Ad Agency Orders Wrong Advertising Material – a Real Damage Event

Agency Makes a Mistake with Advertising Aaterial for Trade Fair

An advertising agency received an order from a company that manufactured vacuum cleaners asking them to produce 250 small carpets for their trade fair appearance. To demonstrate the suction power of the latest model, the carpets should be made of a particularly difficult-to-clean material and printed with the image of the hoover being demonstrated, as well as other product details. After accepting the design and selecting the carpet materials, the advertising agency ordered 250 carpets from a manufacturer on behalf of their client.

Before printing, the advertising agency received an offer for carpet mats with a fleece surface along with corresponding material samples to view. Unfortunately, the employee entrusted with the job was on holiday then, so nobody noticed the surface of the sample was not right. A colleague gave the go-ahead for the production of the 250 carpets after a telephone consultation in which the characteristics of the material were not mentioned. When the carpets were delivered to the vacuum cleaner company, they had a rude awakening: The delivered carpets weren’t made of a material that was particularly difficult to clean, but of fleece – a material that definitely does not require a turbo vacuum cleaner.

Advertising Agency Stuck with a 15,000 Euro Bill

Since the planned customer demonstrations at the fair were simply not an option with the delivered carpets, the hoover company refused to accept them and demanded a new production. Although the advertising agency was able to arrange for the 250 carpets to be produced again at the printer in time for the start of the trade fair, this resulted in additional costs of 15,000 euros. The blame for the debacle clearly lay with the advertising agency, because it had released the print job with the wrong materials in the name of the client. Thus, the vacuum cleaner company demanded the additional costs incurred back from the agency.

Professional Indemnity Insurance Steps in

Fortunately, the advertising agency had taken out Professional Indemnity Insurance through exali and reported the damage to one of our insurance experts in customer service. They immediately forwarded the case to the insurer, who, after examining the case, paid the damage minus the 250 euro deductible. This case clearly shows: Even a little carelessness can cause a lot of damage – and quickly threaten the financial existence of smaller media or advertising agencies.

Errors by Employees Are also Insured

By the way, it doesn’t matter who causes the damage in your business – you or your employees. The following persons are standardly insured against professional mistakes with Professional Indemnity:

• Managerial and other employees, interns and working students,
• Employees from temporary employment agencies integrated into your business,
• Freelancers (natural persons) integrated into the company, insofar as they work in your name and on your behalf.

Any questions? Our customer service team will be happy to advise you personally on +49 (0) 821 80 99 46-0 (Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. CET).