Start with the result you need. For search visibility and earned coverage, talk to Digital Third Coast; for B2B pipeline and PR, Walker Sands; for consumer creative, SCC, C-K or Laughlin Constable; for media buying, Kelly Scott Madison or Lever Interactive; and for regulated or multi-location brands, Fusion92. Ask each finalist which people will actually work on your account, how it reports results, and whether the ad accounts, content and design files will belong to your company, and get any use of a real person’s image, voice or AI likeness cleared in writing, as Illinois law requires.
Can an agency use AI to recreate a person’s voice or face in an Illinois ad?
Only with permission. Illinois’ Right of Publicity Act already required prior written consent before anyone’s identity is used for commercial purposes, and a 2024 amendment extended it to digital replicas, meaning new AI-made versions of a person’s voice, image or likeness, and barred knowingly distributing works that contain an unauthorized replica, with exemptions for news, sports, politics, commentary, satire and parody. A separate law in effect since August 2024, the Digital Voice and Likeness Protection Act, voids contract terms that let a digital replica replace work a person would have performed in person when the contract does not describe the intended uses and the person had neither a lawyer nor a union negotiating for them; a 2026 amendment applies it to performances recorded from January 1, 2026, and requires a reasonably specific description of those uses.
What are the rules for text-message marketing?
Under the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, marketing texts sent with an autodialer need the recipient’s prior express written consent, and each violation can cost $500, or up to $1,500 if it was willful or knowing. Since April 11, 2025, consumers can revoke consent by any reasonable means, replies such as “stop,” “quit,” “cancel” or “unsubscribe” always count, and senders must honor them within 10 business days. The FCC’s stricter one-to-one consent rule for lead generators was struck down by a federal appeals court in January 2025, and a new FCC rule taking effect on November 25, 2026, lets senders treat a revocation aimed at one category of informational messages as covering only that category.
How should we judge an agency’s results?
Agree on a baseline before work starts and measure in business terms: cost per qualified lead or sale, revenue or pipeline the work influenced, and visibility for the searches that actually bring in customers, rather than impressions or rankings for vanity keywords. Make sure you can see the raw data in your own ad, analytics and CRM accounts instead of relying only on the agency’s reports, and set a review point, often after three to six months, to decide whether to scale, adjust or stop.
