The Hidden Cost of Unreleased Images

You’ve planned the campaign, briefed the creative team, commissioned the photography and finally landed the perfect set of images. They’re authentic, emotion filled, and capture your brand beautifully. Then, just before launch, someone raises a question: “Do we actually have the rights and releases to use that image?”

It’s a question that can stop a marketing campaign in its tracks.

From small tourism teams to global brands, image rights compliance is one of the most overlooked areas of marketing. Many assume that if they’ve paid for photography - or if a creator tags them online - they automatically have the right to use the content. But that’s not always the case.

The reality is that an unreleased image - one without proper consent or usage rights - can cost an organisation thousands in legal fees, damage reputations overnight, and even force the withdrawal of entire campaigns.

In an age of rapid content creation and constant sharing, it’s never been more important to get image rights right.

An unreleased image is any photo or video featuring identifiable people, private property, or trademarks where the creator or organisation using it does not hold explicit permission, or cannot prove it.

Even if you hired a photographer or received the file legitimately, you may not own the usage rights. The distinction lies in consent and documentation.

• Model Release – Written consent from an identifiable person appearing in an image.
• Property Release – Permission from a property owner when private spaces, artworks, or recognisable locations appear.
• Event Release – Consent from participants, attendees, or staff captured at an event or gathering.

Without these in place, that “perfect” shot could legally or ethically be unusable.

An unreleased image can trigger copyright infringement or privacy violations under laws including the UK GDPR.

Even minor disputes can be expensive once legal teams get involved. Add in the cost of recalling or reprinting materials, and a single oversight can escalate into a pricey problem.

Public backlash spreads fast. A single social post accusing a brand of using someone’s image without consent can undo months of goodwill.

For tourism brands or organisations built on trust, the impact can be severe.

Campaigns get paused, assets pulled, and deadlines missed while teams chase permissions. It’s rarely factored in, but campaign plans and content calendars operating to tight schedules can easily become way more stressful than they should be.

We’ve all been guilty of these typical pitfalls. Hands up if you’ve done any of the following:

• Reusing old photography when original releases are missing.

• Assuming paid photography equals ownership.

• Sharing event photos without attendee consent.

• Reposting influencer or UGC content without written permission.

• Storing and copying assets across multiple drives with no central record.

These mistakes happen because marketing moves fast, while rights management is slow and tedious. And anyway, nobody is really THAT bothered, right?

Today’s marketing teams juggle commissioned photography, UGC, influencers, AI tools, and international contributors. Each asset carries different rights, licences, and consent levels.

AI and automation introduce new grey areas: Who owns AI-enhanced visuals? What happens if they’re trained on copyrighted content? The legal framework is still evolving, but the brand risk is real.

Modern media needs modern management systems, manual tracking simply isn’t going to cut it for much longer.

Compliance doesn’t have to mean red tape. In fact, it provides the foundation from which creativity can emerge and flourish.

When teams know every asset is cleared for use, they can focus on storytelling instead of second-guessing rights. Proper systems turn compliance from a bottleneck into a creative enabler.

“Freedom comes from knowing you’re covered.”

imageRelease makes it simple to collect, track, and store image rights and releases in one place.

Rather than juggling paper forms and spreadsheets, your team can:

• Request and capture releases ahead of shoot day

• See which assets are cleared for use

• View who signed off and when

• Track expiry dates and restrictions

• Instantly verify compliance before publishing
  
  

That clarity protects your brand and saves hours of admin, this frees up your creative team to move faster, with confidence.

• Do you know where each image came from?
• Can you prove consent for everyone and everything shown in the image?
• Are licences still valid and documented?
• Is release data stored centrally in one accessible system?
• Do you have a repeatable process for collecting new releases?

Don’t worry if you answered “no” to any of these. Start now, get the essentials in place and begin defining and improving your processes. It doesn’t happen overnight, but the longer you wait the harder it becomes.

Using unreleased images isn’t just a legal risk - it’s a creative and reputational one. But compliance doesn’t have to be complicated or daunting.

With the right system, you can protect your organisation and empower your team to create freely.

imageRelease builds compliance into your workflow, giving you peace of mind that every image is cleared, compliant, and ready to travel further.

Protect your brand - discover how imageRelease makes image rights compliance effortless.