Phil Benedictus.
There is a growing awareness of the (huge) Carbon footprint of advertising industry-wide in Australia, with the arrival of Ad Net Zero last year and growing adoption of carbon measurement. Inconveniently, that measurement has brought a less welcome learning: namely that the carbon footprint of advertising is growing fast. Given that the existing GHG emissions from advertising are greater than those generated by aviation and there are people predicting that the footprint of digital advertising could double in 2025, this is a big deal.
So what’s driving the increase?
Well to an extent we can blame the consumer – advertisers have little choice but to follow the herd and the herd wants ever more video and audio content. Trouble is, while these channels are less carbon intensive than their legacy broadcast equivalents, the volume of consumption and number of ads and ad formats has soared.
And there can be a lot of waste. Chris Sewell, Head of Research at Net Zero Media, a company that focuses on measuring GHG emissions from media, says:
‘A classic example is how, counterintuitively, on most platforms a skippable video ad generates a similar carbon footprint to a completed view as the video file is downloaded either way.’
Similarly, podcasts often download automatically, but may not be listened to, and, again, if for instance you use the Apple podcast app, you can simply fast forward 30s past any ad spot – i.e. any ad is skippable. This is a problem both in terms of carbon and, more basically, effectiveness. And that’s before you get into multi-screening, shortened attention spans and ineffectual creative.
Meanwhile digital transformation continues apace, notably in OOH where Australia is a global leader in the digitisation of Out-Of-Home. In the medium to long term, assuming we reduce carbon emissions from the grid, this is a good thing: no printing of skins, fewer maintenance vehicles and much less hassle in terms of actual physical installation. In the immediate term however, whilst powered by the existing grid, digitisation means more energy, so more carbon. And, according to recent data, 40% of billboards in Australia are now digital – the highest ratio of static to digital billboards in the world and, as of 2023, 76% of Out-of-home spending in Australia is via digital billboard screens (source: World Out of Home Organization (sic)). Laudably, most of the major Australian OOH suppliers buy Green energy, which contributes to investment in renewables and infrastructure, but any asset plugged into the grid (including most digital assets) is still driving carbon emissions in line with how that electricity has been generated. So, in NSW and Victoria for instance, that would be largely from coal-fired power stations.
And of course, ad spend on other digital platforms keeps rising too. Programmatic advertising has been on the radar for its high carbon intensity now for some time, but new tech is driving even greater emissions. AI search can use 10 times the energy of a Google search. Similarly, personalisation generates higher emissions. And, despite its often questionable effectiveness, programmatic advertising is still a mainstay of digital display advertising strategies, presumably largely due to commercial considerations agency-side. Its energy-intensive infrastructure remains a major contributor to emissions as digital advertising marches on.
Conversely, AI and advances in video-conferencing and associated tech can help drive carbon efficiencies. For instance, a creative agency may be able to cut costs and emissions by using AI and Virtual Reality to avoid traveling to a specific location for a shoot. There will surely be a time (and it may well already have arrived) where AI can help eliminate advertising waste. Which would be handy, as it’s the media placements that have the greatest impact.
This all comes as the planet has just broken through the 1.5C barrier that we signed up to the Paris agreement to avoid, with recent reports showing this may not be the ‘blip’ we had hoped for. Climate change is our present reality.
This means next 5-10 years are crucial. In the absence of the societal changes required for a move away from a consumer culture or to develop a real clean energy solution for media, it is more important than ever to avoid waste in advertising: wasted ad dollars = wasted carbon = a waste of money. This is logic that should cut through to even the most fervent climate denialist. And it starts with advertising effectiveness. When you stop to think about it, the concept of a skippable ad, for instance, is seriously flawed, as an unseen ad simply can’t do its job properly.
Measurement at a granular level to allow optimisation of carbon effectiveness has never been more urgently needed. Planners are having to start to think about a relatively new set of measures for their campaigns: how does the carbon used stack up against reach, cost and acquisitions? How do channels and formats compare? Overlay this kind of thinking with best practice effectiveness – ensuring you are optimising to the correct goals, streamlining UX (every click is more carbon), using quality ad placements that drive real benefits and so on… and you can run a cleaner campaign that drives better outcomes for planetary health and advertiser alike.
Phil Benedictus is Founder of Benedictus Media and Co-Founder of Net Zero Media
He will be joining a panel of industry experts to discuss how to deliver Comms With Less Carbon, at The Commons on George Street on Wednesday 26th February from 5.30-8pm