Media Buying Briefing: Decarbonization efforts struggle to find ‘pre-competitive’ footing

By Michael Bürgi

Ever heard the term “pre-competitive”? It’s a new one to me, but I heard it a lot while reporting on the latest efforts to reduce carbon emissions in the buying and selling of media — an area every agency holding company says it is committed to. It basically means putting competitive instincts aside for the greater good — akin to asking a lion to treat a zebra as his best friend and not dinner. (More on this analogy later.)

But the key to industry-wide progress in decarbonization of media is industry-wide agreed-upon standards of measurement, and that is still a ways off, agreed three agencies who spoke to Digiday. And privately, industry executives worry the holding companies won’t be able to put competitive instincts aside.

“There’s been a lot of discussion around this needing to be pre-competitive for a reason, and you see that with the formation of these groups kind of trying to push in and do the right thing,” said Anne Coghlan, COO and co-founder of Scope3, one of the main firms working with agencies, brands and media companies to evaluate and reduce carbon in advertising.

Part of the problem is that the holding companies have all set different dates to reach carbon neutrality. For example, while GroupM is aiming for 2030, IPG believes 2040 is more realistic.

Furthermore, some media agencies and media companies are leaning heavily on carbon offsets rather than reduction. And apparently not all offsets actually accomplish much at all in the way of reduction.

The best way to explain it is to think of a bathtub filling up with water (water being carbon emissions). An offset is like trying to prevent overflow by bailing out the tub with a bucket. The real aim should be figuring out how to reduce the water flow or to turn off the spigot.

“There is definitely a need for some good carbon credits that are of good quality, but that shouldn’t be the focus of the discussion. The focus should really be on how you actually reduce emissions,” added Coghlan.

Some holding companies argue progress is being made, not only by themselves but by broader efforts underway, such as a recent partnership between Ad Net Zero, an industry coalition, and IAB Tech Lab, which are working together to establish those measurement standards.

“This, singular, centralized discussion will expedite an agreement,” said a GroupM representative over email. Notably this follows the model of how the brand safety and suitability floor was agreed to and standardized through GARM, so there is precedent and we are optimistic.”

GroupM isn’t alone in believing the industry will establish standards as it has done to some degree with brand safety. “We’re at the beginning stages to understand benchmarks, to understand what is and isn’t possible,” said Yale Cohen, evp of global digital standards with Publicis Media. “That isn’t to say that some clients aren’t ahead of others in their journey. We’re in a very long term race here.”

And yet Cohen is as concerned as his fellow agency …read more

Source:: Digiday