Publicity clause

Sample clause

a marketing services agreement between Fernhill Consulting and Saltbush Brewing, a fictional craft brewery in Ballarat

1. Permitted Use. The Agency may include the Client's name and logo in its credentials presentations, on its website client list, and in responses to tenders, using the logo files and guidelines the Client supplies. 2. Case Studies. The Agency may publish a written case study describing the work, provided it: 2.1 does not disclose the Fees, the Client's sales figures or any Confidential Information; 2.2 is sent to the Client at least 10 business days before publication; and 2.3 is amended to remove anything the Client objects to in that period. 3. Announcements. Neither party may issue a media release or a social media announcement naming the other without that party's prior written consent, which must not be unreasonably withheld. 4. Awards. The Agency may enter the work in industry awards after the campaign has launched publicly, and must tell the Client before it does. 5. Withdrawal. If the Client asks in writing, the Agency must remove the Client's name and logo from its website within 20 business days.

Sample wording, not legal advice.

Variants

What to negotiate

• Credentials use against a full case study

  A client list entry and a written case study are different asks. Naming and logo use is low risk and most clients agree to it once brand guidelines are followed. A case study describes results, which can touch pricing, sales data and strategy. Splitting the clause so credentials use is permitted and case studies need review handles both without a blanket consent requirement.

• How long consent takes

  A consent right with no deadline can stall an award entry or a tender response. Suppliers ask for a review period, commonly 10 business days, after which the material may be published if no objection has been raised. Clients usually prefer an express approval rather than a deemed one, and often accept the deadline while keeping the final say.

• Timing against a public launch

  Unannounced products and campaigns are the main reason clients refuse publicity, and the objection usually disappears once the work is live. Tying permitted use to public launch solves most disputes in one sentence. Suppliers should also ask what happens if a campaign is cancelled, since work that never launched is often the work they most want to show.

• Withdrawal and what happens afterwards

  Clients want the ability to be removed from a supplier's website if the relationship sours. Suppliers accept this for live channels but ask that printed credentials and material already published be excluded, because they cannot be recalled. Twenty business days to remove a logo from a website is a common and workable deadline.

The risk of leaving it out

With no publicity clause the supplier is usually caught by the confidentiality clause, which typically covers the existence and terms of the agreement, so naming the client at all is a breach. That comes as a surprise to businesses that have been listing client logos for years, and it is discovered during a review rather than before publication.

Confidentiality usually bans it by default

Standard confidentiality clauses cover the terms of the agreement and often its existence as well. That wording, read literally, stops a supplier saying it works for the client, which is not what either side intended when they signed. The publicity clause is the carve out that makes the credentials list lawful. Where the contract has no publicity clause, the answer is not that publicity is permitted by silence, it is that the confidentiality clause governs and the supplier is exposed. Adding a short permitted use provision at drafting is far easier than seeking consent from a client contact who has since left the business.

Logos, trade marks and implied endorsement

Using a client's logo means using its trade mark, so the clause should require the supplier to use the files the client supplies and to follow its brand guidelines. The second issue is endorsement. A client list is a statement of fact about who a supplier has worked for. A quote, a testimonial or a layout suggesting the client recommends the supplier goes further, and a representation of that kind must be accurate, since misleading or deceptive conduct in trade is prohibited under the Australian Consumer Law in Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. Keeping endorsement separate from factual credentials use avoids most of that risk.

Where it sits in a generated document

The document generator writes an agreement as numbered content, so a publicity clause usually appears near the confidentiality clause, with permitted uses and consent requirements as separate sub clauses. The generated text is written from the description it is given and it never prints citations, so any review period or notice figure in a draft has to be checked before the document is used. Describing what is allowed without consent and what needs it produces two provisions rather than one ambiguous sentence.

Documents that carry this clause

Capability statement template with past performance in numbersA capability statement is read by a procurement officer with forty of them, in about ninety seconds, looking for the numbers that let them shortlist. This one is four pages for a cleaning company chasing council work: the six number snapshot up front, three past contracts with values and outcomes, and the certifications and insurances in a table they can check.Customer case study template with a before and after tableBrightline Logistics runs 62 trucks out of Adelaide and used to dispatch them with paper run sheets. This case study tells the switch to digital dispatch in figures: 94 per cent fewer missed pickups, 11 admin hours saved a week, $184,000 saved a year and a 4.6 month payback. The rest of the four pages exists to make those four numbers believable.Sponsorship agreement template that lists every benefit with a numberSponsorship falls apart in the delivery, when nobody can find the email that said how many banners and which stage. This agreement is the benefits list as a table with quantities and dates, the $18,000 fee in instalments tied to those dates, and the two clauses sponsors care about most: exclusivity, and what happens if the event does not go ahead.Trademark licence agreement with quality control and royaltiesA trademark licence lets someone else put your mark on their goods, and the clause that keeps it worth doing is quality control. This one licenses three registered marks from a football club to an apparel maker for three years, at 8 per cent of net wholesale sales with a rising minimum, and approval of every pre production sample in ten business days.

Questions people ask