FCA authorised · FRN 7249520117 325 0027Quote & buy →
Marketing & PR
Independent marketing, advertising, PR, social-media and branding consultants sell judgement and create content — two different exposures a single professional indemnity conversation has to cover. If a campaign underdelivers, advice proves costly, or published work infringes someone else’s rights or crosses the advertising codes, the client who paid for it can look to you to put the loss right.
Part of: Professional indemnity at Apex
In short
Professional indemnity insurance protects a marketing, advertising or PR consultant when a client alleges financial loss caused by your professional work — negligent strategy advice, a campaign that missed its brief or a deadline, or an error the client relied on. Because consultants also create and publish, the right policy pairs this with media liability: cover for intellectual-property and copyright infringement in images, music, fonts, straplines and trade marks, for defamation, and for misleading or unsubstantiated claims that fall foul of the advertising codes. Cover is normally written on a claims-made basis, so the policy that responds is the one in force when the claim is made, not when the work was done. There is no statutory minimum for this profession; the limit you carry is usually driven by your client contracts. A combined professional indemnity and media wording is typically the right shape.
Clients hire you for judgement — a strategy, a creative route, a launch. When that judgement is challenged, professional indemnity insurance is what responds: it meets the cost of defending the allegation and any damages or settlement you are held liable for, even when you were not at fault, because seeing off an unjustified complaint still costs money.
These disputes rarely arrive as a neat lawsuit — more often a client withholds a fee, argues the brief was not met, or demands you redo work and cover lost sales. Typical allegations map to a combined policy like this:
| What the client alleges | What usually responds |
|---|---|
| Negligent strategy advice the client relied on and lost money over | Professional indemnity |
| A campaign that missed its brief or launched past a deadline | Professional indemnity |
| An error or omission in the work — wrong data, a costly print-run typo | Professional indemnity |
| A creative asset that infringed copyright, image rights or a trade mark | Media liability (IP) |
| Ad copy, a release or a social post alleged to be defamatory | Media liability (defamation) |
| An advertising claim challenged as misleading or unsubstantiated | Media liability |
| Breach of confidence over a client’s unannounced plans | PI / media liability |
Advice-only work leans on the first column; publishing work lives in both.
The moment you create and publish — artwork, copy, video, a social feed, a press release — you take on exposures that advice-only professional indemnity was never built for. Media liability deals with them:
Comparative advertising — naming or clearly identifying a competitor — carries extra risk: it invites both an ASA challenge and a claim from the business you measured yourself against.
Campaigns run on data. Audience lists, a customer database shared for a mailout, analytics that identify individuals — as soon as you handle personal data on a client’s behalf you have duties under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, usually as a processor acting on the client’s instructions. A misdirected send, an unsecured list, or a breach at a supplier you chose can leave the client exposed and looking to you. Professional indemnity and media wordings commonly contribute to the defence and liability side of a data incident, but the first-party costs — notification, forensics, restoring systems — belong to cyber cover.
PR work adds its own exposure: you are paid precisely to protect or repair a reputation. When a launch lands badly, a statement is poorly judged, an embargo breaks, or a crisis is felt to have been mishandled, the client can blame the adviser. Clear scopes, written sign-off on what goes out, and records of the advice you gave are the practical defences, and what an insurer will want to see if a dispute arises.
Professional indemnity holds you to reasonable skill and care — the competence expected of an ordinary skilled practitioner — not to a promise of success. The policy answers a failure to meet that standard, not a campaign that simply underperformed.
Cover is almost always written on a claims-made basis: the policy that responds is the one in force when the claim is made or the circumstance notified, not when the work was done. Two things follow. Your retroactive date matters: work done before it is generally not covered, so keep it as far back as your history allows when you change insurer. And when you stop trading or let cover lapse, run-off answers claims about past work, since no live policy remains.
There is no statutory minimum limit for this profession; the figure you carry is driven by your client contracts and the scale of the work. Because one engagement mixes advice with published content, a combined professional indemnity and media wording is usually the right shape, and it overlaps heavily with a full digital-agency policy. Under the Insurance Act 2015 you owe a duty to present the risk fairly, so describe the full range of what you do — including the riskier content and comparative work.
It is worth asking us to re-market your cover when:
We would rather say so than waste your time. We are probably not for you if:
No — there is no statutory minimum for this profession. In practice it is contract-driven: clients and agencies often require a set level of cover before engaging you.
Professional indemnity answers allegations about your advice — negligence, errors, a missed brief. Media liability answers what you publish — infringement, defamation, misleading advertising. Consultants who publish usually need both.
A media liability clause is designed to, typically covering infringement in images, music, fonts, straplines and trade marks — including an honest licence mistake, since infringement needs no intent.
Cover can respond to defence costs and liability where an advertising claim is challenged as misleading or unsubstantiated; comparative advertising raises the risk. It never replaces substantiating claims first.
Because cover is claims-made. Today’s claim is handled by today’s policy, but only if the work behind it post-dates your retroactive date — so protect that date when switching insurer.
Usually, yes. Claims can surface after you stop trading, and a lapsed claims-made policy has nothing to notify them to. Run-off keeps past work covered.
Professional indemnity and media wordings often contribute where a data mistake leads to a claim, but the first-party costs of a breach sit with cyber cover. Read the two together.
Tell a specialist broker what your consultancy really does — the advice, the campaigns and the content you publish — and get professional indemnity and media liability set out so you can see how they fit. Cover and terms depend on your circumstances. Or call 0117 325 0027.
Get a quote Request a callbackApex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales, company number 07014570. This page is general information about professional indemnity insurance, not advice on your individual circumstances, and it does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms.
