Sustainability in Media Buying: A New Standard for a Greener Future
By Dan Groom,
Senior Digital Executive
As the world becomes more aware of the pressing climate crisis, industries are stepping up to take responsibility for their environmental impact. At the forefront of this shift are agencies that embrace sustainable practices in every aspect of their operations, from choosing data partners to offsetting the carbon emissions of their campaigns.
This commitment is not only a moral obligation but a necessary response to the growing demand for sustainable practices in the advertising industry and is something close to our hearts here at December 19.
One key element in fostering sustainability is aligning with B Corp-certified companies. B Corp certification is awarded to businesses that meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.
Businesses like us that have B Corp certification, demonstrate their commitment to responsible practices that prioritise the well-being of people and the planet. This ensures that the companies we work with also uphold the highest standards of sustainability.
In parallel with working towards these values, we recent launched our new programmatic offering ‘Optix’, which aims to act towards these values. One key pillar of Optix is ‘Sustainability’, which runs through everything we do at the agency.
Read more about Optix here
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Read more about Optix here 〰️
A crucial step in reducing your carbon footprint is by working with sustainable data partners. By choosing data providers that prioritise environmentally friendly practices, agencies can minimise the ecological impact of the data-driven advertising ecosystem. This includes selecting partners who use renewable energy sources, maintain energy-efficient infrastructure, and have strategies in place to mitigate their environmental impact. It is also important to we ensure these partners align with other key pillars within Optix, such as transparency.
Furthermore, the growing importance of initiatives like Ad Net Zero, an industry-wide, global effort, to reduce the carbon emissions of digital advertising, has transformed how agencies approach campaign strategies. All our campaigns allocate spend to offsetting carbon emissions through our partnership with Ecologi and we look to integrate Scope3 measurement where can so that we can optimise with a sustainability lens on.
We are also looking forward to the release of the IAB’s new carbon calculator which will hopefully come out later this year. Aligning with the Global Media Sustainability Framework (GMSF) will help standardise reporting so that everyone is measuring in the same way. It will be interesting to see how Trump’s administration will impact this voluntary agreement though given they are prioritising economic growth and deregulation over environmental concerns.
What is clear though, is that taking a sustainable approach to media planning and buying can have tangible benefits for clients. Faster loading times delivers a more streamlined user journey for clients’ customers and focusing on brand safe environments means the removal of MFAs and lower quality environments.
As part of our TAG Brand Safety accreditation, we’ve spent a lot of time refining our blocklists to boost quality removing those sites with high ad clutter to deliver more impact and greater SOV on page as well as blocking those with high refresh rates which place higher demands on computational load.
Read About our TAG Brand Safety Accreditation Here
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Read About our TAG Brand Safety Accreditation Here ~
The future of media buying is green, and it’s clear that the advertising industry must evolve to meet the needs of both consumers and the planet. Optix is the next step for us to be more eco-conscious when digital media buying. By becoming more actionable with our campaigns, we can drive real change, creating a more sustainable world a campaign at a time.