The advertising industry will need to play a part in fighting climate change over the next decade, according to industry analysis.
A global consultancy Forrester study, Toward A Greener Marketing Ecosystem, says brands, agencies, media and tech companies acting to reduce the marketing and advertising industry’s carbon footprint will gain an advantage.
“Doing so isn’t only the new industry challenge -- it’s a way to differentiate,” says Thomas Husson, VP, principal analyst at Forrester.
“While defining standard data measurement and KPIs for digital and media decarbonation remains a work in progress, companies that tackle and anticipate the challenge now will gain a competitive advantage.”
A World Federation of Advertisers survey recently highlighted that sustainability will become the most important part of a CMO’s role in five years’ time.
Stephan Loerke, WFA CEO, says sustainability is the mother of all challenges.
“And climate change is the defining issue of our age,” he says. “Marketers have a key role to play in persuading consumers to adopt behaviours that lead to a more sustainable future.”
In Australia, pressure is building on advertising agencies to not represent fossil fuel industry.
Campaign groups Clean Creatives and Comms Declare created a F-List 2022 of more agencies working with the fossil fuel industry
Almost one in five global B2C marketing decision-makers declare that focusing more on sustainability is one of the most important priorities for their organisation’s marketing strategy over the next 12 months, according to Forrester’s Marketing Survey, 2023.
Husson at Forrester says CMOs need to make sure that they consider more than their own advertising and marketing investments.
“The direct impact of your marketing investments is just the tip of the iceberg,” he says.
“Indeed, the carbon footprint of ads is a negligible part of the equation. Advertising and content production, distribution of online and offline marketing and ad assets, data consumption, and device usage represent the direct impact of your marketing investments.
“For many industries such as automotive, CPG, or telecom, marketing’s direct impact is negligible.”
“Product, packaging, and distribution play a much bigger role than marketing investments for most industries.
“The long-term impact is the most important but the hardest to measure. Beyond the direct and indirect impact of marketing investments, advertising and marketing play a huge role in shaping the collective culture and imagination.
“It’s the CMO’s responsibility to avoid reinforcing existing stereotypes about consumerism and to invent a positive way to highlight sustainable lifestyles.”
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