Driving Success with More Sustainable Advertising Practices

In the kickoff conversation welltimed leading into Earth Month Frey reintroduced John Osborn who many on the call knew from his previous roles as CEO of OMD and BBDO previous key note at the DPAA Summit and now director of Ad Net Zero which the DPAA now proudly supports When one trade association becomes a member of another association it must be for a good reason In the case of DPAA and others from the 4A39s to the ANA one very good reason for joining is frankly to benefit the planetA Global Commitment to Net ZeroThe UKbased prosocial organization has been expanding with DPAA39s partnership and others to show advertisers how to reduce their impact on the earth Ad campaigns can have a significant carbon footprint and we can all now work towards ameliorating excessThe advertising industry has traditionally not been seen as a significant contributor to environmental pollution And yet its impact has risen steadily with the programmatic ecosystem using a surprising amount of computing power Simple abatement efforts include opting for a phone call instead of a full business travel reducing digital file sizes optimizing ad versions to reduce file redundancies and aiming for local storage over cloud storageAs the world becomes more conscious of the immediate need for action industries of all kinds are stepping up to do their part in reducing their carbon footprint And the data has borne out the value of companies39 efforts in appealing to environmentally conscious consumers who are quotvoting with their pursesquot But more importantly Osborn noted quotIt39s incumbent on all of us to figure out how we can transparently share best practices and begin to create movement It39s critical that we do it now because if we wait much longer we39re at the point of no returnquotquotBarry Freyquot he said acknowledging the DPAA participation quotI want to just thank you and your membership and your team for your support Because as it relates to Ad Net Zero no matter which seat you39re sitting in it39s pretty hard to debate the importance of a cleaner better planet in the long termquot A sobering UN report on the earth hitting a critical warming threshold by the early 2030s was reported in the New York Times that same week noting that even holding at current levels quotwill require global cooperation billions of dollars and big changesquotFrom Awareness to Action Plan Five Steps to Sustainable AdvertisingOsborn toplined Ad Net Zero39s detailed fivepart Action Plan for the ad industry which starts with quotgetting your house in orderquot a commitment by agencies and marketing services companies to reduce their operational carbon emissions by first identifying their carbon footprint data then reducing emissions by switching to renewable energy for example to agreeing to quotChange the Briefquot an initiative that provides advertisers with more sustainable solutions to their campaign briefs and also help change consumer behavior through messagingOsborn sparked pride on the call reminding DPAA Global members that quotIn times of turmoil or a crisis when advertising comes together it can do amazing things whether it39s restoring spirits after a wartime or a disaster or dare I say even the Great Recession Advertising has the power to not only build brands and build businesses but can build countries and can build movements And movements can do amazing thingsquotCharging Ahead to Win Hearts and MindsIn a perfect segue to Ad Net Zero Nicole Silver Senior Vice President Marketing of DPAA member Volta which provides DOOH media at public electric vehicle EV charging stations discussed the growing consumer demand for cleaner transportation and thus greater dependence on those charging stations Her interview highlighted how mediaenabled charging stations which Volta places directly quotin front of your local Whole Foods Kroger AMC Theater and morequot reach consumers right before they head inside and reach for their wallet to make a purchase These prime locations make the Volta Mediaamp8482 Network quota full funnel solutionquot driving sales but also shifting consumer perceptions and growing brand or product awarenessamp160Volta39s mediapowered chargers also connect an advertiser39s message to a more sustainable form of transportation which is good news given the growing number of consumers who expect brands to be environmentally responsible Volta39s own research on the quotClimate Conscious Consumerquot reveals that quot50 of the consumer general population have said that they39re more interested in doing business with a company that commits to sustainability effortsquot That sentiment is reflected in the incremental sales and ROAS delivered in Volta success stories that is often quotwell above industry benchmarksquotSharing their own benchmarking which Ad Net Zero would appreciate Silver said quotthe environmental impact of our campaigns to date have delivered approximately 150 million miles driven by electric vehiclesquot Their infopacked website even includes a quotcampaign calculatorquot for ad partnersFrom Street to Store A Success StoryFor brands like Michelin that have leveraged Volta Media that is especially good alignment Silver offered up results from a recent campaign that showed an impressive 70 boost in awareness about proper tire use for EVs and a significant bump 38 in positive perception of their environmentalism Michelin also connects the dots on their site with robust EV consumer informationThat ability to influence consumers right before purchase through messaging on EV chargers is then amplified with retail mediaDPAA39s Frey provided background on this area historically referred to as quotdigital endcapsquot and asked Kate ScottDawkins who helms advertising industry forecasts and analyses for WPP39s media investment group to elaborate on retail media and the trends of other advertising vehicles Note GroupM also announced a Coalition for Media Decarbonization last fall adding fuel to the push for more sustainable advertising practices and WPP is a member of Ad Net ZeroRising Trends The Emergence of Retail Media and the Reinvigoration of Out of Home Acknowledging its trajectory ScottDawkins said quotRetail media was something we broke out for the first time in Decemberquot for their impressive GroupM quotThis Year Next Yearquot biannual report which looks to the size and forecast of global advertising revenue quotIt felt really important to start to look at that separatelyquot she said quotbecause I mean it39s 14 of overall global advertising this year going forwardquotIn recounting more report details she noted quotI don39t think I39ll ever see global advertising growth of nearly 25 again in my career or the sort of whiplash effect of coming down off of that high but last year was still pretty decent growthquot referring to the 65 global advertising revenue growth in 2022 and projections for this year globally at 59 She softened the blow of 202339s more modest growth when she said quotFor the most part what we39ve modeled up to this point has not been based on a case of deep global recession We do think we39re more on the soft landing side even if it39s going to stretch out a little bit longer than maybe we had originally thoughtquotIn other specific examples of how ad dollars are shifting the faster growing segments in the past couple of years are CTV which has picked up some of the slack in linear TV especially among younger audiences And quotdigital continues to grow despite a lot of the headlinesquot ScottDawkins said However she added quotthere will be vendors or ad sellers within that that are slower growing in certain areas so I think it39s important to look on a longerterm basisquotOn the mind of all members on the call she validated that quotOOH recovered well and we39ll be seeing more recovery in 2024quot On a global level though quotthe most interesting recent story in Out of Home is certainly China for the past six years leading up to 2022 they were the largest OOH market But their lockdowns and zeroCOVID policies in 2022 meant that we saw a 34 decline in China last yearquot Some growth there is expected in 2024 but not likely to regain their prepandemic levels within the next five yearsHowever the December report says OOH in some markets like Brazil Australia France and the US are already above 2019 levels in 2022 In the US specifically it notes quotFurther growth is likely to hinge on OOH providers39 ability to digitize not just their inventory but also their operations and to align offerings with marketers that we believe are increasingly oriented nationally rather than locallyquotOOH is also seen as a solution for many marketers being challenged by reach lacking in televisionbased campaigns In the near term the GroupM recommendation is quotactivating and measuring campaigns across not only linear and connected TV but also online video and OOH video inventoryquotCertainly the DPAA is bullish on digitization of out of home that has enabled targeting and dynamic ad serving with the onetwo punch of it being one of the few skipless and brand safe mediums That is clearly a formula for another definition of quotsustainablequot advertisingClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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Driving Success with More Sustainable Advertising Practices

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E.B. Moss

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