It’s hard to talk about sustainability in digital media and advertising without mentioning Scope3. Since its inception in 2022, the company has been leading the charge and working with organizations like Sharethrough to help them measure and compensate for the carbon emissions generated by their supply chain. A year later, Brian O’Kelley, CEO and Co-Founder of Scope3, gained some new insights. In this post, we cover Scope3’s 5 lessons learned to accelerate sustainability in media and advertising after their first year of operation, shared during the Green Media Summit.
Fireside Chat: Lessons from Year 1 at Scope3: Brian O’Kelley Shares Next Steps to Accelerate Sustainability in Media
At Sharethrough’s Green Media Summit, Brian O’Kelley, CEO and Co-Founder at Scope3 shared some of the lessons he learned one year after founding Scope3 during a candid fireside chat with Michael Burgi, Senior Editor, Media Buying and Planning at Digiday. Here are the lessons he learned about sustainability in digital media and advertising.
Watch the 2-minute recap of the session:
Click to watch the full fireside chat.
Accelerating Sustainability in Media and Advertising in a 5-Step Lesson Plan
Lesson 1: Focus on the Supply Chain for the Greatest Impact on Sustainability
Brian O’Kelley started off by sharing his realization about the programmatic supply chain’s carbon footprint,
“A couple of years ago I said, ‘well, I know where supply path optimization could work. I wonder if there's a carbon problem to solve.’ And that led me to do some back-of-the-envelope math on the actual carbon that comes from the programmatic supply chain. And I couldn't believe it. It was just a shocking number.”
Supply chain carbon emissions, or Scope 3 emissions, generate the largest amount of carbon waste than any other business operation or activity and can account for more than 90% of their overall carbon footprint. So for the greatest reductions in carbon, brands, advertisers, publishers and other ad tech organizations should focus on their supply chain. There are two ways of looking at the supply chain in terms of sustainability, Supply Path Optimization (SPO) and Carbon Path Optimization (CPO).
While the two may sound the same, they have some subtle differences that can drastically affect the outcome.
Supply Path Optimization
Although SPO is excellent at reducing carbon emissions, it’s not its primary focus. SPO mainly focuses on improving campaign performance by reducing the number of hops or steps that an ad has to travel from the impression request to the delivery. Whether that’s choosing more direct SSPs or moving away from partners that don’t contribute meaningfully to performance, reduced carbon emissions are a byproduct of SPO.
Carbon Path Optimization
Where CPO is different from SPO, is that carbon emissions are the primary focus. For CPO, organizations simply look at which paths generate the most carbon emissions and then work to remove or reduce them. For example, removing emissions is usually done at the source. So an advertiser or publisher would stop working with high-emissions partners altogether. Whereas reducing emissions means continuing to work with those partners but also finding ways to minimize their carbon waste. Additionally, performance gains can also be a byproduct of CPO because of the commonalities with SPO.
Related: 4 Ways DSPs Can Help Reduce Supply Chain Carbon Emissions — Sharethrough
When Brian O’Kelley first looked into calculating the carbon emissions generated by the programmatic advertising supply chain, he was in for a shock. He said: “I showed it to a few people and they said I was wrong. But the more I did the math, I kept saying, well, actually, I think this is right. I think that programmatic has a huge environmental impact.” shared O’Kelley as one of the reasons he founded Scope3.
Lesson 2: Start With What Doesn’t Work – Removing Inefficiencies Reduces Carbon Emissions
Now you know where to start, what do you start on with SPO and CPO? Start with what you know doesn’t work. Made-for-advertising (MFA) sites have an average of 26% more carbon emissions than non-MFA sites and waste 15% of global ad spend while making up approximately 21% of advertiser’s impressions, as reported by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). But there are too many existing MFA sites for advertisers to manually find and remove and DSPs don’t yet have a way to filter them. What can advertisers do to avoid wasting ad spend and generating even more CO2 with MFA sites on MFA sites?
Related: How Advertisers Can Avoid Wasting Ad Spend On Made For Advertising Sites — Sharethrough
“If we see a property that's obviously a content farm, that has very little, if any organic audience– that's just wasting carbon.” said O’Kelley.
Advertisers can rest easy knowing that Sharethrough is the first exchange to automatically remove Jounce-identified MFA sites, from all OTS deals and custom PMPs. At no extra cost, lift and no negative impact on performance.
Additionally, Sharethrough’s new, curated Low-Emissions PMPs, powered by Scope3’s Climate Shield technology, automatically remove low-performance/high-emission sites for increased sustainability gains. Also at no extra work, cost or negative performance impact. Because reducing inefficiencies wherever you can helps to lower carbon emissions.
“And the fact that [a MFA site] has 47 ads on the screen all 100% viewable and it has 1000 different SSPs engaged, you know, probably misrepresenting the inventory as in-stream like that is a massive carbon problem. And from my perspective, [starting with MFA sites in the] first place is the stuff we know doesn't work.” advised O’Kelley.
Lesson 3: Use Your Sustainability Initiatives As a Competitive Advantage
Demands for greater sustainability are increasing from both B2C and B2B companies. In fact, 80% of consumers prefer brands that are actively working to reduce their carbon footprint, even going as far as paying a premium for eco-friendly products and services. Furthermore, because approximately 90% of an organization’s carbon emissions come from their supply chain, organizations are looking to their suppliers and partners and evaluating their sustainability efforts.
“What's happening with the marketer community is they're seeing this alignment and they're jumping in and that's driving agency adoption.” O’Kelley shared how sustainability initiatives are also driving employee engagement.
Profitability and sustainability are highly correlated. Much of the work that goes into being sustainable is removing and reducing inefficiencies, which also has a side-effect of increased cost savings that become greater with every cycle. Now you don’t have to buy as much inventory to reach good performance.
Related: 5 Ways Brands Are Becoming Sustainable While Maintaining Profitability — Sharethrough
But measuring carbon reduction efforts in digital media and advertising requires an industry-wide standard. Who’s leading that charge?
Overall, this is what O’Kelley had to say about using sustainability as a competitive advantage,
“So what we're seeing from all of the major holding companies as well as many independent agencies is that sustainability is good for business. They're using this to win new clients. It's great for employees because people feel excited about the mission and it's great for actually driving results in a market that is increasingly complicated. This is a way for agencies to differentiate. The agencies that are doing the best work here and leading in the hardest, they're winning business and they're driving better outcomes for their clients.”
Lesson 4: Global Agencies Are Driving Sustainability Standards in Media and Advertising
Global agencies are demanding a common sustainability standard. They need to report their carbon reduction efforts to shareholders and stakeholders, and they must adhere to one single consistent measurement framework. Global agencies like WPP, Dentsu, Havas, and others were some of the first to take action and reduce carbon emissions. How they get to that standard may require the help of research firms such as KPMG, Deloitte and EY.
“The biggest driver of standardization is marketers that operate globally.” said O’Kelley.
This will likely be the standard that is adopted by the digital ad and media industry. So for any player in ad tech, working with the IAB Tech Lab and AdNetZero enables industry leaders to provide their input on defining these standards. Like how programmatic advertising has introduced new measurement frameworks (for example: CTR, VCR) with every new platform and format, it will also evolve to include a sustainability standard.
Related: 7 Vital Lessons From the Agency Panel at the Green Media Summit — Sharethrough
Lesson 5: Let Data Guide Your Sustainability Journey
“The good news is there's no industry with people who understand data better than us. We've dealt with more data, more complexity we've optimized on a broader scale. There's nobody in the world more qualified to use sustainability data to change business decisions than us.“ encouraged O’Kelley.
A recurring theme throughout the Green Media Summit has been to look at the big picture but work on the stuff that you can, no matter how big or small. Every player in the digital media and advertising ecosystem has the power to contribute to sustainability.
For brands and advertisers, moving ad spend away from high-emitting MFA sites helps significantly reduce scope 3 emissions. DSPs can help make it easier for advertisers to purchase green inventory. Some publishers are reevaluating their sites, tech and infrastructure to remove inefficiencies. And every organization can take part in SPO and CPO.
Related: 3 Ways Publishers Can Reduce Carbon Emissions Without Impacting Revenue — Sharethrough
A great example of this is the collective work that over 8000 brands have accomplished by compensating for nearly 400 metric tonnes of carbon waste by running their digital ad campaigns through GreenPMPs™, Sharethrough’s first Green Media Product, built in partnership with Scope3. But GreenPMPs™ are only part of the equation and intended to remove the inevitable emissions after carbon reductions are applied. Due to the nature of digital, there will always be some carbon waste, no matter how minimal.
“What if we all took all the skills we've developed over the past 20 years of programmatic and added one more variable to optimize and that variable would let us change the carbon impact of this industry by hundreds of thousands of metric tons this year, we can do that. And that's what I aspire to do with all of you. With Sharethrough with everyone else who's on this journey.” said O’Kelley as his parting words to the attendees, welcoming and thanking everyone on their sustainability journey.
Focusing on Sustainability Leads to Positive Outcomes
It can seem like a challenge getting started with sustainability and the initial investments can deter or delay some organizations. However, these are just growing pains from a new industry-wide initiative that will be solved and improved over time and as more organizations start their sustainability journeys. Until then, find out more about how different digital media and advertising organizations are becoming more sustainable.
Contact us to learn more about how you can start removing emissions from your digital ad campaigns.
It’s hard to talk about sustainability in digital media and advertising without mentioning Scope3. Since its inception in 2022, the company has been leading the charge and working with organizations like Sharethrough to help them measure and compensate for the carbon emissions generated by their supply chain. A year later, Brian O’Kelley, CEO and Co-Founder of Scope3, gained some new insights. In this post, we cover Scope3’s 5 lessons learned to accelerate sustainability in media and advertising after their first year of operation, shared during the Green Media Summit.
Fireside Chat: Lessons from Year 1 at Scope3: Brian O’Kelley Shares Next Steps to Accelerate Sustainability in Media
At Sharethrough’s Green Media Summit, Brian O’Kelley, CEO and Co-Founder at Scope3 shared some of the lessons he learned one year after founding Scope3 during a candid fireside chat with Michael Burgi, Senior Editor, Media Buying and Planning at Digiday. Here are the lessons he learned about sustainability in digital media and advertising.
Watch the 2-minute recap of the session:
Click to watch the full fireside chat.
Accelerating Sustainability in Media and Advertising in a 5-Step Lesson Plan
Lesson 1: Focus on the Supply Chain for the Greatest Impact on Sustainability
Brian O’Kelley started off by sharing his realization about the programmatic supply chain’s carbon footprint,
“A couple of years ago I said, ‘well, I know where supply path optimization could work. I wonder if there's a carbon problem to solve.’ And that led me to do some back-of-the-envelope math on the actual carbon that comes from the programmatic supply chain. And I couldn't believe it. It was just a shocking number.”
Supply chain carbon emissions, or Scope 3 emissions, generate the largest amount of carbon waste than any other business operation or activity and can account for more than 90% of their overall carbon footprint. So for the greatest reductions in carbon, brands, advertisers, publishers and other ad tech organizations should focus on their supply chain. There are two ways of looking at the supply chain in terms of sustainability, Supply Path Optimization (SPO) and Carbon Path Optimization (CPO).
While the two may sound the same, they have some subtle differences that can drastically affect the outcome.
Supply Path Optimization
Although SPO is excellent at reducing carbon emissions, it’s not its primary focus. SPO mainly focuses on improving campaign performance by reducing the number of hops or steps that an ad has to travel from the impression request to the delivery. Whether that’s choosing more direct SSPs or moving away from partners that don’t contribute meaningfully to performance, reduced carbon emissions are a byproduct of SPO.
Carbon Path Optimization
Where CPO is different from SPO, is that carbon emissions are the primary focus. For CPO, organizations simply look at which paths generate the most carbon emissions and then work to remove or reduce them. For example, removing emissions is usually done at the source. So an advertiser or publisher would stop working with high-emissions partners altogether. Whereas reducing emissions means continuing to work with those partners but also finding ways to minimize their carbon waste. Additionally, performance gains can also be a byproduct of CPO because of the commonalities with SPO.
Related: 4 Ways DSPs Can Help Reduce Supply Chain Carbon Emissions — Sharethrough
When Brian O’Kelley first looked into calculating the carbon emissions generated by the programmatic advertising supply chain, he was in for a shock. He said: “I showed it to a few people and they said I was wrong. But the more I did the math, I kept saying, well, actually, I think this is right. I think that programmatic has a huge environmental impact.” shared O’Kelley as one of the reasons he founded Scope3.
Lesson 2: Start With What Doesn’t Work – Removing Inefficiencies Reduces Carbon Emissions
Now you know where to start, what do you start on with SPO and CPO? Start with what you know doesn’t work. Made-for-advertising (MFA) sites have an average of 26% more carbon emissions than non-MFA sites and waste 15% of global ad spend while making up approximately 21% of advertiser’s impressions, as reported by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). But there are too many existing MFA sites for advertisers to manually find and remove and DSPs don’t yet have a way to filter them. What can advertisers do to avoid wasting ad spend and generating even more CO2 with MFA sites on MFA sites?
Related: How Advertisers Can Avoid Wasting Ad Spend On Made For Advertising Sites — Sharethrough
“If we see a property that's obviously a content farm, that has very little, if any organic audience– that's just wasting carbon.” said O’Kelley.
Advertisers can rest easy knowing that Sharethrough is the first exchange to automatically remove Jounce-identified MFA sites, from all OTS deals and custom PMPs. At no extra cost, lift and no negative impact on performance.
Additionally, Sharethrough’s new, curated Low-Emissions PMPs, powered by Scope3’s Climate Shield technology, automatically remove low-performance/high-emission sites for increased sustainability gains. Also at no extra work, cost or negative performance impact. Because reducing inefficiencies wherever you can helps to lower carbon emissions.
“And the fact that [a MFA site] has 47 ads on the screen all 100% viewable and it has 1000 different SSPs engaged, you know, probably misrepresenting the inventory as in-stream like that is a massive carbon problem. And from my perspective, [starting with MFA sites in the] first place is the stuff we know doesn't work.” advised O’Kelley.
Lesson 3: Use Your Sustainability Initiatives As a Competitive Advantage
Demands for greater sustainability are increasing from both B2C and B2B companies. In fact, 80% of consumers prefer brands that are actively working to reduce their carbon footprint, even going as far as paying a premium for eco-friendly products and services. Furthermore, because approximately 90% of an organization’s carbon emissions come from their supply chain, organizations are looking to their suppliers and partners and evaluating their sustainability efforts.
“What's happening with the marketer community is they're seeing this alignment and they're jumping in and that's driving agency adoption.” O’Kelley shared how sustainability initiatives are also driving employee engagement.
Profitability and sustainability are highly correlated. Much of the work that goes into being sustainable is removing and reducing inefficiencies, which also has a side-effect of increased cost savings that become greater with every cycle. Now you don’t have to buy as much inventory to reach good performance.
Related: 5 Ways Brands Are Becoming Sustainable While Maintaining Profitability — Sharethrough
But measuring carbon reduction efforts in digital media and advertising requires an industry-wide standard. Who’s leading that charge?
Overall, this is what O’Kelley had to say about using sustainability as a competitive advantage,
“So what we're seeing from all of the major holding companies as well as many independent agencies is that sustainability is good for business. They're using this to win new clients. It's great for employees because people feel excited about the mission and it's great for actually driving results in a market that is increasingly complicated. This is a way for agencies to differentiate. The agencies that are doing the best work here and leading in the hardest, they're winning business and they're driving better outcomes for their clients.”
Lesson 4: Global Agencies Are Driving Sustainability Standards in Media and Advertising
Global agencies are demanding a common sustainability standard. They need to report their carbon reduction efforts to shareholders and stakeholders, and they must adhere to one single consistent measurement framework. Global agencies like WPP, Dentsu, Havas, and others were some of the first to take action and reduce carbon emissions. How they get to that standard may require the help of research firms such as KPMG, Deloitte and EY.
“The biggest driver of standardization is marketers that operate globally.” said O’Kelley.
This will likely be the standard that is adopted by the digital ad and media industry. So for any player in ad tech, working with the IAB Tech Lab and AdNetZero enables industry leaders to provide their input on defining these standards. Like how programmatic advertising has introduced new measurement frameworks (for example: CTR, VCR) with every new platform and format, it will also evolve to include a sustainability standard.
Related: 7 Vital Lessons From the Agency Panel at the Green Media Summit — Sharethrough
Lesson 5: Let Data Guide Your Sustainability Journey
“The good news is there's no industry with people who understand data better than us. We've dealt with more data, more complexity we've optimized on a broader scale. There's nobody in the world more qualified to use sustainability data to change business decisions than us.“ encouraged O’Kelley.
A recurring theme throughout the Green Media Summit has been to look at the big picture but work on the stuff that you can, no matter how big or small. Every player in the digital media and advertising ecosystem has the power to contribute to sustainability.
For brands and advertisers, moving ad spend away from high-emitting MFA sites helps significantly reduce scope 3 emissions. DSPs can help make it easier for advertisers to purchase green inventory. Some publishers are reevaluating their sites, tech and infrastructure to remove inefficiencies. And every organization can take part in SPO and CPO.
Related: 3 Ways Publishers Can Reduce Carbon Emissions Without Impacting Revenue — Sharethrough
A great example of this is the collective work that over 8000 brands have accomplished by compensating for nearly 400 metric tonnes of carbon waste by running their digital ad campaigns through GreenPMPs™, Sharethrough’s first Green Media Product, built in partnership with Scope3. But GreenPMPs™ are only part of the equation and intended to remove the inevitable emissions after carbon reductions are applied. Due to the nature of digital, there will always be some carbon waste, no matter how minimal.
“What if we all took all the skills we've developed over the past 20 years of programmatic and added one more variable to optimize and that variable would let us change the carbon impact of this industry by hundreds of thousands of metric tons this year, we can do that. And that's what I aspire to do with all of you. With Sharethrough with everyone else who's on this journey.” said O’Kelley as his parting words to the attendees, welcoming and thanking everyone on their sustainability journey.
Focusing on Sustainability Leads to Positive Outcomes
It can seem like a challenge getting started with sustainability and the initial investments can deter or delay some organizations. However, these are just growing pains from a new industry-wide initiative that will be solved and improved over time and as more organizations start their sustainability journeys. Until then, find out more about how different digital media and advertising organizations are becoming more sustainable.
Contact us to learn more about how you can start removing emissions from your digital ad campaigns.
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.
It’s hard to talk about sustainability in digital media and advertising without mentioning Scope3. Since its inception in 2022, the company has been leading the charge and working with organizations like Sharethrough to help them measure and compensate for the carbon emissions generated by their supply chain. A year later, Brian O’Kelley, CEO and Co-Founder of Scope3, gained some new insights. In this post, we cover Scope3’s 5 lessons learned to accelerate sustainability in media and advertising after their first year of operation, shared during the Green Media Summit.
Fireside Chat: Lessons from Year 1 at Scope3: Brian O’Kelley Shares Next Steps to Accelerate Sustainability in Media
At Sharethrough’s Green Media Summit, Brian O’Kelley, CEO and Co-Founder at Scope3 shared some of the lessons he learned one year after founding Scope3 during a candid fireside chat with Michael Burgi, Senior Editor, Media Buying and Planning at Digiday. Here are the lessons he learned about sustainability in digital media and advertising.
Watch the 2-minute recap of the session:
Click to watch the full fireside chat.
Accelerating Sustainability in Media and Advertising in a 5-Step Lesson Plan
Lesson 1: Focus on the Supply Chain for the Greatest Impact on Sustainability
Brian O’Kelley started off by sharing his realization about the programmatic supply chain’s carbon footprint,
“A couple of years ago I said, ‘well, I know where supply path optimization could work. I wonder if there's a carbon problem to solve.’ And that led me to do some back-of-the-envelope math on the actual carbon that comes from the programmatic supply chain. And I couldn't believe it. It was just a shocking number.”
Supply chain carbon emissions, or Scope 3 emissions, generate the largest amount of carbon waste than any other business operation or activity and can account for more than 90% of their overall carbon footprint. So for the greatest reductions in carbon, brands, advertisers, publishers and other ad tech organizations should focus on their supply chain. There are two ways of looking at the supply chain in terms of sustainability, Supply Path Optimization (SPO) and Carbon Path Optimization (CPO).
While the two may sound the same, they have some subtle differences that can drastically affect the outcome.
Supply Path Optimization
Although SPO is excellent at reducing carbon emissions, it’s not its primary focus. SPO mainly focuses on improving campaign performance by reducing the number of hops or steps that an ad has to travel from the impression request to the delivery. Whether that’s choosing more direct SSPs or moving away from partners that don’t contribute meaningfully to performance, reduced carbon emissions are a byproduct of SPO.
Carbon Path Optimization
Where CPO is different from SPO, is that carbon emissions are the primary focus. For CPO, organizations simply look at which paths generate the most carbon emissions and then work to remove or reduce them. For example, removing emissions is usually done at the source. So an advertiser or publisher would stop working with high-emissions partners altogether. Whereas reducing emissions means continuing to work with those partners but also finding ways to minimize their carbon waste. Additionally, performance gains can also be a byproduct of CPO because of the commonalities with SPO.
Related: 4 Ways DSPs Can Help Reduce Supply Chain Carbon Emissions — Sharethrough
When Brian O’Kelley first looked into calculating the carbon emissions generated by the programmatic advertising supply chain, he was in for a shock. He said: “I showed it to a few people and they said I was wrong. But the more I did the math, I kept saying, well, actually, I think this is right. I think that programmatic has a huge environmental impact.” shared O’Kelley as one of the reasons he founded Scope3.
Lesson 2: Start With What Doesn’t Work – Removing Inefficiencies Reduces Carbon Emissions
Now you know where to start, what do you start on with SPO and CPO? Start with what you know doesn’t work. Made-for-advertising (MFA) sites have an average of 26% more carbon emissions than non-MFA sites and waste 15% of global ad spend while making up approximately 21% of advertiser’s impressions, as reported by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). But there are too many existing MFA sites for advertisers to manually find and remove and DSPs don’t yet have a way to filter them. What can advertisers do to avoid wasting ad spend and generating even more CO2 with MFA sites on MFA sites?
Related: How Advertisers Can Avoid Wasting Ad Spend On Made For Advertising Sites — Sharethrough
“If we see a property that's obviously a content farm, that has very little, if any organic audience– that's just wasting carbon.” said O’Kelley.
Advertisers can rest easy knowing that Sharethrough is the first exchange to automatically remove Jounce-identified MFA sites, from all OTS deals and custom PMPs. At no extra cost, lift and no negative impact on performance.
Additionally, Sharethrough’s new, curated Low-Emissions PMPs, powered by Scope3’s Climate Shield technology, automatically remove low-performance/high-emission sites for increased sustainability gains. Also at no extra work, cost or negative performance impact. Because reducing inefficiencies wherever you can helps to lower carbon emissions.
“And the fact that [a MFA site] has 47 ads on the screen all 100% viewable and it has 1000 different SSPs engaged, you know, probably misrepresenting the inventory as in-stream like that is a massive carbon problem. And from my perspective, [starting with MFA sites in the] first place is the stuff we know doesn't work.” advised O’Kelley.
Lesson 3: Use Your Sustainability Initiatives As a Competitive Advantage
Demands for greater sustainability are increasing from both B2C and B2B companies. In fact, 80% of consumers prefer brands that are actively working to reduce their carbon footprint, even going as far as paying a premium for eco-friendly products and services. Furthermore, because approximately 90% of an organization’s carbon emissions come from their supply chain, organizations are looking to their suppliers and partners and evaluating their sustainability efforts.
“What's happening with the marketer community is they're seeing this alignment and they're jumping in and that's driving agency adoption.” O’Kelley shared how sustainability initiatives are also driving employee engagement.
Profitability and sustainability are highly correlated. Much of the work that goes into being sustainable is removing and reducing inefficiencies, which also has a side-effect of increased cost savings that become greater with every cycle. Now you don’t have to buy as much inventory to reach good performance.
Related: 5 Ways Brands Are Becoming Sustainable While Maintaining Profitability — Sharethrough
But measuring carbon reduction efforts in digital media and advertising requires an industry-wide standard. Who’s leading that charge?
Overall, this is what O’Kelley had to say about using sustainability as a competitive advantage,
“So what we're seeing from all of the major holding companies as well as many independent agencies is that sustainability is good for business. They're using this to win new clients. It's great for employees because people feel excited about the mission and it's great for actually driving results in a market that is increasingly complicated. This is a way for agencies to differentiate. The agencies that are doing the best work here and leading in the hardest, they're winning business and they're driving better outcomes for their clients.”
Lesson 4: Global Agencies Are Driving Sustainability Standards in Media and Advertising
Global agencies are demanding a common sustainability standard. They need to report their carbon reduction efforts to shareholders and stakeholders, and they must adhere to one single consistent measurement framework. Global agencies like WPP, Dentsu, Havas, and others were some of the first to take action and reduce carbon emissions. How they get to that standard may require the help of research firms such as KPMG, Deloitte and EY.
“The biggest driver of standardization is marketers that operate globally.” said O’Kelley.
This will likely be the standard that is adopted by the digital ad and media industry. So for any player in ad tech, working with the IAB Tech Lab and AdNetZero enables industry leaders to provide their input on defining these standards. Like how programmatic advertising has introduced new measurement frameworks (for example: CTR, VCR) with every new platform and format, it will also evolve to include a sustainability standard.
Related: 7 Vital Lessons From the Agency Panel at the Green Media Summit — Sharethrough
Lesson 5: Let Data Guide Your Sustainability Journey
“The good news is there's no industry with people who understand data better than us. We've dealt with more data, more complexity we've optimized on a broader scale. There's nobody in the world more qualified to use sustainability data to change business decisions than us.“ encouraged O’Kelley.
A recurring theme throughout the Green Media Summit has been to look at the big picture but work on the stuff that you can, no matter how big or small. Every player in the digital media and advertising ecosystem has the power to contribute to sustainability.
For brands and advertisers, moving ad spend away from high-emitting MFA sites helps significantly reduce scope 3 emissions. DSPs can help make it easier for advertisers to purchase green inventory. Some publishers are reevaluating their sites, tech and infrastructure to remove inefficiencies. And every organization can take part in SPO and CPO.
Related: 3 Ways Publishers Can Reduce Carbon Emissions Without Impacting Revenue — Sharethrough
A great example of this is the collective work that over 8000 brands have accomplished by compensating for nearly 400 metric tonnes of carbon waste by running their digital ad campaigns through GreenPMPs™, Sharethrough’s first Green Media Product, built in partnership with Scope3. But GreenPMPs™ are only part of the equation and intended to remove the inevitable emissions after carbon reductions are applied. Due to the nature of digital, there will always be some carbon waste, no matter how minimal.
“What if we all took all the skills we've developed over the past 20 years of programmatic and added one more variable to optimize and that variable would let us change the carbon impact of this industry by hundreds of thousands of metric tons this year, we can do that. And that's what I aspire to do with all of you. With Sharethrough with everyone else who's on this journey.” said O’Kelley as his parting words to the attendees, welcoming and thanking everyone on their sustainability journey.
Focusing on Sustainability Leads to Positive Outcomes
It can seem like a challenge getting started with sustainability and the initial investments can deter or delay some organizations. However, these are just growing pains from a new industry-wide initiative that will be solved and improved over time and as more organizations start their sustainability journeys. Until then, find out more about how different digital media and advertising organizations are becoming more sustainable.
Contact us to learn more about how you can start removing emissions from your digital ad campaigns.
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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