Brands can make the most significant carbon reductions than any other organization or individual. And consumers believe it too. So how can brands become sustainable while remaining profitable?
In this post, we cover the 5 different ways that brands can use to reach net-zero emissions while keeping profitability as we learned from the brand panel at Sharethrough’s Green Media Summit.
Brand Panel: Building a Sustainable and Profitable Brand
To get brands’ perspectives on media and advertising sustainability, two leaders from prominent brands spoke at the Green Media Summit and shared their insights and understanding of what other brands can do to reach net-zero emissions. Vivian Chang, Head of DTC Practice at Clorox was joined by Jennie Mucciarone, Digital Media Strategist at iRobot answered questions about brand, media, and ad sustainability from Brian Murphy, Founder of The Alpine Project. Here are some of the main takeaway points from the Green Media Summit’s brand panel.
Watch the 2-minute recap of the session:
Click to watch the full panel.
5 Different Ways to Building a Sustainable and Profitable Brand
1. Sustainability is Correlated With Profitability
Jennie Mucciarone, Digital Media Strategist at iRobot said it well,
“And I think there's this common misconception that sustainability and profitability are competing agendas, which isn't true.”
In fact, more often than not, sustainability increases a brand’s bottom line. But why is that? There are 3 major reasons why, being that consumers are willing to pay a premium for sustainable products, increased savings from improved efficiency and yielding a greater return on investment.
Sales Profitability
In a recent study by IBM, they discovered that nearly 65% of consumers bought sustainable products at least half the time in their last purchases.
This usually comes at a premium with an average cost 59% greater than non-sustainable products. But that doesn’t prevent consumers from buying sustainable products if they believe the price difference is worth it. Even in lower income brackets where nearly 45% of consumers also purchased an environmentally-friendly product, as per the IBM study.
For example, a reusable cloth may cost 2x more than a roll of paper towels, but it’s easier on the environment and the consumer would eventually recoup the costs through the continued use.
Vivian Chang, Head of DTC Practice at Clorox reinforced the idea,
“And so there is this idea now where marketing these sustainable products is actually also really good for business. It is especially among the younger consumers who are willing to identify with sustainable brands, willing to even pay more for sus sustainable brands.”
Greater ROI
Some brands are hesitant to begin their sustainability journey because of the higher initial costs to change existing products, practices and operations. However, while there may be an initial cost, sustainability offers a much greater growth potential than current linear supply chains. Linear chains are limited in growth because they’re dependent on growth within the production process. And unfortunately, there’s only a finite amount of resources available on Earth.
Where sustainability takes advantage of that, is in its cyclical nature. Like the old adage, “reuse, reduce, recycle,” brands can grow with their growing market, rather than being capped by resources.
As Vivian Chang said,
“What I am excited about is this whole idea that sustainability and business profit and business results don't have to move in the opposite direction.”
Increased Savings
One of the ways that brands start to become sustainable is by improving the efficiency of their operations. Naturally, more efficient processes lead to more efficient gains. For example, a brand that is able to reduce the raw materials required to produce its products saves money on having to purchase the raw materials in the first place.
Furthermore, brands that collect their products back from consumers at the end-of-life cycle can recycle and refurbish the old product, and resell it. Similar to how Apple rewards consumers for bringing in their old phones and tech, Apple can reuse some of those parts to build their new devices. And considering that disposal and end-of-life treatment for products after consumers purchase them all fall under a brand’s scope 3 emissions, this allows the company to save more money and reduce its carbon footprint.
Read More: [Infographic] Understanding How The Programmatic Supply Chain Generates CO2 Emissions — Sharethrough
2. Sustainability is a Byproduct of Innovation For Brands
Oftentimes, sustainability is naturally a byproduct of brand innovations. Think about the appliances that were used in the 1900s compared to the appliances used today. While a fridge built at that time may still operate and function just fine, it draws significantly more energy than a fridge built within the last 10 years. Whether the designers had sustainability in mind or not, the improved energy efficiency generates less carbon emissions.
The sustainability gains from innovation were highlighted by Vivian Chang saying,
“Over the last couple of years, the actual Clorox Bleach product is now 25% more concentrated [which] has resulted in 15 million pounds of plastic reduction and 7 million pounds of paper from shipping reduced. That to me just brings home the amount of impact that we can have across the supply chain if we really focus on R&D and innovation in that way.”
Additionally, brands that are designing and improving their products for sustainability can also bring about innovations. For example, the rise in popularity of electric cars, which are better for the environment than fossil-fuel-powered cars, led to innovations in battery capacity and performance from brands like Tesla and Ford.
Jennie Mucciarone added,
“I think innovation often stems from being sustainable and drives disruption in categories. So our [iRobot] engineers are always thinking about that and I think that's what sets us apart and makes us a leader in the category”
3. Brands Are Embedding Sustainability in Their Business Models
Another way that brands are growing profitability with their sustainability efforts is by incorporating sustainability and other ESG initiatives into their business model. Since every business action generates carbon emissions, by incorporating sustainability into those actions, brands will see greater and faster reductions across the board.
Additionally, incorporating sustainable practices into a brand’s business model allows brands to avoid potential accusations of greenwashing. Brands that are transparent about the ways they are incorporating sustainability models, working to reduce emissions, as well as elements they still need to improve are less likely to be called out on greenwashing.
Jennie Mucciarone affirmed the idea,
“This is true for iRobot but also other business leaders that incorporate sustainability and social good into their business strategies. Companies like Chipotle, GE or Warby Parker, they don't give their money to environmental, mental and social efforts. That's how they earn their money because it's built into their business strategy and incorporated already.”
4. Brands Are Bringing Their Physical Supply Chain Learnings to Programmatic SPO
Brands that already began optimizing their physical supply chains are taking what they learned and applying it to their programmatic SPO initiatives. This is especially true for CPG and B2C brands, where speed and efficiency are critical to rival other brands. Amazon, for example, optimized its supply chain to achieve Prime’s 2-day shipping which changed consumers’ expectations of delivery times.
Jennie Mucciarone added,
“We work to minimize our impact on the environment by improving workflows. And that really starts and ends with the standards that we set for [iRobot’s] supply chain, product design, manufacturing all the way through to our global facilities. And of course, now our marketing as well, which we're taking into consideration.”
With physical supply chains, there can be numerous intermediaries between extracting raw materials, production, shipping, consumer use and end-of-life treatment and more, which also fall under a brand’s Scope 3 emissions.
Further echoed by Vivian Chang saying,
“We really do think about the supply chain from as far back as we can. What are industries that we can partner with and help them also to generate less waste.”
While these pose a challenge for some brands, the good news lies in the fact that, in comparison, the digital media and advertising supply chain is easier and simpler to optimize. There are no physical, raw materials, or fleets of trucks that deliver ads to sites. With that greater degree of control, brands are taking a more granular look at their programmatic supply chain.
But how do brands decide which partners and supply paths to keep?
One way that brands are evaluating how to optimize their programmatic supply chain is by looking at which partners are low-performing/high-emitting and begin to remove those publishers and partners.
Jennie Mucciarone shared,
“What we can do looking at that is start to optimize and cut out the offenders and high carbon publishers and sites from our campaigns. And that will help us to reduce our overall footprint but also influence change in the industry. So it allows us to almost take supply path optimization a level deeper and it becomes carbon path optimization.”
But that’s just one method among various others, and that’s where brands need help from their agency and tech partners.
5. Brands Need Media and Advertising Sustainability Advice From Agencies
Brands may be experts in their products or services but where they could use some sustainability advice is for their media operations and they look to agencies for help. Similar to how brands rely on agencies for their marketing efforts, questions around sustainability and the environmental impact of digital advertising are becoming more common.
Learn More: Deep Dive: A Guide to Environmental Sustainability in Digital Advertising — Sharethrough
As Vivian Chang said it,
“when it comes to digital, we really do rely on the agency partners and then from there, the DSPs and so forth to drive that change, but also help teach us how to think about it and how to take those baby steps forward. It's a call for help to help educate us on areas that may be a bit of a blind spot.”
Moreover, brands that began incorporating sustainability into their marketing efforts are already seeing promising results. How brands start with digital media and ad sustainability varies with each brand, but a simple way to get started is by using Green Media Products. At Sharethrough, we released GreenPMPs™, in partnership with Scope3, which measures the emissions generated by digital ad campaigns and compensates for that amount.
Jennie Mucciarone shared her experience with Green Media Products,
“I was thrilled to pioneer iRobot's first ever Green Media Product in partnership with Sharethrough and executed masterfully by our digital team as well. And what we found over the course of our roughly three-month campaign is that green media is highly correlated with performant media. And it makes sense from a programmatic supply chain standpoint when you think about all the waste and inefficiency and duplication that exists within the bidstream, a lot of the time results in high carbon and just an inefficient way of working. So, the data that we received, powered by Scope3, has shed light on a lot of those inefficiencies and allowed us to optimize accordingly.”
Sustainability is the New Normal For Brands
There are some trends that stick, and some that remain fads. When it comes to sustainability, it’s here to stay. At some point in the near future, brands will have to think and act on their environmental impact. But they don’t have to start blind. There’s much to learn from brands that are already on their sustainability journey.
Stay up-to-date with the latest insights on how brands can use media and advertising to help them on their net-zero path to sustainability.
Brands can make the most significant carbon reductions than any other organization or individual. And consumers believe it too. So how can brands become sustainable while remaining profitable?
In this post, we cover the 5 different ways that brands can use to reach net-zero emissions while keeping profitability as we learned from the brand panel at Sharethrough’s Green Media Summit.
Brand Panel: Building a Sustainable and Profitable Brand
To get brands’ perspectives on media and advertising sustainability, two leaders from prominent brands spoke at the Green Media Summit and shared their insights and understanding of what other brands can do to reach net-zero emissions. Vivian Chang, Head of DTC Practice at Clorox was joined by Jennie Mucciarone, Digital Media Strategist at iRobot answered questions about brand, media, and ad sustainability from Brian Murphy, Founder of The Alpine Project. Here are some of the main takeaway points from the Green Media Summit’s brand panel.
Watch the 2-minute recap of the session:
Click to watch the full panel.
5 Different Ways to Building a Sustainable and Profitable Brand
1. Sustainability is Correlated With Profitability
Jennie Mucciarone, Digital Media Strategist at iRobot said it well,
“And I think there's this common misconception that sustainability and profitability are competing agendas, which isn't true.”
In fact, more often than not, sustainability increases a brand’s bottom line. But why is that? There are 3 major reasons why, being that consumers are willing to pay a premium for sustainable products, increased savings from improved efficiency and yielding a greater return on investment.
Sales Profitability
In a recent study by IBM, they discovered that nearly 65% of consumers bought sustainable products at least half the time in their last purchases.
This usually comes at a premium with an average cost 59% greater than non-sustainable products. But that doesn’t prevent consumers from buying sustainable products if they believe the price difference is worth it. Even in lower income brackets where nearly 45% of consumers also purchased an environmentally-friendly product, as per the IBM study.
For example, a reusable cloth may cost 2x more than a roll of paper towels, but it’s easier on the environment and the consumer would eventually recoup the costs through the continued use.
Vivian Chang, Head of DTC Practice at Clorox reinforced the idea,
“And so there is this idea now where marketing these sustainable products is actually also really good for business. It is especially among the younger consumers who are willing to identify with sustainable brands, willing to even pay more for sus sustainable brands.”
Greater ROI
Some brands are hesitant to begin their sustainability journey because of the higher initial costs to change existing products, practices and operations. However, while there may be an initial cost, sustainability offers a much greater growth potential than current linear supply chains. Linear chains are limited in growth because they’re dependent on growth within the production process. And unfortunately, there’s only a finite amount of resources available on Earth.
Where sustainability takes advantage of that, is in its cyclical nature. Like the old adage, “reuse, reduce, recycle,” brands can grow with their growing market, rather than being capped by resources.
As Vivian Chang said,
“What I am excited about is this whole idea that sustainability and business profit and business results don't have to move in the opposite direction.”
Increased Savings
One of the ways that brands start to become sustainable is by improving the efficiency of their operations. Naturally, more efficient processes lead to more efficient gains. For example, a brand that is able to reduce the raw materials required to produce its products saves money on having to purchase the raw materials in the first place.
Furthermore, brands that collect their products back from consumers at the end-of-life cycle can recycle and refurbish the old product, and resell it. Similar to how Apple rewards consumers for bringing in their old phones and tech, Apple can reuse some of those parts to build their new devices. And considering that disposal and end-of-life treatment for products after consumers purchase them all fall under a brand’s scope 3 emissions, this allows the company to save more money and reduce its carbon footprint.
Read More: [Infographic] Understanding How The Programmatic Supply Chain Generates CO2 Emissions — Sharethrough
2. Sustainability is a Byproduct of Innovation For Brands
Oftentimes, sustainability is naturally a byproduct of brand innovations. Think about the appliances that were used in the 1900s compared to the appliances used today. While a fridge built at that time may still operate and function just fine, it draws significantly more energy than a fridge built within the last 10 years. Whether the designers had sustainability in mind or not, the improved energy efficiency generates less carbon emissions.
The sustainability gains from innovation were highlighted by Vivian Chang saying,
“Over the last couple of years, the actual Clorox Bleach product is now 25% more concentrated [which] has resulted in 15 million pounds of plastic reduction and 7 million pounds of paper from shipping reduced. That to me just brings home the amount of impact that we can have across the supply chain if we really focus on R&D and innovation in that way.”
Additionally, brands that are designing and improving their products for sustainability can also bring about innovations. For example, the rise in popularity of electric cars, which are better for the environment than fossil-fuel-powered cars, led to innovations in battery capacity and performance from brands like Tesla and Ford.
Jennie Mucciarone added,
“I think innovation often stems from being sustainable and drives disruption in categories. So our [iRobot] engineers are always thinking about that and I think that's what sets us apart and makes us a leader in the category”
3. Brands Are Embedding Sustainability in Their Business Models
Another way that brands are growing profitability with their sustainability efforts is by incorporating sustainability and other ESG initiatives into their business model. Since every business action generates carbon emissions, by incorporating sustainability into those actions, brands will see greater and faster reductions across the board.
Additionally, incorporating sustainable practices into a brand’s business model allows brands to avoid potential accusations of greenwashing. Brands that are transparent about the ways they are incorporating sustainability models, working to reduce emissions, as well as elements they still need to improve are less likely to be called out on greenwashing.
Jennie Mucciarone affirmed the idea,
“This is true for iRobot but also other business leaders that incorporate sustainability and social good into their business strategies. Companies like Chipotle, GE or Warby Parker, they don't give their money to environmental, mental and social efforts. That's how they earn their money because it's built into their business strategy and incorporated already.”
4. Brands Are Bringing Their Physical Supply Chain Learnings to Programmatic SPO
Brands that already began optimizing their physical supply chains are taking what they learned and applying it to their programmatic SPO initiatives. This is especially true for CPG and B2C brands, where speed and efficiency are critical to rival other brands. Amazon, for example, optimized its supply chain to achieve Prime’s 2-day shipping which changed consumers’ expectations of delivery times.
Jennie Mucciarone added,
“We work to minimize our impact on the environment by improving workflows. And that really starts and ends with the standards that we set for [iRobot’s] supply chain, product design, manufacturing all the way through to our global facilities. And of course, now our marketing as well, which we're taking into consideration.”
With physical supply chains, there can be numerous intermediaries between extracting raw materials, production, shipping, consumer use and end-of-life treatment and more, which also fall under a brand’s Scope 3 emissions.
Further echoed by Vivian Chang saying,
“We really do think about the supply chain from as far back as we can. What are industries that we can partner with and help them also to generate less waste.”
While these pose a challenge for some brands, the good news lies in the fact that, in comparison, the digital media and advertising supply chain is easier and simpler to optimize. There are no physical, raw materials, or fleets of trucks that deliver ads to sites. With that greater degree of control, brands are taking a more granular look at their programmatic supply chain.
But how do brands decide which partners and supply paths to keep?
One way that brands are evaluating how to optimize their programmatic supply chain is by looking at which partners are low-performing/high-emitting and begin to remove those publishers and partners.
Jennie Mucciarone shared,
“What we can do looking at that is start to optimize and cut out the offenders and high carbon publishers and sites from our campaigns. And that will help us to reduce our overall footprint but also influence change in the industry. So it allows us to almost take supply path optimization a level deeper and it becomes carbon path optimization.”
But that’s just one method among various others, and that’s where brands need help from their agency and tech partners.
5. Brands Need Media and Advertising Sustainability Advice From Agencies
Brands may be experts in their products or services but where they could use some sustainability advice is for their media operations and they look to agencies for help. Similar to how brands rely on agencies for their marketing efforts, questions around sustainability and the environmental impact of digital advertising are becoming more common.
Learn More: Deep Dive: A Guide to Environmental Sustainability in Digital Advertising — Sharethrough
As Vivian Chang said it,
“when it comes to digital, we really do rely on the agency partners and then from there, the DSPs and so forth to drive that change, but also help teach us how to think about it and how to take those baby steps forward. It's a call for help to help educate us on areas that may be a bit of a blind spot.”
Moreover, brands that began incorporating sustainability into their marketing efforts are already seeing promising results. How brands start with digital media and ad sustainability varies with each brand, but a simple way to get started is by using Green Media Products. At Sharethrough, we released GreenPMPs™, in partnership with Scope3, which measures the emissions generated by digital ad campaigns and compensates for that amount.
Jennie Mucciarone shared her experience with Green Media Products,
“I was thrilled to pioneer iRobot's first ever Green Media Product in partnership with Sharethrough and executed masterfully by our digital team as well. And what we found over the course of our roughly three-month campaign is that green media is highly correlated with performant media. And it makes sense from a programmatic supply chain standpoint when you think about all the waste and inefficiency and duplication that exists within the bidstream, a lot of the time results in high carbon and just an inefficient way of working. So, the data that we received, powered by Scope3, has shed light on a lot of those inefficiencies and allowed us to optimize accordingly.”
Sustainability is the New Normal For Brands
There are some trends that stick, and some that remain fads. When it comes to sustainability, it’s here to stay. At some point in the near future, brands will have to think and act on their environmental impact. But they don’t have to start blind. There’s much to learn from brands that are already on their sustainability journey.
Stay up-to-date with the latest insights on how brands can use media and advertising to help them on their net-zero path to sustainability.
Behind Headlines: 180 Seconds in Ad Tech is a short 3-minute podcast exploring the news in the digital advertising industry. Ad tech is a fast-growing industry with many updates happening daily. As it can be hard for most to keep up with the latest news, the Sharethrough team wanted to create an audio series compiling notable mentions each week.
Brands can make the most significant carbon reductions than any other organization or individual. And consumers believe it too. So how can brands become sustainable while remaining profitable?
In this post, we cover the 5 different ways that brands can use to reach net-zero emissions while keeping profitability as we learned from the brand panel at Sharethrough’s Green Media Summit.
Brand Panel: Building a Sustainable and Profitable Brand
To get brands’ perspectives on media and advertising sustainability, two leaders from prominent brands spoke at the Green Media Summit and shared their insights and understanding of what other brands can do to reach net-zero emissions. Vivian Chang, Head of DTC Practice at Clorox was joined by Jennie Mucciarone, Digital Media Strategist at iRobot answered questions about brand, media, and ad sustainability from Brian Murphy, Founder of The Alpine Project. Here are some of the main takeaway points from the Green Media Summit’s brand panel.
Watch the 2-minute recap of the session:
Click to watch the full panel.
5 Different Ways to Building a Sustainable and Profitable Brand
1. Sustainability is Correlated With Profitability
Jennie Mucciarone, Digital Media Strategist at iRobot said it well,
“And I think there's this common misconception that sustainability and profitability are competing agendas, which isn't true.”
In fact, more often than not, sustainability increases a brand’s bottom line. But why is that? There are 3 major reasons why, being that consumers are willing to pay a premium for sustainable products, increased savings from improved efficiency and yielding a greater return on investment.
Sales Profitability
In a recent study by IBM, they discovered that nearly 65% of consumers bought sustainable products at least half the time in their last purchases.
This usually comes at a premium with an average cost 59% greater than non-sustainable products. But that doesn’t prevent consumers from buying sustainable products if they believe the price difference is worth it. Even in lower income brackets where nearly 45% of consumers also purchased an environmentally-friendly product, as per the IBM study.
For example, a reusable cloth may cost 2x more than a roll of paper towels, but it’s easier on the environment and the consumer would eventually recoup the costs through the continued use.
Vivian Chang, Head of DTC Practice at Clorox reinforced the idea,
“And so there is this idea now where marketing these sustainable products is actually also really good for business. It is especially among the younger consumers who are willing to identify with sustainable brands, willing to even pay more for sus sustainable brands.”
Greater ROI
Some brands are hesitant to begin their sustainability journey because of the higher initial costs to change existing products, practices and operations. However, while there may be an initial cost, sustainability offers a much greater growth potential than current linear supply chains. Linear chains are limited in growth because they’re dependent on growth within the production process. And unfortunately, there’s only a finite amount of resources available on Earth.
Where sustainability takes advantage of that, is in its cyclical nature. Like the old adage, “reuse, reduce, recycle,” brands can grow with their growing market, rather than being capped by resources.
As Vivian Chang said,
“What I am excited about is this whole idea that sustainability and business profit and business results don't have to move in the opposite direction.”
Increased Savings
One of the ways that brands start to become sustainable is by improving the efficiency of their operations. Naturally, more efficient processes lead to more efficient gains. For example, a brand that is able to reduce the raw materials required to produce its products saves money on having to purchase the raw materials in the first place.
Furthermore, brands that collect their products back from consumers at the end-of-life cycle can recycle and refurbish the old product, and resell it. Similar to how Apple rewards consumers for bringing in their old phones and tech, Apple can reuse some of those parts to build their new devices. And considering that disposal and end-of-life treatment for products after consumers purchase them all fall under a brand’s scope 3 emissions, this allows the company to save more money and reduce its carbon footprint.
Read More: [Infographic] Understanding How The Programmatic Supply Chain Generates CO2 Emissions — Sharethrough
2. Sustainability is a Byproduct of Innovation For Brands
Oftentimes, sustainability is naturally a byproduct of brand innovations. Think about the appliances that were used in the 1900s compared to the appliances used today. While a fridge built at that time may still operate and function just fine, it draws significantly more energy than a fridge built within the last 10 years. Whether the designers had sustainability in mind or not, the improved energy efficiency generates less carbon emissions.
The sustainability gains from innovation were highlighted by Vivian Chang saying,
“Over the last couple of years, the actual Clorox Bleach product is now 25% more concentrated [which] has resulted in 15 million pounds of plastic reduction and 7 million pounds of paper from shipping reduced. That to me just brings home the amount of impact that we can have across the supply chain if we really focus on R&D and innovation in that way.”
Additionally, brands that are designing and improving their products for sustainability can also bring about innovations. For example, the rise in popularity of electric cars, which are better for the environment than fossil-fuel-powered cars, led to innovations in battery capacity and performance from brands like Tesla and Ford.
Jennie Mucciarone added,
“I think innovation often stems from being sustainable and drives disruption in categories. So our [iRobot] engineers are always thinking about that and I think that's what sets us apart and makes us a leader in the category”
3. Brands Are Embedding Sustainability in Their Business Models
Another way that brands are growing profitability with their sustainability efforts is by incorporating sustainability and other ESG initiatives into their business model. Since every business action generates carbon emissions, by incorporating sustainability into those actions, brands will see greater and faster reductions across the board.
Additionally, incorporating sustainable practices into a brand’s business model allows brands to avoid potential accusations of greenwashing. Brands that are transparent about the ways they are incorporating sustainability models, working to reduce emissions, as well as elements they still need to improve are less likely to be called out on greenwashing.
Jennie Mucciarone affirmed the idea,
“This is true for iRobot but also other business leaders that incorporate sustainability and social good into their business strategies. Companies like Chipotle, GE or Warby Parker, they don't give their money to environmental, mental and social efforts. That's how they earn their money because it's built into their business strategy and incorporated already.”
4. Brands Are Bringing Their Physical Supply Chain Learnings to Programmatic SPO
Brands that already began optimizing their physical supply chains are taking what they learned and applying it to their programmatic SPO initiatives. This is especially true for CPG and B2C brands, where speed and efficiency are critical to rival other brands. Amazon, for example, optimized its supply chain to achieve Prime’s 2-day shipping which changed consumers’ expectations of delivery times.
Jennie Mucciarone added,
“We work to minimize our impact on the environment by improving workflows. And that really starts and ends with the standards that we set for [iRobot’s] supply chain, product design, manufacturing all the way through to our global facilities. And of course, now our marketing as well, which we're taking into consideration.”
With physical supply chains, there can be numerous intermediaries between extracting raw materials, production, shipping, consumer use and end-of-life treatment and more, which also fall under a brand’s Scope 3 emissions.
Further echoed by Vivian Chang saying,
“We really do think about the supply chain from as far back as we can. What are industries that we can partner with and help them also to generate less waste.”
While these pose a challenge for some brands, the good news lies in the fact that, in comparison, the digital media and advertising supply chain is easier and simpler to optimize. There are no physical, raw materials, or fleets of trucks that deliver ads to sites. With that greater degree of control, brands are taking a more granular look at their programmatic supply chain.
But how do brands decide which partners and supply paths to keep?
One way that brands are evaluating how to optimize their programmatic supply chain is by looking at which partners are low-performing/high-emitting and begin to remove those publishers and partners.
Jennie Mucciarone shared,
“What we can do looking at that is start to optimize and cut out the offenders and high carbon publishers and sites from our campaigns. And that will help us to reduce our overall footprint but also influence change in the industry. So it allows us to almost take supply path optimization a level deeper and it becomes carbon path optimization.”
But that’s just one method among various others, and that’s where brands need help from their agency and tech partners.
5. Brands Need Media and Advertising Sustainability Advice From Agencies
Brands may be experts in their products or services but where they could use some sustainability advice is for their media operations and they look to agencies for help. Similar to how brands rely on agencies for their marketing efforts, questions around sustainability and the environmental impact of digital advertising are becoming more common.
Learn More: Deep Dive: A Guide to Environmental Sustainability in Digital Advertising — Sharethrough
As Vivian Chang said it,
“when it comes to digital, we really do rely on the agency partners and then from there, the DSPs and so forth to drive that change, but also help teach us how to think about it and how to take those baby steps forward. It's a call for help to help educate us on areas that may be a bit of a blind spot.”
Moreover, brands that began incorporating sustainability into their marketing efforts are already seeing promising results. How brands start with digital media and ad sustainability varies with each brand, but a simple way to get started is by using Green Media Products. At Sharethrough, we released GreenPMPs™, in partnership with Scope3, which measures the emissions generated by digital ad campaigns and compensates for that amount.
Jennie Mucciarone shared her experience with Green Media Products,
“I was thrilled to pioneer iRobot's first ever Green Media Product in partnership with Sharethrough and executed masterfully by our digital team as well. And what we found over the course of our roughly three-month campaign is that green media is highly correlated with performant media. And it makes sense from a programmatic supply chain standpoint when you think about all the waste and inefficiency and duplication that exists within the bidstream, a lot of the time results in high carbon and just an inefficient way of working. So, the data that we received, powered by Scope3, has shed light on a lot of those inefficiencies and allowed us to optimize accordingly.”
Sustainability is the New Normal For Brands
There are some trends that stick, and some that remain fads. When it comes to sustainability, it’s here to stay. At some point in the near future, brands will have to think and act on their environmental impact. But they don’t have to start blind. There’s much to learn from brands that are already on their sustainability journey.
Stay up-to-date with the latest insights on how brands can use media and advertising to help them on their net-zero path to sustainability.
Founded in 2015, Calibrate is a yearly conference for new engineering managers hosted by seasoned engineering managers. The experience level of the speakers ranges from newcomers all the way through senior engineering leaders with over twenty years of experience in the field. Each speaker is greatly concerned about the craft of engineering management. Organized and hosted by Sharethrough, it was conducted yearly in September, from 2015-2019 in San Francisco, California.
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