Keeping sustainability on the Croisette
Opinion – Cannes Lions preview
Mobsta is ensuring sustainability remains part of the Cannes Lions conversation by hosting a roundtable to explore how it can transition from a series of commitments to influencing everyday media planning and investment decisions.
A walk along the Croisette during Cannes Lions this year is likely to leave you unable to avoid speaking to people about AI. Whether they’re speaking from a stage, at a beach activation, during a private meeting, or late at night, the industry is focusing on the opportunities AI presents for creativity, planning, measurement, and growth. And understandably so. The technology is advancing rapidly, and each organisation is attempting to determine what it means to their future.
However, when new priorities emerge, old priorities can fall out of view. Sustainability is one example of an area which has not gone away as a high-visibility business issue. Consumers, employees, and society at large all continue to see it as a pressing issue. Based on where the industry was approximately three to four years ago, I would say it is reasonable to conclude that sustainability does not occupy the same level of priority in terms of the industry’s focus as it once did, and we’re seeing this at Cannes Lions too.
This is understandable. In addition to economic uncertainty and changes in consumer behaviours, organisations are experiencing increased operating pressures and rapid technological advancements. Businesses tend to prioritise issues that appear most immediate when budget constraints are imposed, and when multiple competing priorities exist.
The risk here is that organisations treat sustainability as something everyone in the industry believes is important, yet collectively treat it as someone else’s problem. While this isn’t due to companies disagreeing with the goal of achieving sustainability, the focus has simply moved onto other areas.
The media industry is uniquely positioned to influence cultural behaviour, direct billions of pounds in annual marketing spend, and significantly affect public opinion. Media industry decisions made by brands, agencies, publishers, platforms and technology companies ripple outward beyond campaign executions. Due to this degree of influence, the media industry should be held accountable.
Therefore, the real question here isn’t whether sustainability should continue to be included in the media industry’s agenda. Rather, whether the media industry can afford not to include sustainability on its agenda.
The false choice between innovation and responsibility
There are several reasons it has been challenging to keep sustainability a top priority in the media industry. Sustainability has often been portrayed as a separate conversation. There are innovation conversations, commercial conversations, and technology ones. And then there are conversations related to sustainability. Reality dictates that these types of conversations are increasingly intertwined.
Many of the decisions that will ultimately define the media industry’s future direction will also shape its environmental footprint. The way campaigns are created. Where investments are allocated. With whom partnerships are formed. How technology is implemented. How media effectiveness is assessed. These are not isolated sustainability-related decisions, but business decisions.
For the media industry to ensure that environmental concerns become an integral component of these conversations rather than conversational tangents will be key to determining whether it successfully implements sustainable practices throughout its operations. This will be especially pertinent as AI begins reshaping advertising.
Currently, much of the discussion surrounding AI is centred on enhancing efficiency, automating processes, and optimising productivity. All valid areas of focus. However, innovation should not solely be evaluated from a strictly commercial standpoint.
As media organisations implement new technologies and develop new approaches to conducting business, there is a great deal of opportunity to consider the broader implications of developing an environmentally friendly industry. Success should not require organisations to choose between demonstrating commercial viability and responsible decision-making.
Those who recognise that long-term success involves pursuing both commercial and environmental goals will thrive.
Moving beyond commitments and towards action
The media industry has no shortage of sustainability commitments. In fact, many organisations in the advertising space have issued statements committing to achieving certain environmental objectives, initiated various projects to enhance environmental performance, and devoted considerable resources to creating more environmentally conscious business practices.
Much of this commitment to improve environmental performance merits praise. However, translating ambition into daily actions will prove a greater challenge than documenting it.
Sustainability is often discussed from a high-level strategic perspective; however, it can seem remote from the tactical decisions that form the foundation of campaigns day in and day out. This means sustainability is addressed during quarterly reviews rather than as an ongoing consideration in normal business practices. This is where subsequent phases of progress will stem from. Not from grander commitments but from integrating sustainability into everyday operational practices of how media functions.
Organisations making the greatest progress in environmental performance are those that treat environmental responsibility as part of regular planning, investment, and partnering activities, rather than as an additional project or program.
They are asking fundamentally different questions: how can media spending contribute positively to outcomes (beyond commercially viable ones)? What role do planning frameworks play in incorporating environmental considerations into plans without diminishing campaign effectiveness? How can brands, agencies, publishers and technology partners work together more effectively to produce meaningful environmental benefits?
These are concrete business questions that will become increasingly central to client expectations, talent management and attraction, and the maintenance of long-term competitive advantage.
Why Cannes still matters
Some may suggest that Cannes Lions isn’t where these kinds of conversations belong because it revolves around creativity, innovation and commercial opportunity.
This year, as expected, AI will clearly dominate a large portion of the agendas. This is exactly why sustainability needs to remain on the agenda at Cannes Lions.
It’s one of only two events per year where senior leadership from around the globe gather under one roof. The themes discussed during conversations along the Croisette will frequently dictate organisational priorities long after the festival.
If sustainability fades entirely from these conversations, it could signal to stakeholders that environmental responsibility ranks below future-oriented considerations in the media industry’s future directions. It doesn’t.
The future of advertising will be influenced by technology, AI, new forms of intelligence, automation, and innovation. However, it will also be defined by the decisions made by members of our industry regarding our responsibilities, accountability, and long-term impacts. These are not mutually exclusive priorities and represent aspects of an interrelated set of conversations.
Increasingly, forward-thinking organisations recognise that sustainable growth will depend on combining commercial and environmental thought processes. A future vision that excludes either dimension represents an incomplete view of success.
Conversations related to these topics have already begun occurring among businesses in the industry.
During Cannes Lions this year, Mobsta is convening a roundtable with brands, agencies, publishers and representatives from major industry bodies to explore how sustainability can transition from being a series of commitments and begin influencing everyday planning and investment decisions in media.
The conversation is centred on the premise that if sustainability is truly going to influence how advertising develops in the future, it cannot remain a single initiative and needs to be incorporated into everyday planning and buying/evaluating decisions involving media.
As the media industry moves into the future, perhaps it shouldn’t be the industry’s goal to make sustainability the entire conversation. Rather, it should be that it ensures sustainability is one of them.
Because ultimately, when assessing how well the media industry performs against societal standards, it won’t merely be determined by how successful it was at reaching its audience or how quickly it adopted new technologies, but also based on whether or not the industry utilised its influence, investment and innovations responsibly.
Matt Longley is the CEO of Mobsta