Set one legal framework for ongoing marketing engagements

A master services agreement is useful when your agency works with the same client across multiple campaigns, retainers or service lines. Rather than renegotiating the core legal terms each time, you set the main rules once and then add project-specific details in a scope, schedule or statement of work. That can make onboarding cleaner and reduce repeated debate about payment terms, ownership, approvals and liability wording. It is especially helpful for agencies offering a mix of strategy, creative, media, SEO, social or campaign management under one broader commercial relationship.

It usually sets the baseline legal terms for the relationship, including how new work is authorised, how fees are charged, when invoices are due, who approves deliverables, and what happens if the scope changes mid-project. It can also deal with ad spend authority, use of subcontractors, access to client accounts, confidentiality, ownership or licensing of creative outputs, and how either side can end the arrangement. For agencies, these points matter because the commercial deal often evolves over time, and the agreement needs to support that without rewriting the whole contract for every campaign.

Important details include whether you work on retainers, fixed-fee campaigns, hourly work or a mix of all three, and whether you provide strategy, content, paid media, SEO, email, design or production services. We also look at who controls ad accounts, whether spend is prepaid or reimbursed, how approvals are recorded, whether subcontractors are involved, and what rights the client needs in the final work. If your agency handles mailing lists, analytics access or customer information, the legal position depends on the way the business handles information in practice, not just the contract wording.

A generic template may be too broad in some areas and too thin in others. Many templates do not properly deal with practical agency issues such as delayed client approvals, campaign dependencies, platform account ownership, ad spend overruns, third-party tools, or the difference between background IP and project deliverables. They also may not fit the way your proposals and statements of work are actually issued. A tailored master agreement is usually more useful when you want one document to support repeat engagements and different service lines, rather than a one-off contract for a single project.

The fixed-fee is for the master services agreement itself. If you also need a separate statement of work template, negotiation support with a client, or detailed advice on a live compliance issue, that may require additional work and separate scoping. The same applies if your client has sent its own contract and wants a mark-up or negotiation process. This page is intentionally narrower than broader advisory work, so the deliverable is the core MSA document rather than ongoing representation or management of the whole contracting process.

Submit an enquiry on this page or click 'Get started'. One of our legal consultants will review it within 1 business day and get in touch to understand what you need.

Your consultant will then email you a fixed-fee quote setting out the cost, scope and timing. If you're happy with it, you can accept the quote and sign our engagement letter online.

Once you've accepted, one of our Australian-qualified lawyers will work with you to complete your project. They'll contact you by email or phone if they need anything.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Marketing Agency Master Services Agreement service, pricing starts from $2,000.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We work online, so we can help wherever you are in New Zealand. Our team works remotely, mainly from Australia.

Your work is done by our Australian-qualified lawyers, who hold Australian practising certificates and specialise in business law. None of them are New Zealand lawyers or hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

Sprintlaw NZ Limited is a legal consultancy, not a law firm, and is not regulated by the New Zealand Law Society. We don't act in court or tribunal matters, conveyancing (including leases and business sales) or other reserved areas of work. Communications with Sprintlaw are unlikely to be protected by legal professional privilege. We still keep everything confidential under our engagement letter.