Two Logos, One Leaflet: The One-Page Deal That Stops a Shared Drop Going Sour

You know the moment. You're three coffees into a Tuesday catch-up with the owner of the bike shop two doors down, and someone says the words: "We should do a leaflet together." It sounds brilliant. Half the cost, double the reach, a bit of local solidarity, and a nice line for the parish newsletter.

Then the box of 5,000 A5s arrives, and the awkwardness starts. One of you has paid the invoice. One of you has done all the door drops. One of you thinks the phone number on the back belongs to them. Nobody wrote any of it down, because at the time it felt like asking a mate to sign a form.

It doesn't have to be like that. What you need isn't a legal document — it's a single page, agreed before the designer opens Canva. Something you can both point at six weeks later when memory gets creative.

Start with the point of the thing

Before money or logos, agree in one sentence what this leaflet is for. "Drive bookings for the autumn service offer" and "get our name in front of 5,000 homes in the north side of town" are different jobs. So are "fill a quiet Tuesday" and "launch the new unit." Put the actual purpose at the top of your page. If you can't agree on it, you've saved yourself the printing bill.

Who pays for what — including the boring bits

Split the invoice 50/50 if that's what you've agreed, but be specific about what the invoice covers. Design, print, delivery, envelope stuffing, a paid boost on the local Facebook page, the ad in the free paper — these are all separate things. One of you might assume design is included because "you know someone." The other might be invoicing a freelancer on Friday.

Write it as a short table: item, cost, who pays, when. If someone is contributing time instead of cash — say, three evenings of door drops — value it. Not for tax, just for fairness. Otherwise one side's "free" labour quietly becomes a lever in January.

Also agree who holds the artwork file, and whether either of you can reuse it. Nobody wants to find their logo on a competitor's flyer six months later.

Logo politics: size, order, and the small print

This is where most friendly co-brands go wrong. Put it in writing: whose logo is on the left, whether they're the same size, what font the business names use, and what the strapline is. If one of you is a member of a trade body or has an accreditation mark, check whether you're actually allowed to put it on a joint leaflet. Some aren't.

And check the small print on both sides. Insurance lines, guarantee wording, prices — anything that could come back to bite you. A leaflet is advertising, and the ASA doesn't care that it was "just a local thing."

The enquiry question: whose lead is it?

This is the one people forget, and it's the one that causes the real fallout. If a household rings the number on the flyer, whose customer is that? If someone fills in a form on the shared landing page, who calls them back first?

Keep it simple and fair:

• Enquiries about your service go to you; about theirs, to them.
• Any genuinely joint enquiry gets a named first contact within 48 hours.
• Whoever speaks to them first logs it, so you both know.
• No reselling the list, no adding people to a newsletter they didn't ask for.

One more thing, because it's a UK matter: if you're collecting names and numbers, even on a clipboard, you're processing personal data. Keep the ICO's rules in mind, share only what's needed, and don't hang onto a list you can't justify.

Splitting the legwork, not just the money

Printing is the easy bit. Distribution is where the effort hides. Decide who covers which streets, and by when. If one of you is doing 80% of the walking, that should be reflected in the money or in the next round. Write down the actual postcodes or areas so there's no "I thought you had the estate" moment.

Agree a deadline for delivery and what happens if the weather, a stock issue, or a busy week gets in the way. A two-week window is realistic. "Sometime in November" isn't.

A review date and a clean exit

Put a date in the diary four to six weeks after the drop to look at what came in. Not a formal board meeting — a coffee and a count. If it worked, you've got a case for round two. If it didn't, you've got a friendly reason to stop.

And build in a get-out. Either side can end the arrangement with, say, two weeks' notice, as long as outstanding costs are settled and any printed stock is dealt with. Decide now who keeps the leftovers, and whether they can be used again. That one line saves a lot of passive-aggressive emails in February.

The one-page checklist

Adapt this, print it, sign it, stick it in a drawer:

1. Purpose of the leaflet, in one sentence.
2. Total budget, broken down by item, with who pays what.
3. Value of any time contributed instead of cash.
4. Logo placement, size, order and approved wording.
5. Who owns the artwork and whether it can be reused.
6. Which enquiries go to whom, and the first-contact rule.
7. How data is collected, stored and shared.
8. Distribution areas and deadlines for each side.
9. Review date after the drop.
10. Notice period to exit, and what happens to leftover stock.

None of this is heavy. It's a page. But it's the difference between a co-marketing arrangement that builds a relationship and one that burns a bridge over 5,000 bits of glossy paper.

Print the leaflet. Not the resentment.