Recommendedagencies.com is a service provided by The Drum Recommends owned by Carnyx Group Ltd whose registered office is at Mercat Building, 26 Gallowgate, Glasgow G1 5AB.

Registered in Scotland for the purpose of these terms and conditions "we", "our" and "us" refers to The Drum Recommends.

Please review these terms and conditions carefully before using the website. Your use of the website indicates your agreement to be bound by these terms and conditions.

If you don't agree to these Terms, don't use this website. By registering for and/or using the website, our services, any premium service we offer, any platform, other service or information provided as part of the Site or The Drum Recommends services (collectively, "Services"), you agree that you are bound by the terms and conditions of this Agreement, and you represent and warrant that you have the full power, authority and legal capacity to enter into these Terms of Use. If you are using this website or our Services on behalf of a legal entity, you are nevertheless individually bound by these Terms and conditions of Use even if your company has a separate agreement with us.

You agree not to sell or modify the content of recommendedagencies.com. You agree not to reproduce, display, publicly perform, distribute, or otherwise use the content of recommendedagencies.com in any way for any public or commercial purpose, related to products or services that are not those of the Site, in any other manner that is likely to cause confusion among consumers, that disparages or discredits The Drum Recommends or our licensors, that dilutes the strength of The Drum Recommends or our licensor's property, or that otherwise infringes The Drum Recommends intellectual property rights.

Acceptable usage

You must only use the website in accordance with these terms and conditions and, in any event, for lawful and proper purposes which include complying with all applicable laws, regulations and codes of practice within the jurisdiction from which you are accessing this website.

You agree that you will not:

  1. Post, transmit or disseminate any information on or via the website which is or may be harmful, obscene, defamatory or otherwise illegal.
  2. Make use of the website to cause an infringement of the rights of any other individual, company or organisation.
  3. Make any unauthorised, false or fraudulent claims or membership applications
  4. Deface, alter or interfere with the 'look and feel' of the website or our software code.
  5. Perform any action that creates an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on the website or related infrastructure.
  6. Attempt to probe, scan, test the vulnerability of our system or network to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization.
  7. Attempt to obtain unauthorised access to any of our networks.
  8. Use the Account, username, or password of another Registered User.
  9. Allow any third party who is not authorized to do so to use your Account at any time.
  10. Intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information from the Site.
  11. Perform any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on the Site infrastructure, including but not limited to "spam" or other such unsolicited mass e-mail practice.

You agree to notify The Drum Recommends immediately of any unauthorized use of your account or password, or any other breach of security. You may be held liable for losses incurred by The Drum Recommends or any other user of or visitor to the Site due to someone else using your user ID, password or account as a result of your failing to keep your account information secure and confidential.

Please Note that without prejudice to any of our other rights (whether at law or otherwise) we reserve the right to: Cancel your membership without reference to you or disallow you access to our website should we believe (in our discretion) that you are in breach of any of these terms and conditions.

Payments and fees

Should you choose to become a member of The Drum Recommends, you agree to pay the membership fees and any other charges incurred in connection with the membership or service you may decide to purchase while using the Site. These fees (including any applicable taxes) will be accepted by you at the time of purchase, at rates clearly posted and in effect when the charges were incurred. Unless we state in writing otherwise, all fees and charges are non-refundable.

If you sign up for membership, the Service is billed in advance on a yearly or quarterly basis for a fixed 12 month period and is non-refundable. There will be no refunds or credits for partial years of service or refunds for months unused with an open account. In order to treat everyone equally, no exceptions will be made.

We reserve the right to change membership fees, service fees, processing fees or any other fee that may be charged by The Drum Recommends at any time, at the sole discretion of The Drum Recommends and upon reasonable notice posted in advance on the Site. No refunds of fees already paid will be given. If we exercise our right to cancel a membership as provided under these Terms of Service, at any time, we will not refund the membership fee already paid.

Memberships

These are the terms and conditions (“Terms”) that apply to membership of and registration to The Drum Recommends.

In these Terms:

  1. When we talk about your Membership, we mean Agency Membership or Brand Registration, as applicable;
  2. When we talk about “Brand Registration”, this means the registration to The Drum Recommends that we offer to brand owners and other employees or representatives of a brand (who we have collectively referred to as Brand Representatives);
  3. When we talk about “Agency Membership”, this means the paid membership of The Drum Recommends that we offer to agencies;
  4. When we refer to the “Agency Free Plan”, this means the free plan that agencies can register for on The Drum Recommends that we offer to agencies;
  5. When we refer to “The Drum”, “we”, “our”, or “us”, we mean Carnyx Group Ltd trading as The Drum, a company incorporated in Scotland under company number SC093166, whose registered office address is 4th Floor, The Mercat Building, 26 Gallowgate, Glasgow, G1 5AB; and
  6. When we refer to “Member”, “you” or “your”, we mean the agency which, or Brand Representative who, is, or has requested to register, or become, a member of The Drum Recommends.

Registration for the Agency Free Plan

If you are an agency and have registered on The Drum Recommends website for the Agency Free Plan, the full benefits of your registration will be as set out at: https://www.recommendedagencies.com/agency.

As an agency registered on the Agency Free Plan, you will be able to create a private (non-public) profile on The Drum Recommends platform to upload agency information and invite clients to rate your agency. If you no longer wish to be registered with The Drum Recommends and would like your agency's profile page to be taken down, please write to us at: recommends@thedrum.com to let us know.

The below sections of these Terms only apply to Agency Memberships and Brand Registrations, unless expressly stated otherwise.

The Drum Recommends Membership Terms

  1. We are sending you or showing you these Terms because you have applied to be a Member of The Drum Recommends, either through The Drum's website, or by emailing us, or by contacting us otherwise, for instance by calling our sales team
  2. Signing up on The Drum's website

  3. If you apply for an Agency Membership or Brand Registration online, through The Drum Recommends Website, these Terms constitute an offer from us, The Drum, to you, to become a Member on the basis of these Terms.
  4. When you check the box agreeing to these Terms, you will have accepted our offer of Membership on the basis of these Terms, and this is when the contract between you and The Drum comes into force.
  5. Signing up through emailing or contacting The Drum

  6. If you have contacted a member of The Drum's sales team to apply for membership, the email that these Terms are attached to will set out some important details, including your Membership type, the benefits included within your Membership, and, if applicable, your agreed payment plan (“Confirmation Email”).
  7. The Confirmation Email will be sent to you acknowledging your membership on the basis of these Terms.
  8. When you check the box agreeing to these Terms, you will have accepted our offer of Membership on the basis of these Terms, and this is when the contract between you and The Drum comes into force.
  9. Membership terms

  10. If you are applying for the Agency Membership, payment of the Agency Membership Fee, in accordance to your payment plan, is required before you can enjoy any of the benefits of the Agency Membership. For more details about this, please see the Payments section below
  11. As The Drum Recommends is a self-publishing platform, you are responsible for populating and maintaining your agency profile and any associated content, for the duration of your Membership.
  12. Performance metrics such as profile views, article reads, or new business enquiries are based on estimates that we obtain from our system, and we don't give any warranty about the accuracy of these.
  13. These Terms will apply to your Membership at all times.

Payment for the Agency Membership

  1. The Agency Membership is a paid membership, for a 12 month period. The current prices for the Agency Membership (the “Agency Membership Fee”) are available at: https://www.recommendedagencies.com/agency or you can email us at: recommends@thedrum.com to find out more.
  2. Your Confirmation Email will set out the amount of your Agency Membership Fee, along with the payment option you have selected.
  3. You must pay for your Agency Membership Fee using a payment card that is accepted by our payment partner (a “Qualifying Payment Card”).
  4. We will take payment of your Agency Membership Fee annually when your Agency Membership is due to begin or renew, unless you have requested the quarterly payment plan when making applying for Membership, and we have accepted your request.
  5. If you have selected the quarterly payment plan, direct debit payment terms must be agreed, signed and set-up with Gocardless, our Direct Debit provider, and your bank, before any benefits of membership are delivered by The Drum.
  6. Where your Agency Membership Fee is payable annually, you will not be entitled to use or receive any of the benefits under the Agency Membership until we have received payment of the Agency Membership Fee in full.
  7. You are responsible for informing us if your nominated payment details have changed, and we are not responsible for any delay in, or interruption of, your Membership which occurs because we do not hold the correct payment details for you.
  8. Where we have agreed to payment of your Agency Membership Fee by quarterly instalments, if any instalment of your Agency Membership Fee remains unpaid (in whole or in part) for twenty-one (21) days after we notify you in writing that it is payable, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate your Agency Membership. On termination, the balance of your Agency Membership Fee will become immediately due and payable

Renewals and cancellations

Brand Registration

  1. If you have a Brand Registration, your access to The Drum Recommends will continue until cancelled by either you or The Drum.
  2. To cancel your registration, please write to us at recommends@thedrum.com to let us know.
  3. Agency Membership

  4. You cannot cancel your Agency Membership after agreeing to the Terms and Conditions, and completing the initial confirmation process, either through the website or offline.
  5. If you have an Agency Membership, your membership may auto-renew, and details of the automatic renewal process and how to cancel are set out below:
    1. Auto-renewal of an Agency Membership is only available on payments made with a Qualifying Payment Card or direct debit has been set up, and within countries in which Stripe, our payment partner, or Gocardless our Direct Debit provider, permits us to take repeat payments in this way.
    2. The Drum will automatically renew your membership by charging the designated payment card (unless you tell us to use different payment details) on the anniversary of your Agency Membership, (the “Renewal Date”), at the prevailing Agency Membership Fee at the time of the renewal. This will continue until The Drum receives your written notice to cancel your Agency Membership.
    3. If we are unable to take payment for any reason, we will contact you to let you know.
    4. We will send you a renewal notification at 6 weeks and 1 week before your Renewal Date (“Renewal Notification”).
    5. If you wish to terminate your existing Agency Membership, you will need to notify us in writing at least three weeks in advance of your Renewal Date. For example, if the Renewal Date for your Agency Membership is the 1st of April, you will need to notify us in writing no later than 11th of March that you do not want your Agency Membership to renew.
  6. The Drum reserves the right to make any pricing adjustment to the Agency Membership Fee, and amend these Terms at any time.
  7. If we are going to change the Agency Membership Fee, we will write to you let you know (“Fee Notification”).
  8. If you receive a Fee Notification after the date of our Renewal Notification, you will be entitled to cancel your Agency Membership at any time prior to your Renewal Date, and we won't require the usual three weeks' notice.
  9. If you don't cancel by your Renewal Date, we will take payment on or around your Renewal Date, and your Agency Membership will renew for another 12 months.
  10. We will not offer any refunds of fees already paid. If we exercise our right to terminate an Agency Membership as provided under these Terms, at any time, we will not refund any Agency Membership Fee already paid.

The Drum Recommends Awards Terms and Conditions

  1. The Drum Recommends Awards are free to enter for agencies which hold Agency Membership of The Drum Recommends.
  2. You are responsible for generating ratings which are then attributed towards your entry for the Drum Recommends Awards.
  3. Every agency with an Agency Membership which has eligible client ratings, recommended status, and membership within the eligibility dates, will automatically be put forward for consideration.
  4. Eligible ratings cannot be withdrawn from the awards process by the Member.
  5. Awards judging criteria is based upon:
    1. Client ratings;
    2. Spread of service offerings within that category; and
    3. Client comments.
  6. The Drum makes no representations or warranties about who will win an award; this will be dependent upon the judges' deliberations based on the information available to them in relation to each agency which has been entered into the awards.
  7. The judges' decision is final.

The Drum Recommends Rating Policy

This section of the Terms applies to the Agency Membership, Brand Registration, and agencies registered on the Agency Free Plan.

  1. Brands and other customers of agencies can submit ratings on agencies on The Drum Recommends website, and you can find out more information about how to submit ratings on https://www.recommendedagencies.com/rate, or by writing to us at: recommends@thedrum.com.
  2. If you have any queries about the validity or authenticity of any feedback or a rating, either given to your agency or another agency, please contact us at: recommends@thedrum.com to let us know.
  3. We do not tolerate ratings that are misleading, dishonest or biased from either agency or an agency's client, including:
    1. Attempts by the agency to falsely boost its own ratings, scores and reputation including:
      1. Submitting a review for an agency you own/employed by or any business financially linked to the agency.
      2. Impersonating a client to submit a review.
      3. Arranging for any third party to submit positive ratings about the agency.
      4. Offering incentives (e.g. gifts or discounts) to encourage clients to submit positive ratings about the agency.
      5. Asking friends, relatives or anyone to whom you have not provided marketing services in the last two years to submit positive ratings.
      6. Submitting negative ratings about another agency, or arranging for or incentivising any other person to do so
    2. Attempts by the client to falsely damage or boost an agency's reputation including:
      1. Submitting a rating for an agency that you have not worked with in the last 2 years.
      2. Submitting rating scores or commentary which you know to be false.
      3. Submitting a rating for a company you work for or is financially linked to your company.
  4. We use the following criteria to validate each rating:
    1. The email address used to submit the rating must be directly linked to the company providing the rating.
    2. Clients must verify their rating via their email address when submitting a rating.
    3. The person providing the rating must have just one live rating per agency at any one time (ratings can be renewed).
    4. Ratings with abnormally high or abnormally low scores will be checked by a member of our team to validate them.
  5. Our full ratings policy is available on The Drum Recommends website, at: https://www.recommendedagencies.com/ratings-policy.
  6. Our full ratings policy is available on The Drum Recommends website, at: https://www.recommendedagencies.com/ratings-policy.We reserve the right in our absolute discretion to remove any ratings or comments which do not comply with the above. Please note that we do not accept any liability for the ratings or comments submitted by users of the platform or any action or inaction on our part with regards to removing any such ratings or comments.

General Terms and Conditions

This section of the Terms applies to the Agency Membership, Brand Registration, and agencies registered on the Agency Free Plan.

  1. Liability:
    1. Nothing in these Terms shall limit or exclude our liability for: (i) death or personal injury caused its negligence; (ii) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; (iii) any other liabilities which cannot be limited or excluded as a matter of law; or (iv) any losses caused by our wilful default.
    2. Subject to paragraph 1(a) above, we shall have no liability to you whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise, for any indirect or consequential loss arising under or in connection with your Membership or these Terms, and to the fullest extent permissible by law, we will not be liable for: (i) any loss, liability or damage caused by any person other than The Drum or someone acting under The Drum's direct instructions and in accordance with those instructions; (ii) any loss, liability or damage caused by any event or circumstance beyond our reasonable control; (iii) any loss of profits or revenue, loss of anticipated savings or loss of goodwill; or (iv) any unavailability of The Drum Recommends website.
    3. Subject to paragraphs 1(a) and (b) above, our total aggregate liability to you, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, arising under or in connection with your Membership or these Terms shall be limited: (i) in relation to Agency Memberships, to the amount of the Agency Membership Fee that you have paid; or (ii) in relation to Brand Memberships and the Agency Free Plan, to £1,000 (one thousand pounds).
  2. The Drum's rights to suspend or terminate: The Drum reserves the right to suspend or terminate your Membership if you have not complied with these Terms, including if any amounts which are due and payable remain unpaid (in whole or in part) for twenty-one (21) days after we notify you in writing that they are payable.
  3. Changes to these Terms: We'll notify you of any changes to these Terms from time to time, including any variations required as a consequence of any actual or anticipated changes in applicable law.
  4. Severance and waiver: If any part of these Terms is or becomes invalid, illegal or unenforceable, the validity, legality and enforceability of the rest of these Terms will not be affected. Any delay or inaction by us in enforcing these Terms will not constitute a waiver of any of our rights under these Terms, while any waiver by us will only be valid if given in writing.
  5. Governing law and jurisdiction: These Terms are governed by English law, and any disputes arising in connection with them shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
  6. Personal data: Members acknowledge that any personal data that you share with The Drum in connection with your Membership will be processed in accordance with The Drum's Privacy Notice, which is available at: https://www.thedrum.com/privacy.
  7. Force Majeure: We disclaim any liability, to the fullest extent permitted by law, for any delay in performance or non-performance of our obligations under these Terms to the extent that such delay or non-performance is caused by any act, event, non-happening, omission or accident beyond our reasonable control (including without limitation acts of any government, adverse weather, natural disaster, fire, explosion, epidemic, labour dispute including strikes, war, terrorist activity or civil commotion)
  8. No Assignment: Members shall not be entitled to assign their Membership, or any other rights and obligations set out in these Terms, without our prior written consent. Membership cannot be subdivided, shared or distributed with any other person other than the Member's own partners (where the Member is a partnership) and employees.
  9. Contact: Enquiries about your Membership can be sent to us at: recommends@thedrum.com

Changes

The Drum Recommends may from time to time modify/delete or add to the services, features and functions in its sole discretion, without notice to you. We may make changes or what we consider to be improvements to the information, services, products and other materials on this website, or terminate the website, at any time without prior notice. We may also modify these terms and conditions at any time, and such modification shall be effective immediately upon posting of the modified terms and conditions on the website. Accordingly, your continued access or use of the website will be deemed to be your acceptance of the modified terms and conditions.

External links

Recommendedagencies.com may include links to other internet sites. We do not endorse any such websites and we are not responsible for the information, material, products or services contained on or accessible through those websites. Your access and use of such websites remains solely at your own risk. You may only link to our website with our express written permission. We expressly reserve the right to withdraw our consent at any time to a link which in our sole opinion is inappropriate or controversial.

Limitation of liability

Whilst we aim to ensure maintain continuity of service, high quality content and user experience, the nature of the medium means that errors, omissions, interruptions of service and delays may occur at any time. We do not accept any liability arising from any such errors, omissions, interruptions or delays or any ongoing obligation or responsibility to operate our website (or any particular part of it) or to provide the service offered on our website. The specification of this site may vary from time to time without notice.

Disclaimer of warranty

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all implied warranties with regard to the information, services and materials contained on this website. All such information, services and materials are provided "as is" and "as available" without warranty of any kind.

The Drum Recommends is not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of this information. In particular, the data, insights and information herein does not contain any form of advice, recommendation or arrangement and is not intended to be relied upon by users in making (or refraining from making) any specific investments or other decisions. The Drum Recommends reserves the right to make changes to the website at any time and without notice. We are not liable for any damages caused by the information or materials that may be downloaded from the Site.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold us harmless from any liability, loss, claim and expense (including all legal fees) related to your misuse of the website or your breach of these terms and conditions. You must notify us immediately if anyone makes or threatens to make any claim against you relating to your use of this site.

Information on our website supplied by you

Whilst we make every effort to ensure that the information on our website is accurate and complete, we are not able to check the accuracy or completeness of that information. We do not accept any liability arising from any inaccuracy or omission in any of the information on our site or any liability in respect of information on this site supplied by you, any other site user or any other person.

Accounts

To become a Registered User and to access Services you must register for an Account. You agree to provide true, accurate and complete information as prompted by the registration form and all forms you access on the Site, and to update this information to maintain its truthfulness, accuracy and completeness.

During registration, you will be asked to choose a username and password for the Account. As a Registered User, you agree and you are entirely responsible to safeguard and maintain the confidentiality of the username and password you use to access this Site. You authorize The Drum Recommends to assume that any person using the Site with your username and password is you or is authorized to act for you. You agree to notify us immediately if you suspect any unauthorized use of the Account.

At the point of purchase of a membership, an agreed and set number of licenses is allocated to the purchasing entity. Licenses can be allocated to individuals over time, however, all licenses are activated at the time of purchase, not at time of allocation / first use by account holders.

You will not transfer, assign or delegate your rights or obligations (including your Account) under these Terms of Service to anyone without the express written permission of The Drum Recommends, and any attempt to do so will be null and void. The Drum Recommends may assign these Terms of Service in its sole discretion.

To create a The Drum Recommends Agency Page, the Agency must be a company or legal entity that meets The Drum Recommends's minimum requirements and you must have the authority to create the Agency Page on behalf of the Agency.

Content

You understand that all information, data, text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, advertisements, messages or other materials submitted, posted or displayed by You on or through the Website ("User Content") is the sole responsibility of the person from which such User Content originated. The Drum Recommends claims no ownership or control over any User Content. You or a third party licensor, as appropriate, retain all patent, trademark and copyright to any User Content You submit, post or display on or through The Drum Recommends and You are responsible for protecting those rights, as appropriate.

By submitting, posting or displaying User Content on or through The Drum Recommends, You grant The Drum Recommends a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt, distribute and publish such User Content through The Drum Recommends. In addition, by submitting, posting or displaying User Content which is intended to be available to the general public, You grant The Drum Recommends a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt, distribute and publish such User Content for the purpose of promoting The Drum Recommends Services. The Drum Recommends will discontinue this licensed use within a commercially reasonable period after such User Content is removed from the Site. The Drum Recommends reserves the right to refuse to accept, post, display or transmit any User Content in its sole discretion.

You also represent and confirm that you have the right to grant, or that the holder of any rights has completely and effectively waived all such rights and validly and irrevocably granted to you the right to grant, the license stated above. If you post User Content in any public area of the Website, you also permit any user to access, display, view, store and reproduce such content for personal use. Subject to the foregoing, the owner of such content placed on the Website retains any and all rights that may exist in such User Content.

Miscellaneous

The Drum Recommends, and Recommendedagencies.com and logo(s) are registered trademarks of Carnyx Group Ltd.

These terms and conditions contain all the terms of your agreement with us relating to your use of our website. No other written or oral statement (including statements in any brochure or promotional literature published by us) will be incorporated. To view our privacy statement, visit recommendedagencies.com.

The Drum Recommends reserves the right to change the terms of this Agreement or to modify any feature of the Site or service. By continuing to use the Site after the posting of notices regarding such changes, you agree to be bound by such changes.

You are responsible for creation, storage, and backup of your business records. These Terms of Service and any registration for or subsequent use of this Site will not be construed as creating any responsibility on the part of The Drum Recommends to store, backup, retain, or grant access to any information or data for any period.

Use of recommendedagencies.com, any downloaded material from it and the operation of these terms and conditions shall be governed by, construed and interpreted in accordance with the laws of Scotland and you agree to submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the Scottish Courts. We reserve the right to bring proceedings in the Courts of the country of your residence.

If any provision of these terms and conditions is held to be invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such invalidity shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions, which shall remain in full force and effect. Nothing in these terms and conditions shall create a partnership or agency agreement between us.

Any personal information you supply will be used in accordance with the UK Data Protection Act 2018. For more information contact us on +44 (0) 141 428 4877 or visit www.recommendedagencies.com.