A Procurement Guide to Global Content Purchasing
What drives the cost of multilingual content, how to judge its quality, and which pricing models reward performance rather than volume. By Lindsay Hong.
Usage rights management keeps every adapted version of your campaign within the terms you agreed.
Usage rights management is the tracking of the permissions attached to a campaign’s talent, voices, music, photography, stock and footage: where each can run, in which media, for how long and in which versions. At Locaria it is built into creative adaptation, so the team making your market versions checks they are allowed to run before they ship.
Why it matters: the rights agreed for the master don’t automatically cover a German cutdown, a new social format or an extra market. When adaptation is spread across agencies and countries, contracts, licences and renewal dates are easy to lose track of, and campaigns can keep running after a licence has expired.
What we don’t do: we are not a law firm and we don’t give legal advice. We work with your legal, business affairs and procurement teams, and your talent payment provider, and keep their agreed terms visible across production.
Four questions every version has to pass
Rights are agreed by term, territory and media. We add the version, because that is where adapted campaigns usually slip.
TERM
Is the licence still valid on the date this version runs, and when does it need renewing?
TERRITORY
Does the agreement cover this market, or does adding a country need a new negotiation?
MEDIA
Is TV, online video, social, out-of-home or in-store use included?
VERSION
Is this cutdown, language version or new format covered by the original terms?
Why rights get lost in global rollouts, and how we fix it
Most rights problems aren’t caused by the master. They start when the campaign is adapted.
Market-by-market rights
Usage rights with Locaria
Each market signs its own talent and music terms
One central record of terms by talent, market and campaign
New versions reuse assets without checking the licence
Rights checked before each version ships
Expiry dates held in local inboxes
Upcoming expiries and renewals flagged in time to act
Overlapping fees for the same talent in different markets
Visibility that helps procurement negotiate global buyouts
Synthetic voices used without clear consent records
Consent and permitted use recorded against every voice
No audit trail when a question comes up
Version-level history of what ran where, and under which terms
Market-by-market rights
Each market signs its own talent and music terms
New versions reuse assets without checking the licence
Expiry dates held in local inboxes
Overlapping fees for the same talent in different markets
Synthetic voices used without clear consent records
No audit trail when a question comes up
Usage rights with Locaria
One central record of terms by talent, market and campaign
Rights checked before each version ships
Upcoming expiries and renewals flagged in time to act
Visibility that helps procurement negotiate global buyouts
Consent and permitted use recorded against every voice
Version-level history of what ran where, and under which terms
The rights we track for you
Every asset type that carries usage terms, tracked from the master through every adapted version.
On-screen talent
Usage terms for actors, presenters and influencers by market, media and duration, including buyouts agreed at the master production stage.
Voiceover, human and synthetic
Agreed terms for every voice by language, market and campaign. A voice is only cloned with documented consent, recorded with its permitted use. See our multilingual voiceover service.
Music
Licence terms for tracks and compositions, so cutdowns and new markets stay within what was cleared.
Photography, stock and illustration
Licence and usage terms checked before images are reused in new markets, formats or print and POS materials.
Footage and fonts
Third-party footage, archive and font licences that travel with the creative into every version.
Creator and influencer content
Usage terms for creator content reused in paid media or new markets, checked before it runs beyond the original agreement.
Rights in action: one talent agreement for every language
Calgon, owned by Vestacy, adapted its French master campaign into German, Italian, Portuguese, English and Romanian across 22 formats.
With the original actor’s approval, we cloned their voice for every language, so a single talent agreement covered the whole rollout instead of a separate contract and renewal date for each market.
- 1 talent agreement covering every language
- 22 formats across TV and digital
“One expiry date to track instead of 20, and less risk of a market going live under a license that nobody has properly checked.”
Nadine Hagenow, Global Localisation Lead, Vestacy
How usage rights management works with us
Built into the adaptation workflow, from the first brief to the last renewal.
01 / Collect the agreed terms
We gather the terms agreed by your legal, business affairs and procurement teams for talent, voices, music and images, and record them centrally.
02 / Link terms to assets
Each term is linked to the assets and versions it covers in Adaptria, our adaptation platform.
03 / Check before each version ships
When a new market, format or cutdown is requested, we check term, territory, media and version before production starts.
04 / Flag what needs clearance
Where a version falls outside the agreed terms, we flag it to your team so it can be cleared or renegotiated before it runs.
05 / Track expiry and renewals
Upcoming expiries are flagged in time to renew, extend or withdraw the assets affected.
06 / Report and audit
You can see what is running where, under which terms, with a version-level history when questions arise.
Who does what
Your legal team stays in control while we keep the terms visible.
Your legal and business affairs teams negotiate and approve rights, and your talent payment provider handles fees and residuals. Locaria manages and tracks the terms they agree across multi-market production, carries global buyouts through every version and brings market-specific agreements into one process.
We work alongside the rights, DAM and payment systems you already use, so nothing has to be replaced. Rights checks sit in the same workflow as video versioning and post-production adaptation, so every new version is checked by the team that makes it.
Go deeper on governing global content
Guidance for procurement, legal and brand teams running adaptation across markets.
The Case for Centralising Creative Adaptation Systems
Why fragmented, market-by-market adaptation is no longer sustainable, and what a centralised creative adaptation system does differently. By Simon Ambrose and Jimena Ortega.
AI Voice: Unlocking Multilingual Synthetic Storytelling
How generative voice technology is reshaping global advertising, where it beats studio recording, and where it still falls short. By Simon Ambrose.
FAQs
Every beautiful relationship begins with a simple hello. So let’s chat. It might be the start of something.
What is usage rights management in advertising?
It is the tracking of the permissions attached to a campaign’s talent, voices, music, images and footage: where each can run, in which media, for how long and in which versions. It reduces the risk of assets being used outside the agreed terms.
Why does usage rights management matter for global campaigns?
Contracts and licences fragment across territories as campaigns scale, so it becomes hard to know what can be used where, for how long and on which channels. A central record gives global teams visibility and reduces the risk of use outside agreed terms.
What is a usage rights buyout?
A buyout is a single payment for agreed use of talent or content across a defined term, territory and media, instead of paying separately by market or by use. Centralised visibility helps procurement decide where a global or multi-market buyout makes sense.
What happens when usage rights expire?
Assets should be renewed, extended or withdrawn before the expiry date. We flag upcoming expiries so your team can decide in time, and show which versions and markets are affected.
How do we extend a campaign into new markets or channels?
We check the existing terms for the new territory, media and version. Where they aren’t covered, we flag what needs clearing so your legal or business affairs team can renegotiate before the new versions are produced.
Do you negotiate rights for us?
We mainly manage and track terms agreed by your procurement, legal and production teams. We carry global buyout terms through production and bring market-specific agreements into one process. We are not a law firm and don’t give legal advice.
How do you make sure an asset isn’t used beyond what was agreed?
We keep a central record of terms by market, language and campaign, check it before assets are reused or adapted, and flag where additional clearance is needed.
What consent is needed to use an AI voice?
We only clone a voice with the talent’s documented consent and an agreement covering where, how and for how long the voice can be used. Requirements vary by technology and organisational policy, so we work within your approved legal and procurement frameworks.
Can you work with our existing rights or DAM system?
Yes. We work alongside the rights management, DAM and talent payment systems you already use, and keep version-level records in Adaptria so adapted assets stay linked to their terms.
Get Started
Every beautiful relationship begins with a simple hello.
So let’s chat. It might be the start of something.
Contact us