Media Planning present at the Immedia 2022 event

Immedia 2022 - Local and environmentally responsible impact of advertising

On September 22nd, the A2C sponsored Immedia event was held at the Marriott Château Champlain. Association of Creative Communications Agencies. Agencies, advertisers and media came together to learn more about current and future media practices. I had the chance to attend several conferences and panels that confirmed certain trends (if you haven't already done so, migrate to Google Analytics 4 right away! ), but also raised many questions about the future. 

It is mainly on this last aspect that I would like to draw your attention, because too often we forget the impact of our decisions in the choice of our suppliers and partners when it comes to creating advertising strategies.

The carbon footprint left by digital advertising

The day started with a bang with a keynote by Brian O'Kelley, Co-Founder of AppNexus in 2007 and currently Co-Founder of Scope3, a company that measures the carbon impact of digital advertising. His presentation Abstract: The Time to Act is Now: The Rise of Green Media and the Future of Sustainability in Digital Advertising, left no one indifferent and provoked a lot of thoughts.

Digital advertising and ecology, so here's a connection I've never made before! It is often assumed that online advertising is much more environmentally friendly than more traditional advertising such as newspapers or billboard ads for example. The latter require gasoline to deliver materials, and use paper to print the ads. So it's easy to assume that they are much less "green" than digital ads, but what is it really?

In fact, digital advertising, especially programmatic advertising, can have a significant carbon footprint. In fact, anything that requires significant power from computer servers has a considerable impact on the environment. In fact, 3 to 4% of the world's electricity is used for everything connected to the Internet. In addition, according to Scope3, about one gram of carbon is produced every time a print is delivered.

Because programmatic advertising requires connecting multiple servers on both the DSP and SSP sides (see our article on programmatic advertising to learn more!) in order to serve an ad to a user, it is one of the forms of digital advertising with the largest carbon footprint.

How can we be more environmentally responsible in our media spending?

Being more informed about the suppliers we use and trying to prioritize local suppliers can make a big difference. The more local choices we make, the lower the carbon impact. 

Also, it is possible to choose to inventory with a lower carbon impact. For example, choose advertising inventory that does not allow for automatic refreshment, animation or videos which are the three elements with the largest carbon footprint.

Sustainability and local investment

Local investment and the sustainability of advertising models were at the heart of this day of presentations, with several conferences devoted to this topic in the afternoon. Starting with the presentation of Patrick Hotte, Vice-President, Quebec at the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA), who presented the progress of the Multimedia Evaluation Committee, which aims to oversee standardized measures in Canada to meet the needs of advertisers.

This committee is part of a larger international movement, the WFA (World Federation of Advertisers), whose goal is to unify practices around the world and to ensure that advertising models are sustainable over time.

Another conference that caught my attention was the one given by Dominique Villeneuve of A2C and Luis Areas of Cartier on the impact of Mouvement Média d'ici. This movement aims to increase local digital investments. A local media adoption index has been put in place, the IMI, and both presenters strongly encouraged agencies to add it to their media plans in order to demonstrate their commitment to keeping a share of investment in local media.

Indeed, following the important digital shift of the media for several years, it is now more than 50% of advertising budgets that are redirected to digital platforms greatly benefiting the giants of the industry such as Google and Facebook. Of these ad placements, only 14% would be allocated to local media.

The Guide to Responsible Media Practices was created for industry professionals, both agencies and advertisers, to make them aware of the importance of a responsible media approach to preserve the sustainability of Canadian media. The objective is to benefit both advertisers and consumers in addition to preserving a healthy economy.

Immedia in brief

I certainly believe that the 2022 event can be described as a success. The important players in the industry and the topics of the day were discussed. The ideas for an even brighter future in advertising were launched and I can say that I came away with a head full of ideas.

See you next year!

By Emmanuelle Ruscio

Director of Strategy