Havas Media Network U.K. also has tools that measure ROC, including its carbon calculator and a tool called M4, which combines media spend, brand equity modeling, econometrics and emissions measurement related to the advertising life cycle.
OMG’s Omni Studio has a carbon scenario optimization tool that considers emissions alongside effectiveness to help clients lower the footprint of a buy without compromising on reach, a spokesperson told Adweek.
“We’re committed to working with our clients and media partners to decarbonize media, and we’ve made significant headway and investment to translate this commitment into action,” Patrick Affleck, CEO of Havas Media Network U.K. and Ireland, told Adweek. “Return on carbon is one such step.”
Wavemaker uses GroupM’s global emissions measurement framework to estimate how much carbon is generated by each piece of a media buy based on which media channel is used and the size of the buy. For example, radio and streaming tend to be lower emitters per impression, while print and linear tend to be higher.
By considering the effectiveness of each channel alongside its cost and carbon footprint, ROC can demonstrate where it might be more effective for some clients to include a small print buy into the mix, rather than overindexing on a less effective but lower carbon channel like social.
For some of Wavemaker’s clients—like Merlin Entertainments, Transport for London or Morrisons Supermarkets—lowering carbon fits into their measure of success. For others, it’s not yet part of the equation.
“If you have to go to a client and go, ‘I need you to not hit your sales target this year because I want to reduce emissions by 10%,’ … you’d get shouted out and you’d probably get sacked,” Charles said. “The beauty of ROC is you just [tell a client]: ‘This plan does the thing you’d like to do. We’ve just found the lowest-carbon way of doing that.’”
So … why aren’t all agencies doing this?
While efforts to measure and reduce the climate impact of advertising have ramped up in recent years with the founding of groups like Ad Net Zero, activist group Clean Creatives and industry network Purpose Disruptors, there’s disagreement as to where the industry’s biggest impact sits and how to address it.
Ad Net Zero and its member agencies are currently working with the Global Alliance for Responsible Media to establish standards around how the carbon impact of ad channels should be measured—slated to be released in the first quarter of 2024—which would let clients compare agency offerings against one another with more transparency.
