There are many perks for being in a marketing job – great people, fantastic brands, and the ability to shape messages that everyday people receive on a daily basis. However, when it comes to professional protection, there was the lack of a policy that protects marketers specifically.

From November 1 this year, the Australian Marketing Institute (AMI) will be introducing a new Professional Indemnity Master Policy for professional marketers, an insurance scheme designed to underpin the value professional marketers provide to businesses.

The cover will be made available to all members of the AMI. According to Mark Crowe, CEO of the AMI, this is an effort to ensure that marketers have access to affordable and tailored professional indemnity (PI),

“It is important that the marketing profession is able to provide the same level of assurance to customers/clients that has long been standard practice and expected in other professions, i.e. accounting, law and medicine. PI underpins the credentials of any professional service.”

The cover is a Professional Indemnity limit of $10,000,000 for Certified Practicing Marketers and $5,000,000 limit for all other members, according to Crowe.

“All it takes is to be a current financial member of the Institute and to be either an employee or a consultant generating gross fees of up to $250,000 annually and you will have automatic Professional Indemnity insurance cover from next month,” says Crowe to Marketing.

Crowe believes that the new Master PI policy will strengthen the Institute’s member value proposition, which will provide more impetus to maintain and increase AMI’s retention rate.

“We expect the policy will attract many new members because the cost of PI is far greater than the investment in membership. This will be a beneficial outcome for everyone because the greater the number of people covered by the policy, the more the associated risk is spread, which means there is the probability the cost of PI being further reduced. Like any insurance the more people covered, the easier it is to spread the risk.”

The policy will cover liability of Financial Members arising out of Marketing Consultancy, including but not limited to:

– marketing advice

– strategic marketing and planning

– advice about and the conduct of market research

– advice about advertising

– advice about brand and product management

– advice about public relations

Crowe believes that the PI will be of great benefit to members who are currently employees as limited case law has found individual employees liable for professional negligence losses, where employees have been not protected by their employment to an organisation.

“Importantly the provision of this Master Policy will promote marketing as a profession that provides a level of assurance that has long been standard practice and expected in other professions”, says Crowe