What can go wrong?

Businesses are fiercely protective of their brand and corporate image and have high expectations of the external agencies they hire to help enhance it.

From a brochure misprint to the withdrawal of a TV advert, media professionals work and make mistakes across a range of disciplines including advertising, public relations, TV and radio broadcasting, publishing and sales promotion. The financial and reputational consequences of their errors can be significant. Claims also arise from areas including breach of copyright, breach of confidence, loss of documents and defamation.

Cover considerations

Cover is widely available for most media professionals – offered on an Any One Claim basis and competitively priced.

The use of sub-contractors and freelancers is prevalent in the media sector and some policy wordings will require the insured to check they have their own PI policies in place. If there is an exposure to bodily injury or property damage claims, check these aren’t excluded. Other common exclusions include stunts, mimicking and obscene or blasphemous material.

Many problems an insured is aware of can be fixed before the client ever finds out (e.g. re-printing of documents) and some insurers will offer “rectification” or “damage limitation” cover for these circumstances. This is a first party cover as it kicks in before a claim is made by a third party and special claims notification provisions may apply.

What are insurers looking for?

The nature of the sector means experience might be more relevant than qualifications so insureds could be required to provide CVs for key employees. Internal risk management including the use of contract terms and conditions that make clear who is responsible for what will be well-received by potential insurers.

High risks activities include live broadcasts, TV ad production, high profile journalism, direct mail and sales promotion activities as well as games and competitions – the outcome of which is generally excluded in any event. Insurers will be interested in client profile because as a general rule the bigger the client the more damaging the mistake and the more likely (and willing) they are to make a claim.