Our expertise is in SAG-AFTRA commercial union talent, as well as non-union talent. We help craft talent estimates, write contracts, pay talent using our own paymaster, or a client’s preferred one. We ensure that clients are notified when rights are expiring.

Advertising law is specialized, and protecting a brand and agency involves considering intellectual property, copyrights, trademarks as well as Federal Trade Commission guidelines. We review concept decks and offer feedback. We’ll consult with legal counsel when necessary. Though we’re happy to use a client’s legal counsel, we also retain our own, which helps us provide speedy responses with holistic project considerations.

We manage search, reach out, negotiation and contracting for all third party intellectual property. This includes stock images, photography, artwork, buildings, logos or business names. With so many details involved on most projects, tracking the ownership and rights clearances requires the laser-focused eye of trained Business Affairs professionals.

We can help clients manage their budgets, write estimates, track costs and reconcile final expenses. We’ll hire and contract all vendors for each project, and ensure that they’ve supplied their invoices and financial paperwork. We can obtain insurance via a client’s wrap-up policy, or ask outside vendors to add their own. We’ll also travel to set when needed to assist the producer.

We help to make sure commercials get to air on time with necessary network clearance approvals by managing this process from start to finish, including network clearance, quality assurance, obtaining AD-IDs, writing traffic instructions and uploading to stations. We can offer as much or as little as needed in this area and often work with trusted partners.

We take pride in licensing original, stock and popular music for commercial advertising. We ensure that rights are obtained from both publishers and labels, including any samples, vocal consents and AFM musician fees, as well as PROs. We also help clients draft and negotiate all related contracts. Our dedicated Partnerships team handles popular music licensing.

Birdie has a dedicated Partnerships Team that handles negotiating and booking high profile on and off-camera celebrity talent and influencers. This service extends from artist pitches through ballparking, reach out, negotiation and final contracts.

Sometimes we can get bogged down in too much process with overcomplicated work streams. We’ll review your internal processes to help you find solutions to create a more streamlined workflow at the organization or department level. This includes making staffing recommendations where necessary, or interviewing candidates who you think would be right for the job. We are technology solution oriented, but also recognize that people are equally important. We strive to find the smartest balance.

If you don’t have a payroll agreement to pay crew or talent, we can manage that directly. We’ll also run payments for other third party vendors, such as production companies, illustrators or photographers. All third party transactions are subject to a small service fee.