French electricity provider EDF is taking steps to decarbonise its advertising by increasing media efficiency with Display & Video 360. Sustainable media agency Greenbids found that the tool’s Custom Bidding option allowed EDF to advertising database optimise the performance of its campaigns, reducing the carbon emissions of ads while still driving high conversions. Overall, the brand saw a 17% decrease in cost per conversion and an estimated 13% reduction in emissions.
“For EDF, embodying corporate responsibility extends to practicing responsible communication,” said Ismaïl Berrada, EDF’s director of acquisitions.
Attention-based bidding to optimize their media on Display & Video 360 and meet their performance goals, while reducing carbon emissions. By creating a custom API to direct custom bids toward the most sustainable placements, the Greenbids team was able to use Google AI to meet their client’s sustainability goals. This added incentive has implications for the industry at large, according to agency officials.
"The Greenbids solution facilitates the advertising market's transition towards decarbonisation of the industry, and our collaboration serves as proof that it is possible to merge optimising media performance with reducing the impact of carbon emissions," said Antoine Minvielle-Debat, Deputy Managing Director of Havas Media France, the agency responsible for the campaign.
►3. Reusing assets is very useful
Creating assets for any advertising campaign, whether digital or not, leaves a carbon footprint, so it’s important to plan ahead. A team of Google marketing professionals integrated sustainability into the brief for a Google Ads acquisition campaign , evaluating assets from previous campaigns for potential reuse and reformatting them as needed.
The new creative elements were shot in a more sustainable way with travel in mind. Air travel in Europe emits, on average, 5-6 times more carbon dioxide per passenger kilometer than rail travel. Instead of taking planes, a crew of four camera operators traveled across Europe by train to conduct in-person interviews. According to Google Flights , this choice avoided an estimated 500 kilograms of carbon emissions per crew member and reduced creative costs by 55%.
Where possible, reusing assets across campaigns is an easy way to avoid waste. Versioning an ad is often an easy way to get more out of successful creative, and there are now more AI-powered tools to help. Google Ads’ video cropping tool identifies the most important scenes and brand elements from a longer campaign video, then remixes them into a 6-second cut.
Teams looking to take concrete action on climate can look to the advertising industry for other examples of operational pivots. With the launch of Ad Net Zero, a five-point global action plan to reduce carbon emissions in advertising, there are now more ways to share knowledge, get inspired and rise to the occasion as an industry.
