5 ways to cut the carbon footprint of your ad campaigns
In this article, we give you 5 actionable and effective steps to directly limit the carbon impact (scope 1 & 2) of your marketing campaigns. The data comes largely from the Fifty Five study.
That said, you should know that other, very important indirect actions also exist to reduce carbon impact. Think of sharing values compatible with the ecological transition (not shooting your ad in an airport, on a beach in Bali, and so on), or avoiding greenwashing so as not to slow the transition down. These actions belong to scope 3 and will be the subject of a future article.
1) Reduce the impact of the ad shoot
When we talk about reducing the carbon footprint in marketing, we often think of small successive tricks at the distribution stage (watching the video in lower quality, and so on). Yet one of the biggest impacts comes from creating the spots themselves. The Fifty Five study analysed the carbon impact of a fictional shoot for a perfume brand advert, and found that most of the carbon footprint comes from transport (in particular air travel, when it is used). Hotels and meals come next. In the examples covered by the study, we see that a shoot with a 40-person crew in California generates more than 200 tonnes of CO2eq for travel alone, while a shoot in Germany with a 20-person crew generates "only" a little over 6 tonnes.
When a shoot is necessary, it is therefore important to limit travel by filming as locally as possible (your city, your region, your country, and so on) and by favouring lower-carbon transport (train, carpooling, and so on). You can also have an impact on meals by offering plant-based alternatives and/or dishes with white meat rather than red meat.
The best solution is still to reuse content that has already been created to build your ad campaigns. Because then there is no need for a shoot at all.
2) Shorten the length of your ad spots
At the distribution stage, this is the most effective action. The Fifty Five study showed that, within an advertising campaign, a 12" video spot rather than a 15" one cuts the campaign's carbon footprint by nearly 22%. So imagine going from 30" to 15".
As a general rule, prefer static formats over dynamic ones whenever that does not reduce marketing effectiveness. We often think of video and animated formats, but other formats can be just as effective (audio, static, and so on).
3) Reduce the quality of your ad spots
Going from 1080p to 720p can cut the carbon footprint by a few extra percent. Your goal should be to reduce quality as much as possible, as long as it does not affect the legibility of the spot (and of course as long as it meets the requirements of the distribution platform). Television generally requires better quality, but for mobile distribution there is no need to deliver a video in HD.
4) Deliver over Wi-Fi rather than 3G/4G.
This is not always feasible, but some advertising platforms offer it. It is accepted that 4G consumes more CO2eq than Wi-Fi, so it is advisable to target people connected over Wi-Fi whenever possible. If the platform does not offer that option and it fits your action plan, you can still run your ads at times of day when Wi-Fi use is higher than 4G use. This effectively reduces the emissions produced, as you can see in the chart below.
5) Target effectively to reduce useless impressions.
This is probably the most contentious of the five actions, but it deserves to be on the list. Targeting is a very complex ethical question. Still, in a world where it exists, it is better to use that data to reach the people most likely to be interested in the subject of our spot. Otherwise, we increase the number of so-called "useless" impressions. And more impressions means more distribution, and therefore more CO2eq generated. So do a solid targeting job before running your campaign, to be sure you are reaching the people who genuinely care about your product or service.
So, ready to run more responsible advertising campaigns?
