You published it. In their name.
Cover for marketing, advertising and PR agencies, built around what you put into the world on a client’s behalf and the money you handle to place it.
Marketing and PR agency insurance
Usually includes
Professional indemnity
Media liability
Intellectual property
Client media spend
Cyber & data
Employers’ liability
One
conversation.
You explain the business once, and we take it from there.
Bespoke service
for your business
No two businesses are the same, so we start with yours rather than with a template.
Everything
quoted together.
Your advice, the data you hold and the office behind it, priced in one go rather than piece by piece.
Know your cover
What is marketing agency insurance?
An agency’s exposure is what it publishes. A claim of defamation, a misused image, a price stated wrongly in an advert a client then has to honour: these are media risks rather than ordinary professional ones. Cover is built around professional indemnity with media liability inside it, alongside cyber for the client data and, where you buy media, cover for money that is not yours.
It covers the work
Professional indemnity responds to a claim that your campaign, advice or copy caused a client a loss.
It covers what you publish
Defamation, misused rights and material that turns out to breach a code or a regulation.
It covers the client’s money
Media budgets held to place advertising, which is a separate exposure from advice going wrong.
Who it’s for
Whatever you publish.
✓
Full-service marketing agencies
Strategy through to execution across paid, owned and earned channels.
✓
Advertising and media buying
Placing spend on a client’s behalf, often holding the budget to do it.
✓
Public relations consultancies
Comment, press work and crisis handling in a client’s voice.
✓
Digital and performance agencies
Paid search and social, where a targeting error is measurable and immediate.
✓
Content and social media agencies
Publishing continuously, frequently with access to client accounts.
✓
Independent consultants and small studios
Sole practitioners contracting directly with brands.
What we cover
Cover built around your campaigns.
We ask what you produce, for whom and through which channels before we approach anyone. Then show you what’s available, and you decide what fits.
Professional indemnity
The claim that your campaign, copy or advice caused a client a financial loss.
Media liability
Defamation, misused rights and material that breaches a code, published in a client’s name.
Intellectual property
Images, footage, music and copy where somebody else owns what you used.
Client media spend
Budgets held to place advertising, which is money you look after rather than earn.
Cyber & data
Client account access, marketing lists and the payment diverted after a convincing email.
Employers’ liability
Required by law from your first employee, including freelancers embedded in your team.
Studio & contents
The studio, the fit-out and the equipment your people work on.
Business interruption
The fees lost when your systems, your studio or a platform you depend on stop working.
Legal expenses
Recovering unpaid billings, employment matters, and defending a challenge to published work.
Who this cover tends to suit.
This cover is generally bought by agencies producing and placing communications for clients, from an independent consultant to a full-service agency holding media budgets. Not every part will apply to every agency, so tell us how you’re set up and we’ll show you what’s relevant.
Worth knowing
Check the details before you choose.
Media liability is not automatic
Defamation, rights infringement and code breaches are often an extension rather than part of standard professional indemnity. On this work it is the section that matters.
Rights and clearances are where claims start
Stock licences, model releases, music and fonts all carry terms. Using an asset outside its licence is the most frequent media claim there is.
Client money changes the exposure
Holding a media budget is a different risk from giving advice. Say whether you buy media in your own name or the client’s.
An error in an advert may still have to be honoured
A price or an offer published wrongly can commit a client to it. That is a real loss and it is worth knowing whether the policy reaches it.
Every campaign is different.
A brand launch and an always-on paid social account don’t carry the same risk, so we ask different questions for each.
Brand strategy
Advertising
Media buying
Public relations
Crisis communications
Digital marketing
Paid search
Paid social
Content marketing
Social media management
Email marketing
Influencer campaigns
Copywriting
Market research
Events and activation
Out of home
Brand strategy
Advertising
Media buying
Public relations
Crisis communications
Digital marketing
Paid search
Paid social
Content marketing
Social media management
Email marketing
Influencer campaigns
Copywriting
Market research
Events and activation
Out of home
Why Vara
Bespoke service for you & your business,
without the big-firm minimum.
01
What you publish is the risk
Media liability, not general negligence, is where agency claims come from. We confirm it is on the policy.
02
Rights and clearances are checked
Licences, releases and clearances are the most frequent failure point. We ask how you manage them before we present the risk.
03
Client money is declared
Holding media spend is a separate exposure. We establish whose name you buy in.
04
We present the risk right
Fee and billings split, channels, client sectors and claims history. How it’s framed changes what you pay.
You talk to a person. The machines do the typing.
Free review of your marketing and PR agency cover and costs.
On a policy with no media liability in it? Leave your details and we’ll call you straight back. One conversation covers the lot.
What the review covers
We go through the policy you have now, so you can see what it does and doesn’t cover against a media liability claim, which a standard professional indemnity policy does not automatically include.
We point out the terms that catch agencies out most often, how rights and clearances on the images, footage or music in a campaign are declared among them, so you can check yours.
We approach insurers on our panel who write marketing and PR agency risks, and come back with what they’ll offer.
We explain each option in plain English, including what it doesn’t cover.
If it’s not a risk we can place, we’ll tell you straight away rather than leave you waiting.
No obligation to switch. You decide what fits.
Rather not wait? Call us on 0333 091 3663
Good to know
Marketing agency questions, answered straight.
What insurance does a marketing agency need?
Is defamation covered by professional indemnity?
What happens if we use an image we did not have rights to?
Are we liable if a price in an advert is wrong?
Does holding client media budgets matter?
Are freelancers covered?
Do we need cyber cover if we do not hold much data?
Is influencer work treated differently?
Vara Commercial Insurance · 0333 091 3663
Vara is a trading name of Koral AI Operating Company Limited. Vara is an appointed representative of Innovative Risk Labs Ltd, under Firm Reference Number 1060955. Innovative Risk Labs Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, under FRN 609155. We are registered in England and Wales under Registered Company Number 17256222. Registered office: 167-169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF.