Tejas Rathod
Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Mobavenue Media Private Limited
As people become more conscious of the effects of climate change, companies realize the importance of decreasing their digital campaigns' carbon footprint. Sustainable advertising has become an essential factor for businesses aiming to integrate digital marketing into their climate objectives.
Many marketers are concerned about climate change, but the carbon footprint of programmatic advertising remains significant. The average consumer is unaware of the energy consumption and resulting carbon emissions involved in placing targeted ads online.
Despite being difficult to measure, the advertising industry contributes significantly to climate change, with programmatic advertising being a significant factor due to the thousands of automated bids that occur every second. At every stage of the ad placement process, there is a high carbon footprint.
The world is facing a serious climate crisis, and it has become imperative for countries and organisations to take action to reduce carbon emissions. With programmatic help, brands can effectively reach their target audience with relevant messages.
However, it is important to note that every action involved in programmatic advertising emits a small amount of carbon dioxide due to energy consumption.
In today's world, sustainability cannot be overlooked by any brand or business, as it may lead to alienating the environmentally conscious customer base in the future.
As an ad moves through the programmatic ecosystem, it consumes more energy and computing power, creating carbon emissions. Advertisers need to identify and optimise the most efficient supply paths to reach publishers, while publishers should limit the number of partners who can bid on every impression.
For better ad optimisation, businesses can reduce their file size, optimise ad placement, and use sustainable ad formats like HTML5. They can also switch to renewable energy sources to power their servers and data centres, thereby reducing their carbon footprint.
The advertising industry is already taking steps to become more sustainable and aims to achieve net zero by 2030. However, the pace of adoption of sustainability initiatives by the media and advertising industry will determine its success.
The digital or programmatic advertising industry's carbon emissions are expected to continue increasing beyond 2023, fuelled by platforms like connected TV and outdoor advertising.
To combat this, advertisers can take action by producing shorter video ads and reducing the size of image ads to decrease server load, data transmission, and CO2 emissions.
Brands must prioritise reducing emissions while maintaining advertising efficiency, such as targeting smartphone users with short video ads instead of longer ones to optimize for the mobile segment.
Start your sustainability initiative now. It may seem daunting, but the rewards are immeasurable. Every little contribution counts. Let's make programmatic advertising greener and cleaner.
Tejas Co-Founded Mobavenue which is a 360 - degree growth platform driving programmatic acquisitions, retargeting and growth management for leading brands in India, SEA, LATAM, Europe, MENA and Russia back in his early days of Engineering.
Tejas shines bright on the illustrious Forbes Asia’s 30 Under 30 list and is also the recipient of BW 30 Under 30.
In an era when marketing just took off in India, Tejas believed in Programmatic advertising as it creates value for advertisers by allowing them to target advertisements for maximum impact Programmatic advertising in India has a long way to go but for it to work advertisers and marketers should be willing to experiment and fail if necessary to learn and make things work.
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