Fresh out of college as a computer science student, Jon Schulz knew that he wanted to be a marketer, and from day one of his 12-year stint at Ford, he did just that. Throughout his career ups and downs, Jon strategically navigated climbing up the corporate ladder to achieve career success.

Fast-forward and Jon is now CMO at Viant Technology, a role he never expected to hold for 16 years. A background in information technology made the transition into ad tech smoother than expected, especially now with advertising completely reliant on technology.  

“It translated pretty well because it was pre-internet when I got all my training. So I took classes like DOS, D-Base, and Qobuz, which are archaic today. But coding languages tend to be pretty consistent,” Jon explained. 

Nowadays, he’s shifted his focus to sustainability. While some question whether digital advertising has a real environmental impact, the data says otherwise. Digital ads are an invisible yet significant polluter. The advertising industry accounts for 3.5% of global carbon emissions, a percentage destined to climb without changes.

Digital Ads Pack the Carbon Punch of Thousands of Global Flights

Yes, you read that right. Although that ~3.5% sounds small, there is more than meets the eye. When it comes to factories, airlines, and all other aspects that produce carbon, the waste digital advertising produces is not traditional. It’s like seeing a car driving down the road and emitting harmful fumes. It can be hard to understand.

Ad tech uses a lot of electricity, and much of that energy is fossil fuel-driven. 

“Everything’s shifting to digital, and digital requires electricity,” Jon explained. “That’s where the carbon comes from. The evolution of AI is even hungrier for processing and computing. It uses even more electricity.” 

A recent report by The Times entitled “Making AI Less Thirsty” reveals that the latest Big Tech sustainability reports show double-digit increases in water consumption by Google (17 percent), Microsoft (22.5 percent), and Meta (17 percent). What’s worse? ChatGPT and other Gen AI platforms need four times more water to respond to queries than previously presumed. You may be wondering how AI and water are connected, but the water is used to cool down the data centers. This demand is growing as AI is only getting more advanced. 

The environmental impact extends far beyond electricity. Production costs associated with the many events and conferences we attend also contribute to the carbon footprint. Giveaways also have an effect. 

“I was at a Detroit Lions game where they handed out electric wristbands to the crowd,” Jon says. “By the end, about 60,000 were discarded on the ground. That’s a lot of unnecessary waste.”

Signage and creative also play key roles in stifling sustainability. Production, travel, and logistics for advertising campaigns also contribute to the waste. “Every time we shoot an ad, whether in LA or Poland, the travel and resources add up,” Jon points out. “We can’t erase it overnight, but we can start being more mindful.”

The Road Ahead: Balancing Profit and Planet

Very few companies are acting on sustainability efforts, despite widespread interest. According to Viant research, 70% of advertisers express interest in sustainability, but only 10% take real steps to implement changes. Viant’s Adtricity initiative aims to shift this by rewarding advertisers with renewable energy credits for every dollar spent, helping decarbonize the entire programmatic supply chain.

“Green inventory is already a reality,” Jon explains. “Publishers have started adopting carbon-free practices, and we’re empowering the industry to make more sustainable choices.”

While many companies are eager to adopt sustainability practices, the challenge lies in maintaining them when revenue metrics start to dip. “The real test comes when sustainability efforts impact the bottom line,” shares Jon. “Will companies stick with it?”

There may never be a perfect solution, but the industry is moving in the right direction. The push for greener practices in ad tech is just beginning, and while it may be a slow process, progress is being made.

“We can’t change everything overnight, but small, conscious steps will drive us toward a more sustainable future,” Jon explains.

The post The Unseen Environmental Cost of Digital Advertising and the Push for Sustainability appeared first on AdMonsters.

At Cannes Lions 2024, the conversations were as lively and diverse as the French Riviera itself. Amid the glitz and glamour, we sat down with several leading digital media and advertising figures to get their take on the future. 

From exploring ID-less solutions to leveraging retail media data, the strategies for surviving and thriving in this ever-evolving ecosystem were as varied as they were insightful.

Geoffroy Martin, CEO of Ogury, emphasized the necessity for publishers to pivot towards ID-less solutions and alternative identifiers. “If you own your first-party data and comply with regulations like GDPR and CCPA, you will be able to monetize your data, and that’s what advertisers want,” Martin explained. This proactive stance is crucial as the industry braces for the end of third-party identifiers. 

Meanwhile, Oz Etzioni, CEO of Clinch, highlighted the importance of personalization, automation, and omnichannel strategies, underscoring the need for a holistic approach to integrating CTV into advertising.

Read on to learn what leading industry leaders from Ogury, Clinch, TransUnion, and more had to say.

Publisher Playbook: Winning Strategies from Cannes Lions 2024

Geoffroy Martin, CEO of Ogury

According to Martin (if you haven’t already), publishers should start exploring and implementing ID-less solutions and alternative identifiers in partnership with advertisers and technology partners. This proactive approach will help publishers continue monetizing their content effectively, considering that we will be done with third-party identifiers in the foreseeable future. 

Gathering and maintaining first-party data is, of course, a major focal point.

“If you own your first-party data and comply with regulations like GDPR and CCPA, you will be able to monetize your data, and that’s what advertisers want,” Martin explained. “When Google finally deprecates the cookies, signals from third-party identifiers will disappear. This will be a massive problem for publishers, giving them no options but to continue collaborating with advertisers and technology partners to work with ID-less solutions or alternative ID.”

Oz Etzioni, CEO of Clinch

From Etzioni’s perspective, publishers have a few options for survival. He suggests that publishers integrate personalized technology, optimize content frequency in partnership with buyers, adopt omnichannel strategies, invest in automation and AI, utilize retail media data, and focus on operational efficiency to enhance the effectiveness of CTV and retail media campaigns. 

Overall, publishers need to adopt a holistic approach to integrating CTV into their advertising strategy. 

“We are partnering with publishers to integrate everything into one, let’s call it activation,” Etzioni said. “CTV is becoming another channel. They’re also starting to venture into more formats like display and video on the opening home screen. It’s not just pre-rolls anymore. In terms of frequency management, we are working with publishers by taking the same ad and creating different variations and stories behind it. That way, a user will not see the same annoying ad 25 times. 

Michael Schoen, EVP/GM, Marketing Solutions at TransUnion

Schoen’s advice for publishers focuses on understanding consumer identity, leveraging cloud environments for data collaboration, and partnering with buyers and intermediaries to ensure the effectiveness of targeted marketing strategies. 

We discussed using GenAI to scale creative content and TransUnion’s pivotal role in providing data and measurement solutions for marketers and publishers. Schoen also schooled us on this concept of “Movable Middles,” which focuses on targeting consumers that are neither loyal to one brand nor competitors to drive incremental impact. 

“The concept of the middle is to focus on the middle, don’t target those folks who are really loyal to your brand because they’re already yours,” said Schoen. “Don’t target folks who are really loyal to the competitor either. One shows that investments in building your brand actually pay off in the long term and act like an annuity. If you can take a consumer and shift their brand loyalty, that will pay off long-term, and you don’t need to make this trade-off.” 

Voices from the Croisette: Insights and Anecdotes from Cannes Lions 2024

Lena Arbery, Associate Director Sales Tripadvisor 

“The key lesson from Cannes Lion 2024 is the importance of consistently innovating while staying true to your brand’s core values and putting consumers at the center of your brand. In a crowded market, advertisers must prioritize their end customers, who are the heart and soul of the brand, to effectively target and retarget them through every step of the funnel.”

Paul Wright, Head of International for Uber Advertising

“Anecdotally, we heard that out of a week of highlights at Cannes, Uber Advertising’s late-night pizza giveaway on the Croisette stood out as especially welcome. When our team helped serve them, they were certainly warmly welcomed by the event’s attendees! 

Regarding key topics, the rise of commerce media and commerce networks was undeniably dominant. Prominent brands across verticals, from our platform to airlines to banks, all came to highlight their commerce media offerings. Last year, the focus was perhaps more on pure retail media, but this year’s Cannes showed that commerce media offers distinct advantages. It can effectively steer consumers along their purchase path and empower brands to amplify their message across the upper and lower funnel.”

Simon Sikorski, President, Global Operations of XR Extreme Reach

“A lot of companies are buzzing around sustainability at Cannes, emphasizing the urgency to move faster. The discussion is that advertising has an amazing role in getting the message out and helping consumers make informed choices when opting for sustainable brands and practices. Sustainability is not just a passion but a business advantage. Companies are moving from policies to measurable outcomes. The focus is on reducing storage, optimizing assets, and effectively measuring these efforts. Sustainability has not fallen off the agenda at Cannes.”

Connatix – Mike Caprio, SVP, Americas 

“Cannes is back, with a crowd larger than even pre-pandemic levels. While POSSIBLE this year was impressive and quickly becoming a tent pole event in our industry, the reigning champ remains Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Key themes of the week focused on the premium internet, leveraging data and other signals to enhance brand outcomes. Video and multi-device streaming continue to gain the most momentum, particularly through contextual targeting to expand audiences across CTV and OLV. Many emerging markets are looking to the US for guidance on transitioning from open linear television to streaming. And when it comes to the ongoing debate over generative AI, the industry is striving to find a balance across media, creative, and content sectors. However, a consistent outcome has yet to emerge.”

Peter Crofut, VP Business Development, Wurl

“In general, agencies seem to be pushing advertisers to widen the definition of’ performance‘. I found myself in many conversations with agency leaders both on and offstage, questioning whether we’re too focused on the lower funnel and ignoring the power of brand awareness metrics. Video completion, longer and more emotionally-invested attention agencies are making the case that these upper funnel metrics serve a real purpose and ultimately drive outcomes.”

The post Seen and Heard at Cannes Lions 2024 + Strategies for Survival Amid Change appeared first on AdMonsters.

Earlier today, GumGum, a contextual advertising company, announced some good news for the planet. Thanks to its traffic-shaping partnership with Assertive Yield, the company has lowered its bidstream carbon emissions by 38% — avoiding an average of seven tons of CO2 emissions daily.  To GumGum, traffic shaping is proof positive that what’s good for the planet is good for business as well as the entire ecosystem.

As part of AdMonsters’ Going Green series, we talked with Kara Petrocelli, GumGum’s Senior Director of Platform Operations, about the sustainability benefits of traffic shaping, as well as her company’s future sustainability initiatives.

AdMonsters: What was the impetus for GumGum’s traffic shaping initiative? Was it driven by business or environmental considerations?

Kara Petrocelli: It was both, actually. We embarked on traffic shaping as part of our commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility. We recognize that the environmental impact of digital advertising operations is quite large. Our goal is to lower the company’s carbon footprint while still finding ways to drive more efficiency within our ad serving process. We quickly realized that traffic shaping could lower our emissions, as well as the emissions of our upstream partners.

AdMonsters: That’s a big consideration. When an ad-tech company lowers its carbon emissions, its partners lower theirs as well.

KP: Every action taken within the advertising ecosystem has a direct impact on other companies, including sustainability actions. While traffic shaping is lowering our Scope 1 emissions, we’re simultaneously reducing the Scope 3 emissions of our demand partners.

Back in 2022 GumGum adopted sustainability as one of our key pillars, and that led us to ask what actions we can take to reduce and remove our emissions.

AdMonsters: How does traffic shaping lower carbon emissions?

KP: Traffic shaping is the method of reducing the amount of inventory that is being sent to demand partners. The goal is to reduce the inventory each demand partner isn’t likely to want, and to send them impressions they have an interest in purchasing. That can look different to different partners. We don’t want to send bid requests in regions that a demand partner doesn’t support, for example. So by eliminating those extraneous bid requests, we provide better service to our clients and reduce carbon.

 Traffic shaping actually stems from the demand side. As DSPs began to put restrictions and caps on the amount of inventory that an SSP can send, it fell to the SSPs to determine the right mix of inventory to send on a partner-by-partner basis.

AdMonsters: How does Assertive Yield fit in?

KP: We opted to partner with Assertive Yield because they have AI algorithms that learn what a demand partner is interested in real time. Bidding behavior is far from static; seasonality, changing consumer behavior, there are a lot of factors that change what a demand partner may bid on. What someone is interested in for back to school in September can be very different from their interests during the holidays around November and December.

AdMonsters: So by optimizing the mix of inventory you send to each partner on a continuous basis, GumGum has lowered its carbon footprint?

KP: That’s right. And the nice thing is it’s not a one-and-done thing. By partnering with Assertive Yield that carbon reduction is always on because it’s always affecting our ever-changing bidding landscape. It gives us the assurance that those carbon reductions and bidding efficiencies are permanent.

AdMonsters: One of the pillars of sustainability is measurement and validation by a third-party. How are you measuring the carbon reduction of your bidstream?

KP: We’ve partnered with Cedara, which is a carbon intelligence platform, so they’re quantifying our carbon reduction. What’s cool about it is that the 38% isn’t just in GumGum’s Scope 1 reductions, there are others our partners are achieving through our traffic shaping. We can’t measure those now, but hopefully Cedara will be able to one day.

AdMonsters: Are you using Cedara to measure your bidstream carbon emissions only?

KP: No, we’re using Cedara to measure all of our emissions, even those outside of the traffic and inventory we send to our partners. Cedara is looking at everything, from office energy use to travel expenses, and  how many commuters we have in each office.

Phase two, we will use Cedara to help us in things like partner onboarding. If we take onboard a new demand source, how will that affect our carbon emissions? What are the costs and load going to be on carbon? Cedara will provide us with an overall emissions score based on our data, which we will then be able to track on a quarter basis, as well as identify areas where we can reduce carbon.

AdMonsters: Sounds amazing. What’s your next carbon initiative now that you have traffic shaping implemented and running on a continuous basis?

KP: Our next big initiative is to encourage our downstream partners, such as publishers, to work with Cedara so that they too can measure and ultimately reduce their carbon emissions. Our goal is to lower not just our emissions, but the total emissions of the entire transaction.

Additionally, we’re working with Cedara to create emissions scores for campaigns so that advertisers understand the carbon impact of their advertising. This will allow them to make decisions, such as to opt for lower-carbon emitting ad units, or to purchase carbon offsets for campaigns they know are carbon heavy.

A lot of what we want to do is to get people to consider emissions in their day-to-day jobs and how it affects their campaign decision making. The fact is, there are a lot of green media products available, and choosing one for a campaign is an easy way for a brand to lower its Scope 3 emissions.

AdMonsters: What advice would you give to other senior directors of platform operations who are keen to lower their company’s carbon footprint?

KP: Start by advocating for your company to make sustainability a pillar, which means getting all the departments to put sustainability at the forefront of their decision making. So whether that is finance, operations, the number of people you hire to staff a particular office, all of these things add up to make a big difference.

I also think that while there are costs involved with partnering with a company like Cedara or Assertive Yield, there are also a lot of cost savings to be gained. We see that by driving efficiency through our ad operations.

AdMonsters: Good advice. Any parting words?

KP: I think a lot of demand sources put pressure on publishers to reduce carbon, but this isn’t a publisher-only issue. This is a challenge that everyone in the ecosystem needs to address — SSPs, DSPs, ad servers, and so on. Obviously it’s helpful if publishers looked at an SSP’s sustainability when choosing who to work with, but the truth is, everyone should look upstream and downstream.

__ 

Kara Petrocelli is GumGum’s Senior Director of Platform Operations and has been with the company for ten years. For the past decade, Kara has had a front-row seat in the various iterations of ad tech throughout the years. Today at GumGum, Kara mainly focuses on GumGum’s demand-side operations and third-party partnerships, from day-to-day internal and external operations to the technology and product involved throughout the process.

Kara is passionate about gender equity within the industry and beyond, serving for years as a co-lead for Women of GumGum. She graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder and is based in Los Angeles with her baby boy, husband, and fur baby.

The post GumGum Lowers Bidsteam Carbon Emissions by 38% appeared first on AdMonsters.

In digital advertising’s evolving landscape, sustainability is often seen as a necessary yet challenging goal. Emry Downinghall, SVP of Programmatic Revenue & Strategy at Unwind Media, is at the forefront of this transformation.

Unwind Media is pioneering strategies that not only lessen the publisher’s environmental impact but also enhance their bottom line. In this exclusive Q&A, Downinghall shares insights into the innovative approaches that have enabled Unwind Media to balance economic performance with ecological responsibility, providing valuable lessons for the industry.

Let’s explore how these strategies are reshaping the future of sustainable media.

Lynne d Johnson: At the Green Media Summit, your panel explored how publishers can reduce carbon emissions without sacrificing revenue. From Unwind Media’s perspective, how do you balance these two sometimes conflicting goals, and what has been the most challenging aspect of aligning sustainability with business objectives?

Emry Downinghall: The most challenging aspect was convincing business leaders that this was possible and something worth prioritizing on our roadmap.

For publishers, the idea of reducing emissions without negatively impacting business performance does feel like a conflict. Historically the open exchange has mostly rewarded more (partners, bid requests, ads on page) with more (bid density, impressions, revenue), all of which require more energy and generate more emissions, and our initial perspective was no exception. 

However, my primary focus was improving our open exchange efficiency while also improving KPIs that matter to advertisers like viewability and CTR. It just turns out that a great way to improve your attractiveness in the open market coincides with reducing emissions.

LdJ: Unwind Media has implemented innovative traffic-shaping strategies like “no ads if idle” and “smart request.” Can you elaborate on how these tactics contribute to sustainability and potentially enhance user experience and ad viewability? What have been the measurable impacts on your ad operations and revenue?

ED: First, let’s define what these things are as simply as possible. It’s two, pretty straightforward features we integrated into our ad wrapper that require a small amount of code to monitor and manage bid requests and auctions. 

‘Smart Request’ stops calling SSPs that have failed to clear our dynamic price floor for X-number of auctions over Y-period, by user session and ad unit. ‘No Ads If Idle’ stops the programmatic auction if we detect the user is idle on-page for more than 60 seconds.

The sustainability benefits of these programs are centered around making a publisher’s programmatic auction more efficient. If you’re making fewer ad requests, you’re using less energy and becoming more sustainable. 

Smart Request leads to fewer total requests to SSPs resulting in a lowered carbon footprint, while also improving the performance and cost efficiency of the publisher to the SSP. Put simply, you’re a more attractive pipe to your partners because you send them more of what they want and less of what they don’t want. No Ads If Idle is a commonsense approach that reduces requests while improving viewability, CTR and attention scores.

We measured no negative revenue impact from these tests and cut total ad requests to SSPs by more than 50% while also improving desktop viewability by over 14%.

LdJ: When it comes to media sustainability, how do you view the division of responsibility between publishers and advertisers? Should there be a shared approach, and how can both sides collaborate more effectively to amplify their impact?

ED: I think meaningful change will come from a combination of education (what this is, why it matters) and business-focused outcomes.

I haven’t spoken to a publisher that isn’t supportive of becoming more sustainable. They just want to better understand what this means for their business and how it can realistically tie into their goals.

ShareThrough’s Green Media Summit was an example of cross-industry education and shared best practices. Scope3’s carbon measurement tool is a good place to get a sense of where you stand vs. the rest of the industry and the IAB Tech Lab’s Sustainability Playbook is a great resource as well. 

LdJ: Looking forward, what emerging strategies do you see as key to further reducing the carbon footprint of digital advertising? 

ED: I’d like to see more clearly defined benefits for publishers that choose to make responsible decisions around things like ads-to-content ratio, bid request duplication, and ads.txt entries. 

Scope3’s GMP+ along with SSPs that curate “Green PMP” deals for publishers are two examples of ways to benefit directly from being more sustainable. Let’s make that approach more pervasive across the industry.

LdJ: For publishers looking to reduce their environmental impact without hurting their bottom line, what key lessons or practices from Unwind Media’s experience would you recommend they consider? 

ED: Focus on internal measurement first. If you can easily understand what’s happening at the bidstream level you’ll be more willing to test and more capable of determining outcomes with confidence.

Don’t try to do everything at once. This is an iterative process that we’ve been working on since July of 2022. At no point did we run two tests at the same time. 

Think of these changes as foundational improvements to your ad stack and don’t conflate them with short term yield tests.

Internally, take advantage of opportunities to tie outcomes to product goals around user experience. As you work towards being a more efficient publisher your user experience will also improve and you’ll be popular internally !

I’ll close with a list of 5 things we’ve done to become a more efficient and sustainable publisher.  If you’re able to test into any of these changes you will not only holistically improve your inventory profile but long term its value as well.

5 Ways to Become a More Efficient and Sustainable Publisher

The post Balancing Act: Unwind Media’s Journey to Sustainability appeared first on AdMonsters.

Brian Murphy has been in the digital ad-tech industry since the 1990s, working at various companies, including DoubleClick, Yahoo! and Google. In 2020 he joined OpenX as Senior Vice President, Buyer Development, getting involved in the ad tech company’s path to net zero. 

To say the experience changed his life is an understatement. Opting to focus on lowering the carbon footprint of the digital advertising industry, Brian left OpenX to launch the Alpine Project, a consultancy that helps advertising agencies, ad tech platforms and publishers create and implement environmental sustainability strategies. 

The goal is to help everyone in the industry future-proof their businesses, unlock new revenue opportunities, and leave the planet in a better state. 

AdMonsters spoke with Murphy about Alpine Project’s progress, how brands and agencies can measure the environmental impact of their ad spend, why ad tech companies should start operating on cloud-based platforms, greenwashing and so much more.

AdMonsters: The internet, including digital advertising, accounts for approximately 3.7% of carbon emissions. You launched Alpine Project to help advertising and technology companies measure, reduce and remove carbon from their operations. How are we doing?

Brian Murphy: We’re making progress but there is more work to be done. A good indicator of how any industry is doing is the number of companies that have publicly reported their verified emissions data and validated their science-based emissions reduction targets. Those are the first two important steps to any corporate climate action plan. If we look at the biggest ad-spending brands, many of them have taken these steps. And the six largest ad agency holding companies have done so as well. 

But if you look at ad tech, it’s a much different story. There are only a handful of pure-play ad tech companies listed in the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) database as having set an emissions reduction target and even fewer with publicly reported verified emissions data. So ad tech has some catching up to do. 

Another good indicator for the ad sector is the support of Ad Net Zero, the non-profit organization that started out of the UK’s Ad Association three years ago and launched a US chapter in early 2024. There are now over 100 Ad-Net-Zero-supporting companies in the US, including many major brands, agencies, and ad tech platforms. There are five Ad Net Zero working groups, and this is where real education and action is taking place. It has been really encouraging to see so many companies join this important organization and get involved in these working groups. 

AdMonsters: Don’t you co-chair one of the Ad Net Zero working groups?

BM: Yes, I co-chair Working Group 1, which focuses on measuring and reducing emissions from the business operations of advertising companies. This working group tackles the fundamentals of any corporate climate action strategy. We bring in guest speakers and address questions such as: how does an advertising agency or media company conduct a greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory? Why is third-party verification important? What is the best way to report emissions data? And what are the steps required to set and validate a science-based target? And of course, how can companies in the ad sector make real progress against reduction targets and become more environmentally sustainable businesses?

AdMonsters: Is setting a target to reduce carbon emissions a requirement for Ad Net Zero?

BM: The leadership at Ad Net Zero has asked that all supporting companies set a science-based emissions reduction target and validate it with a third party such as the Science Based Targets initiative, and provide regular updates on progress against these objectives. 

Setting a science-based target takes work. It requires at least one year’s worth of GHG emissions data, so the company has a baseline year from which to reduce its annual Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions across its business operations and value chain. One of the topics we cover in Working Group 1, is how to begin that process and what standards to follow so it’s being done the right way.  

AdMonsters: According to the ANA, carbon-heavy sites like MFAs are on the rise. We also know that generative AI is pretty carbon-intensive. What do these trends do to the greenhouse gas inventories these companies have reported?

BM: It’s an interesting question of where those things will show up in a company’s GHG inventory reports. The good news is that the ad industry doesn’t need to start from scratch. The GHG Protocol provides a reporting template for any company to disclose its scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions data. But, the reporting template was designed for companies from “heavy” industries that might have factories, warehouses and delivery vehicles. Ad tech companies typically don’t have these types of assets. But we do have office buildings, data centers, business travel and commuting, etc., all of which will appear on a GHG inventory. 

If an ad tech company is using AI, the energy to power will have significant emissions associated with it.

If an ad tech company is using AI, the energy to power will have significant emissions associated with it. But how it gets reported can be tricky based on whether the tech runs on data centers (typically scope 2)  or with a cloud provider like Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or  Amazon Web Services (AWS) which would usually be reported under the scope 3 subcategory 1: Purchased Goods & Services. 

Ad tech companies that move their tech infrastructure from physical data centers to the cloud are seeing a massive reduction in their emissions numbers. In addition to just being more efficient, GCP and AWS in particular,  are doing a lot of work to power their platforms with renewable energy. Both also provide dashboards to let their clients measure the emissions that come from their usage of these platforms. In addition to helping with reduction strategies, this also makes the GHG reporting process a lot easier. 

Without a doubt, AI is a major contributor to the overall electricity use of the broader digital economy. At the same time, AI is really good at solving problems. I believe that AI will play an important role in helping to solve the climate problem in ways we haven’t even thought of yet. But it’s too early to tell if the carbon reduction solutions we see from AI will outweigh its broader carbon impact.

AdMonsters: Last year Google and Boston Consulting Group released a report saying that AI has the potential to mitigate 5-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

BM: That’s right. We can’t assume that these new technologies will be all bad for the environment. It’s important to go to the source and ask the right questions, which brings me back to ad tech. We hear so much talk about how the industry needs to cut out MFA, and unnecessary ad-tech integrations, and that’s true. But at the same time, there are more and more platforms that have moved their infrastructure to the cloud, and then within that, optimized towards data centers that are powered by wind and solar. If more companies did that, we wouldn’t be talking as much about the carbon footprint of MFA sites.

I’m not saying that the industry should ignore things like data waste, advertising waste and non- viewable ads. These things absolutely need to be addressed. But if more DSPs, SSPs and other ad tech platforms start operating on cloud-based platforms that are powered by renewable energy, data waste becomes less of an emissions problem.  

But if more DSPs, SSPs and other ad tech platforms start operating on cloud-based platforms that are powered by renewable energy, data waste becomes less of an emissions problem.  

AdMonsters: That’s totally fair. An analogy I’ve read is that if you’re heating your house with a heat pump that’s powered by solar panels, upgrading your insulation isn’t really a carbon imperative.  What would you like to see happen in 2024 within the ad tech sector?

BM: Really, I’d like to see more companies do what Duration Media is doing, which is reducing inefficiencies in programmatic advertising to create “greener” media solutions. Full disclosure, I’m working with Duration Media on these projects.

Duration Media focuses on understanding and reducing data waste in digital advertising and there are three key sources of this. The first is bid requests. According to Jounce Media, a single digital display ad impression requires upwards of 135 bid requests. That’s a lot of data transfer just for one impression! On top of that, we have cookie syncs (for now) and up to 30% of ads that are never even viewed by an end user. 

Duration Media has done what I hope others will do, which is build green media solutions that help publishers reduce data waste in a way that helps them generate more revenue and helps advertisers buy more viewable, effective, and efficient advertising. Reducing data waste can actually make advertising more effective, helping both the demand and supply sides of the industry – all while reducing emissions from the media supply chain.  

AdMonsters: How can brands and agencies measure the environmental impact of their media spend? 

BM: That’s a very important and timely question. Right now, as an industry, we’re in what’s commonly referred to as the “pre-competitive collaboration” phase. This is where people from various companies within a specific industry collaborate on finding a common framework for emissions measurement, so we’re not all doing it our own way and creating confusion for our economic buyers.  

There is great work being done through a collaboration between Ad Net Zero and The Global Alliance for Responsible Media to create a framework by which we can all quantify the environmental impact of all forms of advertising, from TV to print, and of course, digital. We are expecting a series of announcements on that later this year. Once we’re all following the same framework, advertisers will have a much clearer understanding of the emissions that come from their various media investments. And some brands and agencies have said publicly that the carbon footprint of various media options will influence how they make investment decisions. 

AdMonsters: We hear a lot about greenwashing in advertising when brands make false or exaggerated claims about how environmentally sustainable their companies or products are. Is greenwashing a problem in ad tech? 

BM: Greenwashing is a real problem in ad tech. We’re obviously not marketing our products and services to consumers but we still need to deliberate in how we make public assertions about our sustainability initiatives. And there are plenty of ad tech companies making clams that are textbook greenwashing. 

A good rule of thumb to follow: make sure every claim is verified, validated, or certified by a well-known and trusted 3rd party. If you report your GHG emissions data, make sure it’s verified by an emissions verifier, accredited under the ISO 14065 standard. If you set an emissions reduction target, get it validated by an organization such as the Science Based Targets initiative. And if you make a claim like “Our company has reached Carbon Neutral status”, certify that by following something like the CarbonNeutral Protocol. If you’re doing business with a company making claims about their sustainability achievements, follow the old mantra: “trust but verify”.

In Ad Net Zero’s Working Group 1, we provide supporting companies with a Communications Guideline to ensure we’re all using the right terminology and backing up with the proper verification, validation, or certification. 

AdMonsters: Is there a message you’d like to send to the entire industry?

BM: I’d like to see our industry solve the carbon challenge both for the campaign and the company. What I mean by that is that we can’t just talk about making advertising production or media buying more sustainable. We need to be running more sustainable companies. 

Right now there is a lot of talk and focus on the campaign. There’s the IAB Tech Lab Sustainability working group as well as Ad Net Zero’s Working Group 3 which focuses on media buying and planning. There are a lot of conversations happening in these groups, on stages, on podcasts and in articles around how we can make media, and digital media in particular, more environmentally sustainable. That’s great. These conversations need to happen.

What we’re not talking about enough is how to make advertising companies — agencies, ad tech platforms and media companies — more environmentally sustainable businesses. The Chief Sustainability Officers at many of the world’s biggest brands require their supply chain partners to disclose their emissions data and reduction targets. When those brands start to ask their ad tech and media partners for the same level of transparency— which they will — we need to be ready. And with new rule changes from the State of California, the SEC and the European Union, some ad tech companies will need to disclose emissions data as a regulatory requirement.

So it’s time for all companies in our industry, big and small, public and private, to take the first step and measure, verify, and report their emissions data so the real progress towards reduction can begin.

__

Brian Murphy is the founder of Alpine Project, a climate consultancy that helps advertising and technology companies create and implement their sustainability strategies so they can future-proof their businesses and create new revenue opportunities. He is also a working group co-chair of Ad Net Zero. Brian is a 25 year veteran of the ad tech industry. He launched the international sales operation at DoubleClick and went on to various leadership roles at Yahoo!, AdMob and Google. He also led Buyer Development at OpenX, the first company in the advertising, technology and media industries to achieve the SBTi Net Zero standard. Brian’s work on this important initiative inspired him to launch Alpine Project as a way to help other companies in the ad sector launch their climate action plans. He is a graduate of St. Lawrence University and The Yale School of Management’s Corporate Sustainability Management Program.

The post Greener Companies, Greener Campaigns: A Dirty Industry’s Quest to Change appeared first on AdMonsters.

Sometimes the hardest part of achieving a huge goal is figuring out how to get started. Take reaching net zero. Digital ad tech is a carbon-intensive industry. Everything we do is virtual, demanding electricity and power. How does one get their head around it?

“The first thing people in the digital advertising space need to understand is the why. Why does sustainability matter to their business?” asked Julia Li, Director of Sustainability at Mediavine. For Li, it boils down to three components.

A Threefold Approach: Ethics, Compliance, and Finance

The first is an ethical concern. Employees don’t want to be in a business that actively contributes to the climate crisis. Ethics matter for employee engagement and recruiting.

The second component all companies need to consider is compliance, which is quickly becoming an urgent issue. For instance, companies that do business in Europe will need to comply with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), a directive requiring companies to report on the impact of their activities on the environment and society beginning in 2024 and report them in 2025. Late last year, California adopted two laws that will require public and private companies doing business in the state to disclose their greenhouse gas (GHG) and their climate-related financial risks. And last month, the SEC adopted a rule with the same requirements.

The third component, Li explained, is financial. Brands and marketers will demand more sustainable inventory. Their customers and employees are very concerned about the climate, and advertising is a huge opportunity for brands to meet their sustainability goals. 

Measuring to Master: The Role of Data in Sustainability

But as Li points out, doing what’s right for the planet happens to overlap with what’s right for the industry. Take lazy loading, one of the recommendations of IAB Tech Lab’s Sustainability Playbook. Mediavine adopted the tactic years ago to decrease data usage so that publisher sites can load faster. Faster load time means visitors are less likely to click away, and it’s good for SEO rankings. And as it happens, it lowers the carbon emissions of each ad while meeting performance goals, since data is only transacted when the ad is viewable.

“All companies that want to promote the industry’s long-term goals and keep their businesses profitable will find the IAB sustainability best practices very helpful,” Li explained. “We did a lot of things to improve efficiency, and an unintended consequence was that we also lowered our carbon emissions.”

Recently, Mediavine announced a partnership with 51toCarbonZero to help the company get its house in order.  51toCarbonZero helps companies measure, communicate, and improve their carbon footprint to achieve net zero. “These are important steps especially if, as a publisher, you want to promote the sustainability of your inventory to brands that are conscious of the carbon footprint of their marketing activities,” Li said. 

For Mediavine, measuring its Scope 1 and 2 emissions is straightforward, as the company’s workforce is completely remote. “Ninety-nine percent of our emissions are Scope 3, and 51toCarbonZero will help us identify all of the different buckets of activities that are contributing to Scope 3 emissions so we can feed that data into our internal analysis.”

Measurement and reporting is the first step in the path to net zero, as you can’t reduce what you can’t measure. “We’re looking to 51toCarbonZero to shed light on our blind spots. Is our data center the biggest contributor to our carbon footprint? Is it employee travel? We don’t actually know. Measuring will allow us to understand the levers we can pull that will have the biggest reduction of our carbon emissions,” Li explained.

Identifying Opportunities for Reduction in Carbon Footprint

There are some low-hanging fruit for data-intensive industries like digital advertising. Data centers are carbon-heavy, but partnering with a company, like AWS, that uses renewable energy to power their centers can go a long way in reducing emissions. “This is one way the companies can scale their impact,” Li said. She encourages business leaders to examine the claims of their providers to ensure they’re using renewables and not just buying offsets.

Another low-hanging fruit is in streamlining data processing, which requires looking at the ad-tech stack and how many vendors are present in the bid stream. “Mediavine is 99% direct, we don’t use any resellers. We constantly A/B test our SSP partners and eliminate the underperforming ones. That focus on efficiency and reducing middle players is good for publishers, but it also lowers our data processing and shrinks our carbon footprint.”

In other words, considering the long-term goals of a business is grounded in the same principles as planning for sustainability. It’s putting the long-term future ahead of short-term profits. 

The post Mediavine’s Julia Li Champions Sustainability in Ad Tech, Paving the Way to Net Zero appeared first on AdMonsters.

When John Osborn hears a calling, he responds. At the start of his career, his calling was advertising, and he passionately embraced it. He joined Saatchi & Saatchi in the late 1980s and has served the industry ever since, working his way up to leadership positions, including CEO of OMD USA and CEO of BBDO NY before that.  In 2022, he heard another calling: sustainability. 

While he still loves advertising, he recognizes that it significantly contributes to climate change. With twin desires of helping the sector clean up its act and leaving the world a better place for his kids, in 2022 Osborn joined Ad Net Zero as the USA Director. It’s a role that allows him to answer both of his callings. He spoke with AdMonsters about his work at Ad Net Zero, and his goal to help all companies within the advertising sector, including the digital ad tech ecosystem, to embark on a path towards net zero.

AdMonsters: You say you joined Ad Net Zero because you felt a calling. Can you explain?

JO: Sure. In many ways, it was a business decision. Clients were beginning to ask about sustainability and for less carbon-intensive campaigns. Sustainability is clearly on our supporters’ minds. At the same time, my kids are also concerned about the state of the planet, and that weighed on my mind as well.

Ultimately, I love advertising, and I think we have a unique opportunity with sustainability. More than almost any other industry, we have a line of sight into our supply chains and our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. That means we have a really good shot at actually measuring and reducing carbon from our operations. We know who our partners are, how content is created and distributed.

What’s more, advertising has been a resourceful industry. We have shown that we can come together to make the impossible happen in order to solve really thorny, hairy problems. So I saw the opportunity to help bring about meaningful change.

AdMonsters: Ad Net Zero officially launched in the US in 2023, how many companies have joined since then?

JO: We have about 100 supporters in the US right now. Joining isn’t a matter of only paying a (modest) fee to cover our expenses as we push forward with tools and frameworks. One of our requirements is that supporters have one year to communicate to the market a science-based goal for carbon reduction. We believe, from an integrity perspective, this is an important element of the program.

When we talk about sustainability, we often focus on the success cases, but I’m a big proponent of creating safe spaces so that we can talk about the less successful stories because we need to learn from them.

AdMonsters: Is this a scary exercise for some companies? Are people worried their Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions inventory will reveal bad things about their operations?

JO:  I think that companies should be encouraged to get on the journey, regardless of where they start, because to me, the headline isn’t where they start, it’s the improvements that they make.

When we talk about sustainability, we often focus on the success cases, but I’m a big proponent of creating safe spaces so that we can talk about the less successful stories because we need to learn from them. The fastest way to get to net zero is to learn from what worked and what didn’t, without sharing competitive secrets, of course. A lot of companies are working together to come up with solutions that will benefit the entire industry.

AdMonsters: What advice do you give to companies that are contemplating a sustainability initiative?

JO: My first recommendation is to read up on the topic. There are a lot of really great resources that have been released over the past year or so. Released last summer, there’s the GARM Sustainability Quick Action Guide, IAB Tech Lab’s Sustainability task force Playbook for Achieving a Sustainable Programmatic Marketplace — both focusing on tangible actions that can be taken now.

The ANA released its transparency study, and Google’s Sustainable Marketing Playbook which is also very helpful for companies just beginning to embark on this journey, including thinking about the impact of advertising’s creative and messaging. 

One of the first steps is to measure a company’s emissions, and there are a lot of resources out there. For instance, Ad Net Zero works with Green the Bid USA, which provides a framework, resources, and best practices for advertising production work, helping agencies, brands, and production companies adopt more sustainable methods.

And we’ve worked with AdGreen to incorporate its carbon calculator within our dashboard, which helps companies actually calculate how much carbon they generate. We just released a report of the 2,700 jobs that have been put through this calculator, so we have solid benchmarks for the industry, in terms of production size and tons of carbon released.

So there are a lot of really great resources that people in the industry can access to begin their journey.

AdMonsters: Who should take responsibility within a company? Do they need a Chief Sustainability Officer?

JO: Depends on the company. Minimally, they should identify a Green Team of passionate employees within their organization. These employees may want to, on a simple level, organize a clean-up crew, or more strategically lead sustainability programs within the office, such as seeing if the office can purchase renewables from its energy provider, instituting a recycling program, and examining its travel program.

AdMonsters: Do you recommend eliminating employee travel?

JO: We’re in the business of helping marketers make smarter decisions, period, hard stop. It’s not “don’t ever travel.” Rather, the question is how can companies and people be more thoughtful and make smarter decisions about travel. A simple decision about travel is actually an important decision when it comes to carbon emissions. It all counts. 

AdMonsters: What is the impetus behind that criteria, besides goodwill and concern for the environment?

JO: There’s a currency developing around carbon emissions. Why? Because regulation is heating up. For instance, the SEC releases rules for standardized climate disclosures for companies, and while currently held up in litigation, California’s similar law will have far-reaching impacts beyond just the state. Investors need a standard way to assess emissions risk for their investments, and there is growing regulation around claims to consumers as well.

We serve the greater good of the companies that are doing the advertising. Job one for Ad Net Zero is to create the frameworks and the consistent standards on behalf of the industry, so we don’t have a wild west of reporting.

AdMonsters: Let’s say a group of people within a company decide to start a green team. How do they get the buy-in from upper management?

JO: That’s a great question. I’d say that it’s the same as any other business question, which is to make sure the solutions proposed are rooted in business. Purpose and profit don’t need to be at odds with one another. I think one of the reasons why more companies are leaning into sustainability is that it’s more profitable. They’re also finding that it creates more efficient business models around that. If they can unlock the value, they’ll find support for sustainability within the organization.

AdMonsters: The industry has always prided itself on creating ever-better ad units that capture a consumer’s attention. Can advertising be dazzling and carbon-free simultaneously?

JO: Yes. The industry is innovative. Look at the pandemic. Advertising shut down on a dime, but then within two weeks, it reemerged, with big advertisers releasing fresh content. It didn’t take long for advertising to kick into gear using different tools and different behavior. This is just one example of the ability to pivot. Can we create ad units that use data and processing efficiently but engage audiences? Absolutely. Can we clean up the ad ecosystem and also drive growth? Heck, yes. 

AdMonsters: What would you like to see the industry focus on over the next 12 months?

JO: I want companies to measure, manage, and mitigate their carbon emissions. That’s what I would love: three M’s.

There are things they can do immediately. For instance, take a look at your travel policy. Who’s traveling, and for what purpose? Are people traveling halfway across the country to attend a one hour meeting? Taking a hard look at travel will lower admissions, and frankly, will probably make life easier on employees who are often asked to travel too much (something I know from experience).

__

John Osborn was appointed as the Director for Ad Net Zero (ANZ) in the United States in late 2022. Originally launched in the UK, ANZ has grown to over 100 supporting companies, and now counts over 65 supporters in the US market, which officially began operations in early February 2023. Under John’s leadership, ANZ’s mission is to leverage the power of its supporters, alongside the ANA, 4As and IAB, to educate, set benchmarks & frameworks, measure and lower the carbon emissions associated across all advertising-related operations. Prior to ANZ, John was CEO of OMD in the US over five years from 2017 until late 2022. John’s experience also includes 25 years of service at BBDO NY, where he served as President & CEO for 13 consecutive years prior to moving to OMD. John has a wealth of non-profit board experience including the Red Cross of Greater New York, Global Dignity, Police Athletic League, AdCouncil, AAF and more.

The post How the Advertising Sector Can Tackle the Climate Emergency appeared first on AdMonsters.

In 2023, AdMonsters spoke with industry experts about the feasibility of green digital advertising campaigns, and the steps required of all players for our industry to achieve net zero. As Earth Day approaches, we revisited the topic to assess progress, identify new threats to carbon reduction goals, and explore critical issues facing our industry players.

This Is Personal

Every year, it seems, is the hottest one on record, and 2023 was no exception, according to The World Meteorological Organization. In fact, the WMO says last year “smashed” all previous records, with annual average global temperature approaching 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. If the average goes up any higher the world’s coral reefs and the Arctic ice will be threatened.

The impact of climate change isn’t theoretical; many of us have felt it directly. Last summer heavy rainfall in the Northeastern U.S., particularly in Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, led to widespread and destructive flooding. Where I live, massive flooding wiped out homes and businesses and in some cases, entire neighborhoods. 

Across the Southeast and Southwest residents sweltered in record-breaking temperatures (Phoenix, AZ experienced 111 days where temperatures crossed 100 degrees). Worryingly,  United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned that, “The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”

And the crises kept coming. Canada experienced its worst wildfire season, with over 18 million hectares burned (one hectare equals 2.47 acres). Those fires spewed some 480 million tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere and created dangerous air quality conditions for people in the U.S.

The summer of 2023 also saw unprecedented wildfires across Europe, with several countries experiencing their worst wildfire seasons on record, burning over 118,000 hectares of land and releasing 20 million tons of CO2. No part of the world was spared; even the Arctic burned. 

Just last week, heavy rainfall battered the Middle East, leaving more than a dozen dead. 

We could go on but you get the idea: our dear old world is in a crisis, and we’re all suffering for it. This is personal.

Digital Advertising Industry Faces the Music

I remember the early 1990s when digital publishing was beginning to emerge. Back then we hailed it as a green alternative to printed media. Yes, paper was supposed to be recyclable, but at the time recycling was often aspirational (NYC Mayor Bloomberg cut recycling in his first year in office, saying most of it ended up in landfills, although two terms later he had a change of heart).

Rather than reducing pollution, the internet has turned into a carbon hog, generating greenhouse gasses at a level that’s on par with the airline industry. The digital advertising sector — with its competitive real-time auctions and AI applications — is a big contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. 

According to The Shift Project, by 2025 7.2% of global carbon emissions will be due to the internet. Of that 24% – or 1.7% of global carbon emissions – is directly attributable to digital advertising.

What’s more, the energy required by digital advertising continues to rise. MFA sites, which account for 21% of ad impressions in the open markets, generate 26% more carbon than non-MFA ones. And while the industry celebrates the advent of generative AI, new research is emerging that it is a carbon-heavy technology that massively complicates our goals to lower GHG emissions.

According to MIT, creating an image with generative AI requires as much energy as fully charging a phone. The bigger the model — i.e. the more inference models to fire — the bigger the carbon output. Meanwhile, the industry is preparing to deploy AI to generate personalized images and ad copy at scale.

Climate activist Bill McKibben said we’re not going to solve the climate crises one Tesla at a time, meaning we need bigger actions than a single consumer opting for an EV over a gas-guzzling SUV. We need actions taken on an industrial scale to hold global temperatures steady and then begin to lower them. In this respect, we can celebrate some good news.

A Reason for Hope

Although we like to talk about data and operations being “in the cloud” the reality is that data creation, processing, and storage are very much Earthbound, running on huge machines in climate-controlled data centers. A single data center generates  50 million kg CO2e, equivalent to the emissions of over 10,000 cars. 

Fortunately, data centers are going green. In 2023, data sites leasing renewable energy increased by 50%. Today, they use some 40 gigawatts of renewable energy (for perspective, one gigawatt equals 2.469 million solar panels or one billion watt hours).

Those green data centers allow digital ad-tech companies to move their operations to the cloud, and achieve Net-Zero, as OpenX has proved possible.

“We all have to take responsibility for what’s in our own backyard, and that over which we have control within our own circle of influence. I am very hopeful because I’m seeing a lot of really positive change in that area,” Brian Murphy, Founder of Alpine Project told AdMonsters.

He continued: “As it happens, our backyard is pretty big and it accounts for as much as 1.7% of global GHG emissions. By measuring and reducing the environmental impact of our own business operations and value chains, we can make our broader industry more environmentally sustainable over the long term and lead the way for other industries.” 

From the Green Media Summit,  to Mediavine’s partnership with Climate Success platform 51toCarbonZero (51-0), we see the digital advertising ecosystem taking steps to curb climate change. We have a long way to go, but at least we’re on the road.

The post Green Digital Campaigns: An Earth Day Check-In appeared first on AdMonsters.

It almost feels like Brian O’Kelley, CEO and founder of Scope3, just stepped off the operating table. While on stage at Green Media Summit, he openly shared his surgery experience with the audience, not hesitating to discuss his recent ordeal. He reassured the crowd that he felt great, especially considering that it had been only 30 days since his open heart surgery. 

There’s a major commonality between his heart and the ad tech ecosystem. They both have leaky pipes. “Advertising is the lifeblood of the internet,” O’Kelley explained to a packed room. Ad tech is the heart. The role of ad tech is to pump out those ads, just as the heart pumps out blood, but the harder we pump our ad tech heart, the more we damage the system.”

His heart surgery serves as a poignant metaphor for the resilience required in our industry. He shared a memorable moment from his recovery: upon waking up, he asked his doctor what he missed while he was under. The doctor reassured him that he fixed his heart with just three stitches, yet the miracle was in how they opened and closed his heart to make the repair. This story resonated deeply, mirroring the delicate yet transformative challenges we navigate in ad tech.

Like O’Kelley’s surgical repair, many of ad tech’s problems can be solved with just three stitches’ worth of ideas—straightforward solutions to complex challenges. But the real difficulty lies in effectively implementing and executing these great strategies. 

Brian O’Kelley’s Strategies for Repairing the ‘Leaky Pipes’ of Ad Tech

To fix the leaky heart of the internet, two things must be done.

1. Utilize the IAB Tech Lab’s Global Placement ID (GPID) to discuss inventory and enhance precision in ad placements. It’s time to shift the conversation from merely domains to incorporating specific ad placements. The GPID is a consistent identifier across ad tech platforms facilitating this expanded dialogue.
2. Derive a framework for identifying problematic ad placement behaviors. “Ads should render when they are on your screen; they should not render when they are at the bottom of the screen where you can’t see them. They shouldn’t auto-refresh where you can’t see them either,” O’Kelley explained. 

To identify the issue within ad placements, Scope3 conducted a study of about 700,000 instances and discovered that 14.3% of these placements were problematic. This revelation introduces new complexity for the industry, especially as it struggles with issues related to MFA and high-emission sites. 

Scope3 and Sharethrough have responded to the challenge by developing GMP+, a groundbreaking solution integrating placement-level data into Sharethrough’s platform. This innovative approach allows buyers to purchase green media products at the placement level. In addition to features like MFA blocking and high carbon website blocking, GMP+ also enables blocking previously unblockable problematic placements, enhancing control and precision for media buyers. Now available via Sharethrough, GMP+ will help marketers gain more quality with less carbon.

Driving Results Without Being Wasteful 

During an unexpected twist in his keynote, O’Kelley invited Kyle Vidasolo from Omnicon to the stage to provide a buy-side agency perspective. At Omnicon, the focus is on securing the best placements for brands, emphasizing the strategic importance of each placement. Performance is key, and driving those results is critical.

“There’s been no real solution for this, just a bunch of duct tape,” Vidasolo said. “The goal is to fix this once. Running ads that aren’t driving results is wasteful, but guaranteeing outcomes is how you drive results. Agencies take risks for their brands and put the money where their mouth is. So it’s really about honing in on our partnerships with publishers and making sure we drive those results.”

Vidasolo also suggested that purchasing strategies need to evolve beyond traditional CPM models to foster sustainability. It starts with outcome-driven results, but agencies must consider sustainable strategies before investing.

The Future is Green

ROI is as precious as gold. Marketers and agencies will invest where they see the highest returns. It’s about driving effective placements that work better, not harder. Even as publishers, we are all still marketers, we need to create compelling stories that connect and motivate us to take action. We are all interconnected in much deeper ways than the “ad tech craziness” that we convene over, according to O’Kelley. 

A recent Scope3 study revealed that 15% of brand spend goes to MFA sites. Following this, Jounce Media reported that nearly half of MFA traffic in the ecosystem had disappeared. Every bid request on MFA sites wastes advertisers’ money and also results in unnecessary carbon emissions.

O’Kelley emphasized the community’s role in fostering change using its collective power. “The goal is to get the entire industry to recognize that using global placement IDs makes the internet more effective and more green. We will see almost instant adoption,” he concluded. 

The post Scope3 and Sharethrough Partner to Combat Problematic Placements appeared first on AdMonsters.