Does an NDA Really Protect Your Prelaunch Content?

Does an NDA provide enough protection?

You've probably heard or used a non-disclosure agreement (also referred to as an NDA or confidentiality agreement) when working with clients and third-party stakeholders such as journalists and freelancers. An NDA is a legal contract between two parties aiming to protect shared confidential information. The goal of the NDA is to prevent a person or company from incurring losses or damages as a result of the disclosure of information. An NDA also aims to prevent the entity that the information has been shared with from profiting from it illegally. Even though an NDA is a legal document, it does not prevent a person from disclosing confidential information. Instead, it sets out the consequences if the person does not comply with the NDA.

Enforcing an NDA is particularly challenging for communications and marketing agencies with so many different channels to monitor. And once confidential information, such as product images, is leaked or disclosed, undoing the damage is almost impossible due to the vast speed that information spreads. And because determining financial damages and punishing the wrongdoer is difficult, it often means that NDAs provide little reassurance against leaks.

Because reinforcement of NDAs is difficult, reliance on trust and goodwill can end up being the de facto approach used by agencies. This, of course, doesn't provide the level of protection your clients expect. And, if a leak or prelaunch disclosure happens, you may end up being the last to know.

The limitations of NDAs don't mean protecting yourself, the agency, and the third-party stakeholders you rely on for a successful launch isn't possible. However, new technologies are available to help track and monitor your clients' digital assets smartly and proactively so your teams can focus on what's important—a successful product launch.

How to safeguard your client's digital assets.

When preparing a launch, your agency teams are most likely sharing confidential images and videos with third parties. Keeping track and monitoring where your client's digital assets are is often difficult. Ensuring that NDAs or confidentiality agreements have been signed can mean an extra workload to your already busy schedule and workflow.

If you're working with a digital asset management (DAM) system, you've already put in place a process to manage how images and videos are sharedstrong> across your agency's extensive network of production teams and outside agencies. Unfortunately, this won't keep your client's digital assets from being inadvertently shared outside of your defined lists of recipients or from pro-leakers intercepting and stealing them. Finding a solution that works within your agency and client's workflow is essential.  

When a globally recognized smartphone brand faced a growing risk of pre-reveal leaks, it looked for a tamper-proof technology solution to secure its visual assets. Using the IMATAG Leaks solution, the brand embedded invisible watermarks on all its prelaunch visuals, including those sent to employees, agencies, and commercial partners. The result? The brand systematically and invisibly watermarks all its visual assets, providing a more serene workflow and a secure way of detecting and stopping damaging leaks.

Why complementing your NDA with invisible watermarking is a smart choice.

Integrating an invisible watermarking solution into your workflow means that in addition to using NDAs and embargos, you'll also be able to track and monitor each digital asset’s distribution and usage.

Quickly knowing how your clients' images and videos are being used and by whom is essential to stopping illegal and damaging usage. It also means you'll be alerted quickly if a leak occurs and before your client. Plus, not only will everyone handling confidential images and videos be held accountable, but also be reassured that the source will be quickly identified and stopped if a leak does happen.

Ready to learn more about invisible digital watermarking? And how IMATAG's Leak and Monitor solutions easily integrate within DAM systems or run as a cloud-based platform. Then you'll want to read our new ebook, Branded Content Protection—How to Track Your Images and Videos Online.  

Protect your agency and your client's digital assets and find the peace of mind you deserve.