By Maral Kilejian, Haynes and Boone, LLP

In many organizations, “legal” — whether the in‑house legal department, outside counsel, or compliance personnel — is often viewed as a force that stifles creativity.

As a result, marketing teams are not always eager to run their big, bold, and innovative ideas past legal. Legal teams, however, with a mandate to protect not only the franchisor but also the reputation and integrity of the franchise system as a whole, generally share a different perspective. Rather than curbing creativity, legal typically seeks to collaborate with marketing to preserve creative vision to the greatest extent possible while identifying and minimizing risk before potential issues arise. Although it may not always feel that way in practice, both teams ultimately have aligned interests — and when they work together, they play a critical role in helping a franchise system thrive.

Licensing deals, influencer programs, sponsorships, giveaways and contests, commercial co-ventures, loyalty rewards programs, and other advertising and promotional tools can be quite powerful. If you’re a brand with an incredible value proposition for consumers, and you want to get the message out, marketing may want to craft and use advertising claims that highlight, for example, lower priced offerings. In a franchise system, though, where franchisees have more flexibility over pricing than a wholly corporate-owned system, the legal hurdles to crafting and using those types of advertising claims come with unique challenges. Challenges that legal can help with.

This article explores practical ways in which marketing and legal teams can work together more effectively to support shared business objectives, enabling creative, impactful marketing initiatives while maintaining appropriate legal and brand protections across the franchise system.

  1. Get Legal Involved Early in Campaign Planning

One of the most effective ways to minimize both marketing-side panic and legal risk is to get legal involved early in the planning of a marketing initiative. By ensuring that legal has a chance to review the promotion at the concept stage, and each stage throughout, large structural issues and high and medium risk areas can be identified and addressed early on in the process.

Also consider that different types of marketing initiatives, such as sweepstakes and contests and commercial co-venture promotions (e.g., “buy this product and we’ll donate $1 to a named charity”), may, depending on their structure, geographic scope, or other factors, trigger state registration and, in some cases, surety bond requirements. These filings are subject to deadlines and, in certain circumstances, also require that information and data be gathered throughout the promotion for post-filing requirements. Legal, however, can help the marketing department structure promotions to meet applicable filing deadlines and requirements, and, in some cases, avoid them altogether. This is significantly more effective when legal is consulted earlier rather than later in the planning and implementation process.

High‑cost, comparative, disruptive, and aggressive campaigns are particularly susceptible to legal guardrails, and the earlier legal can help guide marketing through the higher‑risk areas of these types of promotions, the more efficiently creative objectives can be achieved without exposing the brand or system to unnecessary liability.

  1. Legal May Be Able to Help Develop Standard Promotion Playbooks

There may be certain areas where legal can help prepare standardized processes and documents for the implementation and administration of promotions or marketing initiatives.  Developing standard promotion playbooks can help reduce inconsistencies, streamline implementation timelines, and provide marketing teams with clear, repeatable guidance.

One area that is easily standardized, for example, is giveaways conducted strictly through social media, with specific entry methods, for low-value prizes. Legal can help provide a standard set of official rules, short form rules, disclosure and pricing guidelines, and other guidance related to the type of promotion the brand would like to run. Coupons and discounts and loyalty program initiatives, if somewhat repetitive in nature, may also benefit from a standardized playbook. Finally, certain standardized influencer contracts and content templates can enable marketing teams to begin with pre-approved, compliant frameworks that reduce drafting time and legal review cycles. Over time, this approach allows marketing teams to move more quickly and confidently while ensuring promotions remain consistent, scalable, and aligned with applicable legal and brand standards across the franchise system.

Legal can also help by clearly outlining what is generally permitted, what requires prior legal approval, which types of promotions may warrant longer or shorter review timelines, and what activities may be prohibited system‑wide. With this framework in place, marketing teams can more effectively self‑screen concepts before escalating them to legal, improving efficiency while maintaining appropriate risk controls.

  1. Training for Marketing and Operations Teams

Most marketing professionals do not receive formal legal training as part of their education and instead develop their understanding of legal considerations organically through experience and day‑to‑day collaboration with legal teams. Moreover, the advertising and promotional legal landscape is an incredibly fast-moving and highly dynamic area of law. As a result, targeted training for marketing and operations teams can play a critical role in transforming compliance from a purely legal function into a shared organizational discipline.

Legal teams can support this effort by conducting plain‑English training sessions that focus on the types of advertising and marketing initiatives and campaigns most relevant to their system.  These training sessions can arm both marketing and operational personnel for how to discuss marketing initiatives with franchises, can provide personnel with a better understanding of the risks and why it’s so important to work collaboratively with legal, to provide a base of knowledge on which they can draw on every day.

Training programs can be even more effective when provided on a recurring basis. This can help ensure that new hires are receiving the same important information, that changing laws or regulatory focus are highlighted, and new marketing initiatives and channels are addressed.

Conclusion

At their core, legal and marketing teams are working toward the same goal: strengthening the franchise brand while enabling sustainable growth. While their perspectives and day‑to‑day responsibilities may differ, both functions play a critical role in protecting the value of the system, supporting franchisees, and building consumer trust. When legal is viewed not as a roadblock, but as a strategic partner early in the creative process, marketing gains the ability to pursue bold, effective campaigns with greater confidence and fewer last‑minute disruptions.

By involving legal early, developing standardized promotion playbooks, and investing in ongoing, practical training for marketing and operations teams, franchise systems can move away from a reactive compliance model and toward a collaborative, proactive approach. This alignment allows creative ideas to be refined rather than rejected, risks to be addressed before they escalate, and promotions to be deployed more efficiently across the system. Ultimately, when legal and marketing work in concert — each respecting the expertise of the other — the result is not only better compliance, but stronger campaigns, clearer communication with franchisees, and a more resilient and trusted brand.

Maral Kilejian is partner at Haynes and Boone, LLP. For more information about IFA supplier member Haynes and Boone, LLP, please visit franchise.org/suppliers/haynes-and-boone-llp/.

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