New tool will also allow benchmarking performance alongside rest of the industry.
Irish adtech player Converge Digital has developed a new online tool that enables marketers to easily measure, reduce and offset the entire end-to-end carbon footprint of their digital advertising.
In what it claims is a world first, the tool is fully integrated into the Converge Digital platform using data provided by partner company Scope3, a business that utilises data, technology and relationships to accurately map and measure the end-to-end emissions of an ad.
“Not surprisingly, more and more consumers now want to buy from brands that actually practice sustainability in what they do, and that includes advertising”
By tracking and aggregating the carbon emissions created by Digital advertising, the tool measures the energy required to fuel the end-to-end supply path of an ad impression. This comprehensive overview enables advertisers and agencies to continually evaluate the Co2 emissions from a media plan so they can reduce and / or offset the entire carbon footprint of their digital advertising campaigns and ultimately work towards de-carbonising the global media and advertising industry.
Climate-friendly advertising
The ability to measure carbon emissions data is now a key reporting feature of the Converge Digital platform, a system which connects advertisers and online media publishers by automating the placement of digital advertising and, so, driving significant efficiencies and improvements in campaign effectiveness.
“The carbon footprint of the Irish and global advertising industry is significant, so our new tool will help move us all towards positive, more sustainable climate-friendly advertising,” explained Ian Maxwell, founder and CEO of Converge Digital. “Not surprisingly, more and more consumers now want to buy from brands that actually practice sustainability in what they do, and that includes advertising.”
Converge Digital was established in 2015 to automate the buying of digital advertising and now works with all the top media agencies in Ireland.
The Converge Digital platform works to simplify the process of digital advertising by combining the skills of human teams with dedicated digital solutions to enable advertisers to buy from premium, brand safe publishers, while publishers can increase their digital revenues and grow their relationships with brands.
“With the launch of this tool, we are taking the lead in measuring the carbon output of Irish Digital advertising and we hope that other media channels will begin to follow our lead. Delaying or denying is no longer an option. Advertisers need solutions to help them make more informed choices around sustainable advertising so that they can minimise the environmental impact of all their digital marketing and stay on track to achieve their carbon commitments. With the climate in crisis, industry-wide collaboration is our only hope and we have so much more to gain by working together than we ever could alone.”
How it works
The tool evaluates the end-to-end emissions generated along the entire supply chain by each individual digital ad transaction. Using a customised dashboard, brands and agencies can monitor the carbon generated across an entire digital campaign and then factor these data insights into their media strategies and day-to-day processes to drive more sustainable media planning.
The online tool will also allow benchmarking performance alongside the rest of the industry. Advertisers and agencies will also be introduced to methods that can help them reduce the environmental impact of their digital marketing operations through various domestic and global projects that prevent or remove carbon from the atmosphere.
Every step in the lifecycle of an ad, from content creation and production to delivery, creates emissions, predominantly from electricity, computer servers and cloud computing. Indirect delivery costs required to facilitate an ad’s journey to completion also result in a significant amount of Co2.
Converge-Digital’s new tool monitors the operational energy of each company along the entire advertising supply chain to obtain a comprehensive overview of the true Co2 emission value. This includes:
- Ad Creation by Advertising Agency – Emissions from agency overheads such as office space, travel, catering, materials, digital tools and the production process
- Ad Production – Emissions from content production such as equipment, transportation, catering and post production
- Display of the ad by the Publisher– Emissions from cloud computing, servers and data transmission for page load, device energy usage, materials, labour, data collection and analytics
“Converge Digital and Scope3 are both on a shared journey to decarbonise media and advertising,” said Brian O’Kelley, co-founder and CEO of Scope3.
“Through this exciting partnership we hope to make the accurate measurement of carbon easy and actionable for all. There’s no doubt the rise in programmatic trading has revolutionised digital advertising – but it has come at a significant cost to our planet. The path to net zero as an industry will take collaboration from us all. The more we enhance our measurement and align with Greenhouse Gas Standards the greater impact we can have.”
Main image at top: Ian Maxwell, founder and CEO of Converge Digital
