You write AI prompts that produce on-brand creative by treating every prompt as a creative brief. Describe the subject, setting, light, framing, mood and style as a photographer or copywriter would, include your brand's specific visual and verbal rules, attach reference images and examples of approved work, and reuse tested prompt templates so results stay consistent across a team. Generic prompts produce generic results that look like everyone else's. A brand prompt system turns AI into a production partner that understands how your brand looks and sounds.
The short version
- A prompt is a brief. Subject, setting, light, lens, mood and style for images, and audience, goal, tone and format for copy
- Encode the brand. Colours, lighting, styling, voice and words to use or avoid belong in every prompt
- References beat adjectives. Reference images and approved examples guide results better than adjectives
- Build reusable templates. A library of tested prompts keeps a whole team consistent
- Diagnose drift. When results wander, fix the specific missing detail instead of rewriting everything
Why most AI prompts produce generic creative
When a prompt is vague, the model fills the gaps with the most common patterns it has seen. "A woman drinking coffee" produces the statistical average of millions of coffee images, a stock-photo look that could belong to any brand. The same happens with copy. "Write an Instagram caption for our new serum" produces the same enthusiastic phrases every brand is already using. The fix is to remove the gaps by specifying everything that makes your brand distinctive.
The anatomy of a strong image prompt
| Element | What to specify | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Subject | Who or what, and what they are doing | A woman in her early thirties pouring coffee from a ceramic jug |
| Setting | Location and telling details | A small Lisbon apartment kitchen with blue tiles and morning clutter |
| Light | Source, direction, quality, time | Soft morning light from a window on the left |
| Camera | Lens, distance, angle, depth of field | 50mm, waist up, eye level, background softly blurred |
| Style | Photographic genre and finish | Natural editorial lifestyle photography, light film grain |
| Colour | Palette and grading | Warm neutrals with muted terracotta accents |
| Brand elements | Product placement, logo visibility | The brand's coffee bag on the counter, label facing camera |
| Exclusions | What to avoid | No heavy retouching, no studio backdrop, no text |
A prompt that covers every row gives the model far less room to drift toward the generic.
The anatomy of a strong copy prompt
| Element | What to specify | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Role and audience | Who is writing, for whom | Write as our brand voice for busy parents in their thirties |
| Goal | What the copy should achieve | Get people to try the new breakfast range this week |
| Format | Platform, length, structure | Instagram caption under 40 words, ending with a question |
| Key message | The one thing to remember | Ready in five minutes with no added sugar |
| Voice rules | Tone, words to use and avoid | Warm, practical, lightly funny. Avoid "game-changer" and "revolutionary" |
| Proof | Facts the copy can use | 12 grams of protein, five flavours, available nationwide |
| Examples | Approved past copy | Paste two captions that performed well |
Step 1. Write your brand into a prompt system
Before writing individual prompts, capture the brand in a form the AI can use. A brand prompt system usually includes these parts.
- Visual identity. Colour palette with descriptions, lighting style, typical settings, styling and wardrobe, composition rules and photographic genre.
- Voice guide. Three adjectives for tone, sentence style, words and phrases to use and avoid, how you address the audience and emoji and hashtag rules.
- Character references. Images and descriptions of recurring characters or models, including SI influencers if you use them.
- Product references. Photos of each product from several angles, with notes on details that must be exact.
- Approved examples. Images and copy that represent the brand at its best.
Store the system where everyone who creates content can reach it, and update it as the brand evolves.
Step 2. Create reusable prompt templates
Templates turn the brand system into repeatable results. Create one for each type of content you produce regularly, such as a lifestyle product image, a product on a plain background, a social video scene, a talking-head script, an Instagram caption or an ad headline set. Each template contains the fixed brand elements, with placeholders for what changes, such as the product, the setting or the message.
Example template for a lifestyle image. "Natural editorial lifestyle photograph of [subject] in [setting], [time of day] light from [direction], 50mm lens, eye level, shallow depth of field. Warm neutral palette with [accent colour] accents, light film grain, realistic skin texture and natural imperfections. [Product] visible on [surface], label facing camera. No studio backdrop, no text, no heavy retouching."
Step 3. Use references wherever possible
Words are imprecise, and images are not. Many AI tools accept reference images for style, composition or identity. Use them to anchor the look of a campaign, the face of a character and the appearance of a product. For copy, paste examples of approved captions or headlines and ask the model to match their tone and structure. References are the single most effective way to keep output on brand.
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Step 4. Iterate in small, deliberate steps
Treat the first result as a draft. Change one element at a time, such as the light, the framing or a word in the caption, so you learn what each change does. Keep a note of which phrases produce the effects you want, and add them to your templates.
Step 5. Diagnose and fix drift
When results drift off brand, identify what is missing instead of starting over.
| Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Looks like stock photography | Vague setting and light | Add specific details, a light source and imperfections |
| Plastic-looking skin | Missing texture instructions | Ask for natural skin texture and less retouching |
| Wrong colours | Palette not specified | Describe the palette and add a reference image |
| Character face changes | No identity reference | Use reference images or a trained character model |
| Product details wrong | Model generating the product | Composite the real product photo |
| Copy sounds generic | No voice rules or examples | Add tone adjectives, banned phrases and approved examples |
| Copy too long | No length limit | Specify words or characters |
Step 6. Review everything before it goes live
Even with excellent prompts, review every asset. Check product accuracy, character consistency, hands and anatomy, text, cultural appropriateness, claims and brand rules for copy. A checklist makes reviews fast and consistent across a team.
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Prompting for different channels
- Instagram. Polished but natural visuals, 4:5 framing, captions that feel personal and end with a question.
- TikTok. Native-looking video scenes, quick hooks in scripts, casual language.
- LinkedIn. Professional settings, clear insight-led copy, minimal emojis.
- Product pages. Accurate products, clean backgrounds or simple lifestyle scenes, factual copy.
- Ads. Multiple variations of hooks, settings and calls to action for testing.
Prompting for video
Video prompts need everything an image prompt needs, plus motion and time. Describe the camera movement, such as a slow push in, a handheld follow or a static wide shot, the action from start to end, the pace and the length of the shot. Keep each generated shot short, typically a few seconds, and build longer videos by editing several shots together. Describe the presenter's expression and delivery for talking-head clips, and write the script separately with natural, spoken sentences. Add captions, text and logos in editing rather than asking the model to generate them, because text in generated video often distorts.
A before and after example
A weak prompt reads "Instagram post for our new running shoes, make it look cool." The result is a generic shoe on a generic track, with no link to the brand.
A strong prompt reads "Natural editorial sports photograph of a woman in her late twenties tying the laces of [product] on a wet city pavement at dawn, soft blue light with warm streetlamp highlights, 35mm lens, low angle, shallow depth of field, visible rain droplets and real skin texture. Muted cool palette with our signature orange accent on the shoe. Composite the real product photo, logo clearly visible. No studio lighting, no text." The result looks like part of a campaign, because every decision the brand cares about has been made.
Team workflows
When several people create content with AI, consistency depends on shared tools and habits. Keep the brand prompt system and templates in one shared place, name and version templates so everyone uses the latest, review output against the same checklist, and hold a short regular review of what worked to update the templates. New team members should start from templates rather than writing prompts from scratch.
Ethics and rights in prompting
Do not prompt for images of real, identifiable people without permission, avoid imitating the distinctive style of a living artist or another brand, never generate misleading product claims or results, and label realistic AI content where platforms and advertising rules require it. Respecting these lines protects the brand and its audience.
From prompts to a production system
Writing good prompts is a skill. Turning them into a reliable production system, with brand systems, templates, references, review and measurement, is what produces consistent on-brand creative at scale. That system is the heart of Proklisi's SI production pipeline, behind both our SI influencers and the content we produce for clients.
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