Written by William Paull
Co-Founder & Account Director
On this page
- Which policy fits a marketing, advertising or digital agency?
- What insurance does a marketing agency need? Count your exposure shapes
- Is your agency closer to media or to technology?
- Which exclusions catch marketing and advertising agencies first?
- Is there one policy for an agency's professional indemnity, media, cyber and public liability?
- When is professional indemnity on its own enough for an agency?
- Not sure which side your agency sits on?
- Frequently asked questions
Which policy fits a marketing, advertising or digital agency?
Digital marketing agencies, web designers and search agencies sit between two entirely different product architectures. One is content-led, weighted towards intellectual property, defamation and privacy. That is a media liability package. The other is technology-led, weighted towards depth of cyber cover. That is a technology package.
The label on the front of the document tells you almost nothing about which one suits you. The wording decides, and the honest answer for a business in that middle is that both should be read before either is bought.
Both are a long way from a standalone professional indemnity policy. An agency that asks for "a PI quote" is giving advice, but its heaviest exposure is usually somewhere else: a client data breach, a copyright or trade mark claim, or a dispute about something it published. Our page on professional indemnity insurance explains why we look past the label.
What insurance does a marketing agency need? Count your exposure shapes
The list of job titles will not tell you. Five exposure shapes will. Count how many your agency carries:
- You publish. Copy, logos, images, video and posts carry intellectual property and reputation risk.
- Your contracts go beyond a scope of works. Licence deals, endorsement deals and platform terms.
- You do physical work. Shoots, launches and events happen in real rooms with real people in them.
- Contractors deliver work under your name. Freelance designers, writers, videographers and developers.
- You hold other people's sensitive data. Customer lists, logins and campaign data.
Carry one of those and a standard professional indemnity policy may still be the right home. Carry three or four and it usually is not.
Is your agency closer to media or to technology?
Content risk is about what you say. Technology risk is about what you run. Your agency moves towards the technology side when it:
- hosts client websites, apps or online stores;
- holds client data, such as customer lists, order histories or email databases;
- logs in to clients' websites, ad accounts or email platforms with administrator access.
Here is why that matters. If a site you host goes down, your client's staff cannot work and your client cannot trade. The loss builds by the hour and traces back to you. And the loss is your client's, not yours, so a cyber policy for your own systems does not answer it on its own. A technology insurance package is built for that business: professional indemnity for the technology services you provide, with both halves of cyber, your own losses after an attack and what you owe others, where your schedule includes them.
An agency that builds sites but hosts nothing and holds no client data may need only IT liability insurance, and our guide to software developer insurance explains that policy.
If most of your work is content and the building is incidental, the media side usually fits. A media package can still carry cyber in both directions, where those clauses are purchased. It is weighted to content claims, not to cyber depth. Media liability insurance sets out what it covers that a professional indemnity policy does not.
| What your agency does | What can go wrong | Where it is answered |
|---|---|---|
| Writes copy, designs logos, makes images and video | A claim that the work infringes copyright or a trade mark, or defames someone | Media liability: primary cover on the wordings we place |
| Publishes ads and posts for clients | A complaint that an ad was misleading | Read the advertising exclusion first (next section) |
| Runs tracking pixels, audience data, email or SMS campaigns | A claim that data was collected without consent, or that messages were unsolicited | Read two more exclusions first (next section) |
| Hosts client sites or holds client data | The site goes down or is breached and the client cannot trade | Technology package: professional indemnity plus both halves of cyber |
| Runs shoots and events | Someone is hurt, or a hired venue is damaged | Media package: public and products liability |
| Gives strategy and advice only | A client says the advice cost them money | Professional indemnity |
Which exclusions catch marketing and advertising agencies first?
Three exclusions sit right on the work an agency does every day.
Claims about the advertising itself. Some media wordings exclude civil liability for misleading or deceptive advertising, which is precisely the claim an agency's own deliverable can generate. Some professional indemnity and technology wordings affirmatively cover unintentional breaches of consumer law. Which side your wording falls on is a reading job, and for an agency it is the first exclusion we read.
Tracking and audience data. The media wordings we place exclude claims arising from a failure to get consent before collecting, storing or processing someone's personal information. That expressly reaches internet search history and browsing habits, with nothing carved back. If you run pixels, audience tracking or anything adtech shaped, check that exclusion against the wording.
Email and SMS campaigns on a cyber policy. One widely used cyber insurance wording excludes claims under laws on unsolicited email, SMS and calls, such as the Spam Act, apart from a narrow write-back where an attacker on your systems was the cause. The same wording excludes any claim arising from an advertisement, promotion or product description said to be false or misleading. So on that wording, cyber will not pick up the marketing claim a media wording leaves out.
Defamation is where the media side is stronger. On the media wordings we place it is primary cover. On a standard professional indemnity wording it is usually reached only by extension, often only where you did not intend to defame. Our guide to defamation insurance shows which policy answers a defamation letter.
Is there one policy for an agency's professional indemnity, media, cyber and public liability?
Yes, two ways.
A media package already combines cover for the content you publish with professional indemnity, public liability and cyber, in one contract. And at least one specialist insurer now writes a package built for digital marketing businesses. Its fact sheet names web design, hosting, SaaS, SEO, digital advertising and brand consulting, and puts professional indemnity and media liability, first and third party cyber, and public and products liability in one policy.
Two rules hold whichever you buy. The parts are bought separately, so two agencies can hold a policy with the same name and own different documents: your schedule, not the brochure, decides what you have. And cover follows the work described on your schedule. An agency that starts hosting sites or reselling software has changed the business the policy was written for. Tell us when the work changes, not at renewal.
When is professional indemnity on its own enough for an agency?
When your work is advice and you carry one of the five shapes at most. A strategist who plans campaigns, publishes nothing under the agency's name, builds nothing and holds no client data may be well served by professional indemnity insurance alone.
Know what it was built for. A standard professional indemnity wording has one insuring clause, for claims that your advice or services caused a client a financial loss. Intellectual property is usually excluded and then partly returned by extension. And on many of those wordings a claim means a proceeding or a demand for money, so a letter asking you to take something down is not yet a claim, and you fund the first stage yourself. On the media wordings we place, a written request for a retraction or a correction is a claim from the day it lands.
Moving an agency that is well served by professional indemnity onto a bigger package, only because the package sounds more complete, is an expensive way to change nothing.
Not sure which side your agency sits on?
Tell us what your agency does, activity by activity, and send us the insurance clause from your biggest client contract. We will read the media and technology wordings against your work before you buy either.
Frequently asked questions
Is advertising agency insurance the same as media liability insurance?
Often, but not always. Consolidated Insurance Brokers reads both wordings, because the label on a policy decides nothing. Media liability covers claims about the content an agency publishes, such as copyright, defamation and privacy, with professional indemnity, public liability and cyber in the same contract. An advertising agency that also hosts websites or holds its clients' data may fit a technology package better.
Does professional indemnity cover a marketing agency for a copyright claim?
Sometimes, and only partly. Consolidated Insurance Brokers reads that clause before you rely on it. On a standard professional indemnity wording, intellectual property is usually excluded and then partly returned by extension. On the media wordings we place, intellectual property infringement, reaching copyright and trade marks, is primary cover. Patent infringement is commonly excluded from media wordings with no way back in.
Does a social media agency need different insurance from a marketing agency?
Usually the same policy types, with the work described properly. Consolidated Insurance Brokers asks for social media management to be named on your schedule. On the media wordings we place, cover reaches content created or put out by you or on your behalf in the business activities on your schedule. If you run audience tracking, read the exclusion for personal data collected without consent first.
Does cyber insurance cover a marketing agency's email and SMS campaigns?
On one widely used cyber wording, not for claims about the campaign itself. Consolidated Insurance Brokers checks this for any agency running email or SMS marketing. That wording excludes claims under laws on unsolicited email, SMS and calls, apart from a narrow write-back where an attacker on your systems was the cause. It also excludes claims about an advertisement said to be false or misleading.
Can Consolidated Insurance Brokers insure a digital agency that builds and hosts websites?
Yes. Consolidated Insurance Brokers arranges both media liability and technology insurance, and a digital agency that builds and hosts sites sits between them. Hosting, holding client data and administrator access to client systems point towards a technology package, which adds both halves of cyber to professional indemnity and public liability. If content is still most of your work, a media package may fit better.