A digital display campaign by eBay France reduced its carbon emissions by the equivalent of 16,000 kilometers driven by a car, or six flights from London to Madrid, compared with similar campaigns, a case study has found.
The study, conducted with WPP media arm GroupM, adtech company PubMatic and adaptive streaming platform SeenThis, found that the eBay campaign successfully minimised carbon emissions by 2.09 tonnes through reducing the number of intermediaries in its digital supply chain.
According to Statista, the average digital ad campaign releases 5.4 tonnes of carbon. For comparison, the average person’s annual carbon footprint is around four tonnes.
“Not only have we minimised carbon emissions, view-through rate and viewability also increased and consistently passed benchmarks,” said GroupM Nexus France programmatic account manager Alexandre Chanthavong.
Abdel Absi, associate director of advertiser solutions at PubMatic France, explained: “Fewer intermediaries and partner integrations equate to fewer carbon emissions and a more sustainable inventory source.”
The study illustrates how a campaign is able to make a significant dent in emissions without sacrificing performance metrics.
Analysis: Finding efficiencies in the supply chain
Currently, carbon emissions from the ad industry outpace emissions from the global aviation sector. This is in part due to the high energy costs associated with the digital ad supply chain, which can suffer from a high degree of inefficiencies.
According to the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), more than 80% of the ad industry’s carbon emissions are associated with TV, digital and OOH campaigns.
Advertisers are increasingly tasking their media agencies with investigating their entire supply chain and help to measure carbon emissions.
New sustainability framework moves us closer to standardised measurement
As such, GARM and Ad Net Zero’s first iteration of its Global Media Sustainability Framework, released during Cannes Lions in June, now provides formulas to help advertisers calculate the emissions associated with campaigns in those channels.
Other carbon measurement tools, such as that from Good-Loop, have been updated recently to align with GARM’s new framework.
In a conversation with The Media Leader, Good-Loop chief technology officer Will Luttrell said: “Carbon measurement is kind of a backdoor way to make your buying paths more cost-efficient, even when other methods have failed. Green overlaps with low ad clutter, which connects to metrics like attention and brand lift. It’s so closely aligned with quality.”
Good-Loop gives publishers free access to new GARM-aligned tool
