KBD is an insurance broker that provides insurance protection
to companies in the digital and traditional marketing industry.
KBD will tailor a specialized insurance package for ad agencies that provide branding, website development, content creation, copywriting, videography, broadcasting and much more.
As the owner of a marketing agency, it is important to have an insurance policy in place to protect your company from lawsuits that may arise from your day-to-day business activities. In today's digital era, it's no longer necessary to have clients that are close in proximity; you may have clients from different countries, and in particular, who reside in the USA. Dealing with American clients presents an entirely different set of risk exposures that can permanently damage your business, as the frequency of litigation is much higher in comparison to Canada.
If you are a marketing agency, here are some important tips to follow to lower your chances of being involved in a dispute with a client that could lead to an insurance claim:
Clear and simple to read contracts
If ever there is a dispute between yourself and a client, it's always a good idea to have a contract that is to-the-point and easy to read. If it's too complicated for the "average Joe" to understand, chances are that a judge in court will also have trouble understanding the terms and conditions of the contract.
Define your scope of work
Let it be clear to your customers exactly what it is that you are responsible for in terms of the services / products that you are providing. Before embarking on any major work, make sure that it is communicated in writing and that the services to be performed are clear and simple to read, so that both parties know exactly what their mandate is.
Have your clients sign off on the work done
When you produce content or conduct a service for a client, always have them sign off on the work before it goes public as this will significantly lower your exposure in terms of being involved in a dispute or lawsuit. You don't need approval at every step of the process as it will slow down productivity, but having approval at project milestones is important.
KBD is an insurance broker
KBD will provide you with the right insurance product(s) to protect your business activities and all of the contents that belong to the company such as laptops, desks, computer screens, cameras and more.
Here are some of the core protections that we offer to cover for businesses within your industry:
Professional / media liability
As a marketing professional, you are producing content for your clients. Unlike commercial general liability (CGL) which insures you against third party property damage and bodily injury (tangible damage), professional liability will cover you when a client suffers financial harm as a result of a project or piece of content that you produce on their behalf. Our insurance coverage will protect you from perils below:
Copyright infringement / intellectual property rights infringement
Coverage in the event that you fail to attribute authorship, provide credit, or you accidentally infringe on someone else's intellectual property rights.
Defamation
Your job is to produce content for your clients to help grow their business through advertising; if ever this content accidentally slanders a particular person or entity, whereby they attempt to sue you, KBD will provide coverage to cover your court costs to defend your company.
Content liability
Depending on the industry you specialize in, your marketing agency will most likely be stating "facts" about certain subjects. KBD provides coverage if ever you become legally obliged to pay for any error, misstatement or misrepresentation that transpired from a piece of content that you created for one of your clients.
Vicarious liability cover
Media businesses will often use third party contractors to help them deliver services; our policies provide full coverage in the event that you are held liable for someone else's mistake.
Worldwide coverage
Whether you have clients located in Canada, the US, Europe, or anywhere else in the world, we provide liability coverage for all of your services, regardless of the location. In the event of a liability claim, you are covered worldwide.
Cyber coverage
Any business that performs the vast majority of work on a computer has a cyber exposure; hacks, data breaches, malware attacks and more. The insurance companies we work with will cover you against the following in terms of cyber protection:
Virus & hacking liability
In today's digital era, every company has a susceptibility when it comes to data breaches or malware attacks. We provide coverage in the event that you lose your customers sensitive data as a result of a hack; we'll also pay to help rebuild your brand if your clients lose trust in your company.
System repair costs
As a marketing company, there is a good chance that you store your client's finished work and ongoing projects on the cloud. What would happen if this cloud server was hacked or encrypted, and you lost six months of work? Well, you would need to re-create all of the data, which would cost your business hundreds of hours worth of labour; our insurance policy will cover the costs to reconfigure and rebuild all of this data, including staff overtime costs and external specialist consultants.
Breach notification costs
In November of 2018, the Government of Canada passed a law that states any business who suffers a data breach, whereby customer data is compromised, will need to notify their clients as soon as soon as the breach is discovered. The insurance coverage we provide for you will cover the cost to notify your customers through traditional mail, public announcements, and more.
Property coverage
Your marketing company works out of an office, and you'll need to insure items such as desks, tables, computers, telephones; basically, anything that is tangible and that remains in your locale. Here are some other protections we can offer for your business:
Laptop / camera floater
Most insurance companies will provide coverage for your business contents, but only when they are stored at the insured location (your office). This is counter intuitive, as most videographers / photographers are on the road all day! We'll cover your contents against fire, theft, mysterious disappearance and water when you take these items outside of the office.
Extra expense
Covers you for any extra expenses that you may incur that are over and above your regular day-to-day operating costs to get your business back in operation after a claim. An example would be an insurance broker who suffered a fire at his office, and will need to rent out an emergency locale for two months, in order to keep his business open for this time period while repairs are being made to the office. The rent for this emergency locale would be over and above the business's regular expenses, and would hence be covered by "extra expense"
Equipment breakdown
An often overlooked coverage that every insurance policy should have, this protects against perils such as electrical arcing (also referred to as a power surge that may short circuit some of your electrical items within the building) or sudden mechanical failure of equipment such as your air conditioning unit, your appliances, or hot water tank. Here's an example: the power cuts out, and when it comes back on, the surge in electricity short circuits all of the office's laptops. Depending on the size of your business, this could be a very costly claim to replace all of the computers if you are paying out of pocket.
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