Out-of-Home, TV and Broadcast Usage Rights for Influencer Content

Does a billboard, TV ad or radio spot need a new agreement even if you already have paid-social rights?

Yes. Usage rights cleared for Instagram or TikTok don't automatically cover a billboard, a TV commercial or a radio spot. Offline media typically requires three separate permissions: a usage right to the clip or image itself, an explicit right to the creator's name and likeness, and — if the clip has music — a separate sync licence covering both the composition and the recording. None of the three comes bundled with an agreement that only names social media. See UGC usage rights explained for the four variables that define any usage right before we get into what stacks on top of them once content goes offline.

Three separate permissions — not one

Digital usage rights (organic, paid social, owned channels) really answer one question: can the brand show the clip, and where? Offline media asks three questions at once, and they're typically answered by three different parts of the agreement — or not answered at all, because nobody named them.

Missing one of the three isn't a technicality. It's exactly what a dispute or a takedown request tends to be about.

These three permissions are also a separate question from whether you keep your existing rights at all once a creator deletes the original post — see What Usage Rights Do You Keep If an Influencer Deletes Their Content or Account? for that distinction.

Why "paid social" doesn't stretch to a billboard or a TV ad

The underlying legal point is the same one that already governs usage rights generally: consent is interpreted narrowly. What was explicitly agreed may be used; everything else needs a new agreement. A usage right that names "Meta Ads" and "TikTok Ads" doesn't automatically cover a poster at a bus shelter or a TV spot, no matter how broadly the rest of the clause is written.

Offline placements are also practically different from social channels: a billboard campaign or a TV ad reaches an audience that never chose to follow the creator, typically runs in a defined geographic area or broadcast slot, and often involves a third party — an OOH company, a TV station — that has its own requirement that the right permissions are in place before it will accept the material. That's why this kind of use is commonly reserved for ambassador-level or long-term relationships, where rights are already being negotiated more broadly.

Name and likeness: why a model won a case over in-store signage

On top of the content usage right, a separate question arises whenever the creator's face or name appears in advertising: the right of publicity, or — in Danish law — retten til eget billede. According to the law firm Kromann Reumert's own review of Danish practice, a person generally has the right to control commercial use of their own image — and can prohibit others from using it. The Marketing Act provides additional protection against commercial exploitation of a person's image, and consent has to be read narrowly: what matters isn't only whether consent exists, but exactly what it covers.

Kromann Reumert points to a Danish Supreme Court case as the clearest example: a model, Carina Jensen, had consented to her image appearing in a printed advertising brochure. When the company later used the same image on signage in its own stores — after she had become publicly well known — the Supreme Court found she had not consented to that use, and she was awarded compensation. The case shows exactly the mechanic that governs OOH and TV: consent to one channel (a brochure, an Instagram post) doesn't automatically extend to another (in-store signage, a billboard, a TV ad), even when it's the same image.

Other markets have comparable principles under different names — "right of publicity" across much of the US, "droit à l'image" in France — with different rules on scope and exceptions. Treat it as a standalone permission that needs to be agreed specifically for the offline placement you're actually planning, regardless of which market you operate in.

Music is often the part nobody remembered to clear

If the clip has a soundtrack, a third layer sits on top of the content and likeness rights: music rights. A song typically has two separate rights holders who both need to grant permission — the songwriter or publisher, who owns the composition (melody and lyrics), and the label or artist, who owns the specific recording. Both have to be cleared to use a song in an advertisement; one permission doesn't substitute for the other.

What many brands miss is that music already "ad-cleared" on a platform isn't necessarily cleared off the platform. Meta's own Sound Collection terms are explicit: the audio may be used in content created and distributed on Meta Company Products, and may not be "performed, distributed, made available or otherwise used… separately from the Meta Company Products." TikTok's own help article on its Commercial Music Library similarly describes the library as covering organic content, video ads and branded content — all framed around activity on TikTok itself, not a general licence to take the track off the app. In other words, a background song that's perfectly fine in a TikTok ad isn't automatically cleared for a radio spot or a TV commercial — that needs its own sync licence, or the track needs to be swapped for music specifically cleared for broadcast.

Digital vs. offline rights, side by side

Disclosure rules apply regardless of medium

The ban on hidden advertising isn't a digital-only rule. The Danish Consumer Ombudsman's (Forbrugerombudsmanden) own guidance is explicit: an advertisement must clearly read as an advertisement regardless of its form and the medium it's conveyed through — print media, TV and radio programmes, film and the internet are all named directly, and the rule stems from Section 4 of the Danish Marketing Act. Moving a collaboration from Instagram to a billboard or a TV ad doesn't remove the disclosure requirement — it doesn't disappear because the channel changes. See influencer marketing disclosure rules in Denmark and the EU for the specific requirements.

Decision framework

IF you want to move a well-performing digital asset to a billboard or a TV ad → start the name/likeness and music clearance conversation before you book the media space, not after.

IF the original agreement only names "social media" or "paid social" → assume OOH and broadcast aren't covered. Negotiate an explicit addition.

IF the clip uses a platform's own music library (TikTok's Commercial Music Library, Meta's Sound Collection) → expect to swap it out or clear it separately before the material can run on TV or radio.

IF the creator has become significantly more well known since the agreement was signed → the risk of a dispute like the Carina Jensen case increases, even if the original consent read broadly. Get the new use confirmed in writing.

IF you're unsure whether a placement counts as "offline" → a digital screen in a physical store or airport typically sits in the same category as a billboard, not owned channels.

Hypothetical worked example

The figures below are made up for illustration only — not a real Make Influence customer case, and not a market rate.

A Reel featuring a Danish creator is performing unusually well in paid social, and the brand wants to test the same campaign as posters at 20 bus shelters in Copenhagen plus a 20-second radio spot. The original agreement only covers "paid social, Meta and TikTok, 6 months" — neither offline name/likeness nor the music is mentioned.

The brand contacts the creator to add the missing rights. Because the campaign is already planned and the media space is nearly booked, the brand is negotiating from a weak position: the creator asks for a combined add-on fee equal to roughly half the original booking fee, for the two new permissions (name/likeness for OOH and radio). The background track in the clip is from TikTok's Commercial Music Library and can't be used in the radio spot — the brand instead re-cuts the audio with a royalty-free track specifically cleared for broadcast, adding extra production time to the schedule.

Had the brand instead named "possible future OOH/TV use, priced separately at activation" in the original contract, the negotiation would have started from an agreed framework instead of from zero, and the music choice could have been made at filming instead of afterwards. The point isn't the amount — it's that both delays (negotiation and music) happen because neither permission was named while there was still time.

Common mistakes

• Assuming a "full buyout" or a broad paid-social clause automatically covers OOH and TV. It almost never does.
• Taking a platform's own music off the platform — TikTok's Commercial Music Library and Meta's Sound Collection are both explicitly scoped to use on that platform.
• Not naming OOH and broadcast explicitly in the original contract, even when the possibility is only theoretical at signing — it's cheaper to name it than to negotiate it afterward.
• Underestimating how long music clearance or a new audio cut takes, and booking media space before the permissions are in place.
• Forgetting disclosure because the channel isn't social media — the requirement follows the advertisement, not the platform.

Make Influence's perspective

At Make Influence, OOH, TV and radio use of influencer content are rare requests, and they sit outside our standard paid-social and owned-channel agreements. When a brand wants to take a well-performing asset offline, we recommend treating it as a standalone negotiation directly with the creator — with name/likeness and any music as two separate line items, not an assumed part of an existing agreement. That's both the legally sound approach and, in practice, the one that avoids negotiating under time pressure once the media space is already booked.

FAQ

Does a billboard with an influencer's image always need new permission, even if we already have paid-social rights?

Yes, in the large majority of cases. Consent is interpreted narrowly under Danish practice — see the Carina Jensen case above — so an agreement naming social media doesn't automatically cover a billboard.

Can we use TikTok's or Meta's built-in music in a TV or radio ad?

No. Both platforms' own terms scope the licence to use on the platform itself. Using the audio on TV or radio needs a separate sync licence or a different track cleared for broadcast.

Do disclosure rules apply to a billboard the same way they apply to Instagram?

Yes. The ban on hidden advertising in Denmark's Marketing Act applies regardless of medium — see influencer marketing disclosure rules in Denmark and the EU.

What if the creator has become significantly more famous since the original agreement was signed?

That doesn't change what was actually agreed, but it raises the risk of a dispute if you use the image more broadly than agreed — exactly what the Carina Jensen case was about. Get any new use confirmed in writing, regardless of how broadly the original agreement seemed to read.

Is OOH and TV usage more expensive than digital rights?

There's no fixed multiplier or published rate card. Expect a real premium over digital rights — the placement reaches a wider, non-opt-in audience and often requires third-party sign-off from an OOH vendor or a broadcaster — but the amount is negotiated case by case.

What if the contract already has a broad "name and likeness in advertising" clause?

Check whether the clause names the channels. A clause that only says "marketing" in general, without specifying OOH or broadcast, is likely too vague to hold up in a dispute — see what to put in an influencer contract for how to phrase usage rights and name/likeness from the start.