Skip to content

SOP-098 — Brand & voice review (the CGEO voice/brand gate)

Guide

<!-- last-reviewed: 2026-06-01 · owner: Creative — Brand & Marketing (Creative Director) -->

SOP-098 — Brand & voice review (the CGEO voice/brand gate)

SOP · owner: Creative — Brand & Marketing (Creative Director). Layer: SOP/Runbook (docs/canon.md). The Creative Director’s review authority over any audience-facing artifact before it ships — the CGEO cluster’s voice/brand gate (docs/documentation-program/README.md §2 CGEO lane). The brand standard is in docs/brand/ (linked, not restated).

Interface Contract

  • Inputs: audience-facing artifact (copy / landing page / member output / intranet-bound text) ← from <authoring agent/unit> · trigger: review requested
  • Inputs: delivered brand/visual artifact for sign-off ← from <Brand Strategist / Visual Designer> · trigger: brand artifact delivered
  • Inputs: concept brief to give a public face ← from <Innovation Director> · trigger: gate package ready
  • Inputs: user/audience research findings ← from <Design Research Director> · trigger: research findings issued
  • Outputs: voice/brand-cleared artifact → to <authoring agent/unit> · trigger: review passed
  • Outputs: scoped creative brief → to <Brand Strategist / Visual Designer> · trigger: creative brief issued
  • Outputs: finished creative assets → to <Growth Director> · trigger: creative assets ready
  • Outputs: stable brand guidelines / content strategy added/changed → to Documentarian · trigger: document changed
  • Outputs: approved creative artifact → to Archivist · trigger: artifact approved
  • Handoff trigger (in): an audience-facing artifact is handed for the on-brand / voice check, or a member delivers an artifact for sign-off
  • Handoff trigger (out): the artifact clears the voice/brand bar (review passed) or routes back with specific rationale; cleared assets go to their consumer
  • Definition of Done before handoff:
    • [ ] Creative problem stated (audience · desired feeling/action · success) — JD step 2
    • [ ] Checked against docs/brand/voice-and-tone.md + the assembled guidelines (linked, not restated)
    • [ ] Specificity holds — no claim a direct competitor could make verbatim
    • [ ] Coherent with every other audience-facing artifact (the active-coherence pass)
    • [ ] On-brand call recorded: on-brand / partially / off-brand with specific call-outs
    • [ ] Approved artifact handed to the Archivist (artifact approved); stable guidelines to the Documentarian (document changed)
    • [ ] Learnings captured to docs/knowledge/ if the review surfaced one

review requested / review passed are drawn from docs/handoff-triggers.md. This is the Creative Director’s first-line voice/brand gate — distinct from Q&R’s second-line assurance, which also absorbs review requested via its fan-in sink (interface-contract-spec.md §3.1 R1). creative brief issued, brand artifact delivered, and creative assets ready are registered (docs/handoff-triggers.md, Waves 3+4 block). The Brand Strategist / Visual Designer / Growth Director counterparties are authored; the bracketed (<...>) edges above reconcile as placeholder (template) seams that resolve to those identities at run time.

Purpose

Ensure no audience-facing artifact ships off-brand: that every piece looks, sounds, and reads like the same venture, traces to a brand principle, and survives the specificity test — before it surfaces on the intranet, the channel, or anywhere external.

When to use

Whenever an audience-facing artifact is handed for review (review requested), or a Creative member delivers an artifact for sign-off (brand artifact delivered). If the creative problem can’t be stated in two sentences, stop — the brief is incomplete; surface the gap before reviewing.

Flow

flowchart LR
  A["review requested /<br/>brand artifact delivered"] --> B["Check vs brand record<br/>voice · specificity · coherence"]
  B --> C{"On-brand?"}
  C -->|no| D["Return with<br/>specific call-outs"]
  C -->|yes| E["review passed →<br/>route to consumer"]
  D --> A
  classDef s fill:#1d4ed8,color:#fff,stroke:#1e3a8a
  classDef d fill:#0f766e,color:#fff,stroke:#134e4a
  class A,B,D,E s
  class C d

Text fallback: an audience-facing artifact arrives (review requested) or a member delivers one (brand artifact delivered) → check it against the brand record (voice, specificity, coherence) → if on-brand, emit review passed and route the cleared asset to its consumer (Engineering / Growth / Documentarian / Archivist); otherwise return it with specific call-outs and re-review.

Steps

  1. State the creative problem. Audience, desired feeling/action, success. No statement → return the brief as incomplete.
  2. Check against the brand record. Read the artifact against docs/brand/voice-and-tone.md and the assembled guidelines. Do not restate them — apply them.
  3. Run the specificity test. Could a direct competitor say this verbatim? If yes, it’s a category default, not a differentiator — sharpen or cut.
  4. Run the coherence pass. Does it read as the same company as every other artifact? Flag and resolve inconsistencies before clearing.
  5. Record the on-brand call — on-brand / partially / off-brand, with specific call-outs (not “make it cleaner”).
  6. Route the cleared artifact. Emit review passed; hand to the consumer — Engineering for UI specs (ui design spec approved, via SOP-099), Growth for assets (creative assets ready), the Documentarian for stable guidelines (document changed), the Archivist for preservation (artifact approved).

Roles / approvers

Run by the Creative Director (review + approval authority over the unit’s output and the CGEO voice/brand gate). Members author; the Director signs off — member output is not finalized without it. Director approval is first-line, not independent (README.md R11) — it is recorded but does not substitute for the Q&R sample.

Guardrails

  • No code, no CSS. Produce/route specs; never edit intranet/.
  • No distribution calls. Hand finished assets to Growth (creative assets ready); don’t set platform/budget/sequence.
  • No research. Consume Design Research / CIA findings; never run studies.
  • Brand before preference. Every call traces to a brand principle or audience insight, not taste. If you can’t articulate it, reconsider.
  • Don’t restate the brand record — link to docs/brand/.
  • Personal information is PA-only — reject any artifact that reads/publishes it.

Job aid: (N/A — the voice/brand gate is judgment work at Director altitude; the on-brand criteria a member runs live in JA-100; no separate Director cheat-sheet adds value, GR-4.) See also: docs/units/creative/manuals/creative-director.md · SOP-099 · SOP-100 · docs/units/creative/charter.md · docs/brand/ · docs/handoff-triggers.md.