Corbis Greenlight : rights management for music and celebrities

The Corbis “Rights and music management” department will be turned into an independent enterprise, called Greenlight. Greenlight manages all the rights that are important to an advertising campaign, for example celebrity endorsement, the inclusion of famous music or film clips for commercial campaigns.

GreenLight provides its rights management for advertising campaigns for brands such as Old Spice, Ballantine's and American Family Insurance. They most recently worked with leading advertising agencies in North America, Europe and Asia, including Wieden + Kennedy, Publicis, Element 79 und Young & Rubicam.

For example, Wieden + Kennedy of Portland, Oregon contacted GreenLight to aid them in securing the release of a picture of actress Kim Novak, to be used in an advert for Old Spice Deodorant. The creatives at W+K chanced upon the picture in a book of famous celebrities, and GreenLight were able to secure the rights of the actress’ picture and the unforgettable “Blondes Prefer Gentlemen” for the commercial.

“We knew that this picture was a perfect match for our campaign, and GreenLight sorted out the licensing for us”, says Heather Smith Harvey, Art Buyer c/o Wieden + Kennedy. “Thanks to their support we were able to create a very eye-catching commercial.”

GreenLight also enabled the use of images of John McEnroe, Steve McQueen and other icons for Publicis UK’s Ballantine's Whiskey campaign in Spain and Portugal.