Advertising & Marketing

We help your marketing make an impact.

We help all kinds of businesses and not-for-profits to make their mark with marketing. But helping charities get to grips with advertising and charity law is a real strength for us.  If you’re setting up text donations, grappling with gift aid or negotiating GDPR, we can help.

How we help

Our practical, commercial advice helps you build successful marketing campaigns across all media, while following all the relevant UK and EU legislation. We advise charities on the best ways to set up and manage sponsorship and fundraising campaigns – including handling contracts with creative agencies. We help charities and promoters run competitions and lotteries that tick all the regulatory boxes. We also make sure fundraisers are up to speed on the ins and outs of text donations, gift aid and data protection.

If your campaign runs into trouble, our Dispute Resolution team will step in. (We’ve got a great track record of defending clients facing trading standards prosecutions.)

We can also advise you on:

  • Database issues
  • IP licences
  • Comparative advertising
  • Sales promotions, including terms and conditions and charity linked promotions
  • Trading standards
  • Electronic marketing, including the use of cookies

“They are a friendly and responsive team, at all levels, who provide very good advice.”

Advertising & Marketing, Chambers 2025

“Rupert Earle and the team have a wealth of advertising regulatory experience, which they consistently bring to bear in a straightforward and clear manner.”

Advertising & Marketing, Chambers 2025

“They are a creative and engaged team who listen to clients’ needs. Advice is provided at partner level, supported by an able junior team. They are extremely responsive and time-sensitive.”

Advertising & Marketing, Chambers 2025

“The firm has an unparalleled ability to handle complex and sophisticated matters on behalf of my organisation. We feel we’re getting the best advice for a reasonable and fair cost.”

Advertising & Marketing, Chambers 2025

“The team are always on hand and have serious breadth and depth of knowledge.”

Advertising & Marketing, Chambers 2024

“The highly experienced team provides consistently high-quality and wise advice.”

Advertising & Marketing, Chambers 2024

“Bates Wells are very adept at providing clear, concise, tailored advice which benefits from an exceptional understanding of the advertising industry.”

Advertising & Marketing, Chambers 2024

“There is excellent partner interaction and appropriate delegation to very knowledgeable team members who interact exceedingly well with clients.”

Advertising & Marketing, Chambers 2024
Meet our team
You May Also Be Interested In

Briefing for Charities & Social Enterprises | 19 May

Our weekly roundup of news and updates from across the sector. To help you navigate this week’s content, the links below will take you straight to content by topic. Charity Commission Updated CC28 Guidance The Charity Commission says it has updated its guidance Sales, leases, transfers or mortgages: what trustees need to know about disposing …
Read more

UK creative visas: New challenges for the festival season

As festival season nears, ongoing concerns persist about immigration rules for visiting artists – the UK’s status as a festival hub relies on attracting leading creative talent. Broader visa challenges facing creatives planning to perform or work in the UK this summer were highlighted when Kanye West, known legally as Ye, was refused an Electronic …
Read more

Chetal Patel and Smruti Jeyanandhan contribute to call for evidence on how the UK’s immigration system could best be used to attract global talent

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) is currently reviewing how the UK’s immigration system could best be used to attract global talent. Their consultation included a call for evidence which our Immigration Partners submitted last week, Chetal Patel commenting on the Global Talent visa route and Smruti Jeyanandhan providing commentary on the Innovator Founder route. On …
Read more

DCMS commits to review exclusion of national statutory museums and galleries from “ex gratia” regime

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has now confirmed that it will review its decision to exclude sixteen statutory national museums and galleries from the commencement of the “ex gratia” powers in the Charities Act 2022 – and that it will do so by February 2027. The move comes against the backdrop of …
Read more

The Pathway to a UK Global Talent Visa for Award-Winning and Nominated Creatives

How Industry Recognition Opens Doors for Film, TV, and Animation Professionals The start of the year brings a flurry of prestigious events in the film and television industry: hot on the heels of the Golden Globes, the race for predictions is now in full swing and we’re seeing a huge amount of attention on international …
Read more