Agency in Brazil: A Template for International Teams

Thiago Carneiro, Co-founder and Client Servicing Director, The New Standard. Thiago leads client servicing at The New Standard, running corporate affairs mandates for multinationals across Latin America.

A useful PR agency brief for Brazil explains the business decision communications must support, who needs to hear the message, what evidence is available and who can approve the work. If you are approaching The New Standard, use the template below to make those choices explicit. It gives prospective agencies enough context to recommend a scope and helps your team compare proposals on the same basis.

Start with the business situation and the audience

Describe what is changing. A company entering Brazil needs a different brief from an established operation responding to questions about its reputation. State the decision, deadline or business priority behind the request, then explain what communications can realistically contribute.

Name the people whose understanding matters. These might be procurement leaders in a defined sector, potential partners, employees or journalists covering a specific topic. Explain what they currently know, what they need to understand and what evidence supports your view. Mark assumptions as assumptions.

Include the geographic scope. A Brazil mandate should identify any city, state or sector priorities. If the work also covers other countries, list them separately and say which decisions belong to headquarters and which belong to the local team.

Copy this PR brief template into your working document

Complete each field in plain language. An honest unknown is more useful than an ambitious statement that nobody can translate into work.

Business situation: What is happening, why now and what deadline matters?
Communications objective: What should a defined audience understand or do differently?
Priority audience: Which people, sectors and locations matter most?
Evidence: Which approved facts, research, customer permissions or expert views can support the story?
Scope: Which services, countries and languages should the agency price?
Spokespeople: Who can speak, in which languages, and when are they available?
Approvals: Who approves facts, local language, legal questions and final publication?
Constraints: Which claims, names, dates or topics cannot be made public?
Budget: What range and currency are available, what period or project does it cover, and which external costs must be itemised?
Measurement: What baseline exists, which outcomes matter and who owns the data?
Selection: Who decides, what will they assess and when must work begin?

Attach only materials that the recipients are authorised to receive. A brief can identify a confidential launch or sensitive issue without circulating the underlying documents before an appropriate agreement is in place.

Separate the required scope from optional work

State which services are essential and which are options. Media relations, spokesperson preparation, executive content, corporate affairs and event support require different activities and approvals. Ask agencies to identify assumptions, exclusions and dependencies in their proposals.

For a public relations mandate, distinguish preparing a story and approaching relevant journalists from buying media space. Do not frame an independent editorial decision as a guaranteed deliverable. If paid activity is part of the brief, request a separate scope and cost line.

Ask for a named working team and an explanation of how local delivery connects with headquarters. Our guide to evaluating PR agencies in Brazil covers the subsequent selection decision. This brief supplies the common starting point for that assessment.

Make approvals and evidence usable before launch

Identify a local decision maker and a headquarters contact. Record who can approve a Portuguese statement, who checks technical claims and who has authority when a deadline is short. Agree the process with those people before putting it in the brief.

For each proposed announcement, list what is confirmed, what is conditional and what cannot yet be disclosed. Include spokesperson availability and the route for obtaining missing evidence. A launch date alone does not tell an agency whether the story is ready.

Agree what success means and what it will cost

Set a baseline and distinguish work delivered from audience response and business outcomes. A report can record relevant coverage and message inclusion, but those measures alone do not establish that PR caused revenue. AMEC’s planning guidance provides a useful foundation for connecting communications objectives with organisational priorities.

Share a working budget range or ask for clearly separated scope options. Require proposals to distinguish agency fees from external expenses and identify what would trigger a change in scope. Our PR agency cost guide explains the scope factors to discuss before agreeing a fee.

Close the brief with the decision process: who will assess proposals, whether a meeting is required and when the selected agency can expect access to the people and materials needed to begin.

Turn the brief into a focused conversation

You do not need every answer before contacting an agency. The useful distinction is between a decision already made and a question you want help resolving. Mark those questions clearly so a proposal addresses them.

Contact The New Standard with your company, priority market, objective and intended start date. Use the message field to summarise your draft brief or the decisions your team still needs to make.