Is the Ad Industry Backsliding on Its Climate Crisis Commitments?

There were no better conditions to pull back on sustainability commitments than in 2023. Like President Biden pulling back on his attendance at COP28 because of the “the war in the Middle East and a war in Ukraine, a bunch of things going on.” (In the words of John Kerry, for New York Times), marketers have reprioritized their focus on sustainability in 2023 in favour of more directly growth-driving initiatives. Whether it was the fear of being drawn into “culture wars” or operating in a low growth environment or simply sobering up after the purpose parade, WARC’s 2023 Future of Strategy confirmed that the word “sustainability” has all but disappeared from client briefs.

2023 has also been an opportunity to get real about growth and the role of sustainability within it. As we consulted several DDB clients on how to best navigate the contemporary consumer landscape this year, one question led the debate: In what way is sustainability fundamental to the future success of our business? As it turns out, for most businesses, in the short and definitely in the long run, operating as a sustainable enterprise doesn’t just make you feel good, it is essential to having any business at all.

How brands decided to respond has evolved too, balancing being a silent supporter with leaning in as an activist champion. Broadly, brands that are getting real about sustainability are investing in scalable programs at the intersection of marketing, product, and supply chain. adam&eveDDB’s partner Kroger is doubling down on its investment to eradicate food waste and food insecurity through its Zero Hunger Zero Waste program. McDonald’s in partnership with DDB Mudra in India continued to double down on making eating a burger the most inclusive food experience in a country consumed by inequality. Our partnership with Parley for the Oceans is looking to address sustainability at the material innovation level – miles away from any beach clean-up summer campaigns of yesteryear. 

Yes, in 2023 sustainability has certainly become less buzzy and easier to opt out of, but it remains the best and the biggest creative brief out there. And as any successful marketer knows, the best talent in the industry wants to work on the best and the biggest briefs. For brand leaders in 2024, it is therefore a leadership choice: do I want the best creatives to work on my brand and if so, am I giving them the most challenging brief to work on? Given our excitement internally coming out of our creative Bullseye sessions, I can confirm that there are still bold and ambitious marketers out there.

 

Despite the huge environmental challenges we’ve seen this year, there doesn’t seem to be a waning of enthusiasm from agencies and brands to make a difference in this area. The number of high-profile ASA ad investigations this year has brought to the fore the danger of greenwashing, forcing brands to be more careful with their sustainability messaging which will only continue into next year. There were more green ideas than ever at Cannes this year and they picked up Lions and shortlists in every category, showing an appetite for best-in-class creativity to be used to help change behaviour.

At AMV, almost all of our clients are talking to us about sustainability in some shape or form, from helping to advise on messaging all the way through to creating comms to support sustainable products or initiatives. This has grown as the year has gone on and looks set to increase further in 2024. For the past six months myself and Mark Graeme (executive producer at Red Studios, AMV BBDO) have been part of a cross industry collaboration organised by Purpose Disruptors designed to reimagine and transition advertising towards supporting a thriving future. It’s been heartening to speak to people across the breadth of the industry (including media, insights, awards, brands, platforms) and to see the huge appetite to make a change. Sustainability is becoming more important than ever to the British public; brands are understanding the crucial role they need to play in this area and more agencies than ever are applying their creative superpowers to the green cause. There are undoubtedly huge challenges on the horizon but I for one am cautiously optimistic about what 2024 can bring.

“No one is coming to help. Now what?” This seems an appropriate response if we consider the rolling back of meaningful climate action by our elected leaders. If those whose job it is to take action to protect citizens are unwilling to do so then it becomes incumbent on the rest of us to step up. What is the role that brands and agencies can play to help? The answer is as simple, and difficult, as being honest. 

On the one hand, brands and agencies are largely driven by, and remunerated for, driving growth and consumption. On the other hand, that growth and consumption is driving carbon emissions. 

So whilst agencies largely focus on operational emissions and brands deliver some form of sustainability-led benefit, more and more people working in these companies are coming to realise that their organisation’s approach to sustainability is unsustainable. There is a rising tide of awareness that the culture of consumerism that they are perpetuating is incompatible with a thriving future. This is not the work that they want to be remembered for. 

Radical honesty and a spirit of “not knowing” can reveal a path forward. It would be amazing if the head of an agency or brand said something like this: 

“I’m confused and I don’t know what to do. My whole career has been in service of driving growth and consumption. I am now aware that this is making our climate emergency worse. How can I do the best for both my organisation and the future for my children, nieces and nephews?” 

If someone were to ask such a question there would be both an enormous collective sigh of relief as it is an act of leadership to ask what others are thinking but unwilling to say. Speaking such a truth would reignite the conversation on climate. Do we have leaders capable of such an act of honesty? As no-one is coming to help, I hope so.

 

According to Dentsu Creative’s recent chief marketing officer (CMO) survey, 78% of marketers believe that there is no longer any disconnect between what is good for society and what is good for business. In fact, responding to the climate crisis ranks in the top five concerns for CMOs. Yet other evidence suggests while the sentiment for change is there, action is still lagging. 

dentsu’s recent Marketing a Better Future study, in collaboration with Kantar, found that despite 80% of APAC companies having sustainability frameworks in place, a critical gap still exists. Marketers struggle to justify investment in sustainability efforts, with 38% finding it challenging to demonstrate its positive impact on the business. Marketing departments fall behind other internal divisions in delivering against sustainability goals, with only 34% claiming execution and progress measurement, compared to 46% in the supply chain and 51% in corporate strategy. 

But as the bridge between consumers and businesses, marketers are in fact best positioned to be generational agents of change having the power to influence sustainable consumption in a massive way. A key pillar in dentsu’s Social Impact strategy is to enable 1 billion people to make better, more sustainable choices. 

Our teams are already working on this journey with clients, driving the demand for a sustainable economy by making lower carbon products desirable,  like plant-based foods with Kraft Heinz, ethical banking with The Co-operative Bank and second-hand fashion with Oxfam. Our work is increasingly going beyond campaigns into optimising supply chains, reducing plastic packaging and product innovation. 

While adopting a purpose-driven culture has shaped our passion for positive social impact, there is also a powerful business case – according to the World Economic Forum (2020), shifting away from harmful business models could unlock an estimated $10.1 trillion of commercial opportunities per year, therefore also delivering improved shareholder value. 

Imagine if the talent and skills behind iconic marketing campaigns, which have effectively shaped culture and altered consumer habits, focused on shifting the public conscience toward climate reduction. With global advertising spending set to hit a massive $730 billion in 2023 (according to dentsu’s Global Ad Spend report), the possibilities to reshape the sustainability narrative are endless. 

But any approach must be nuanced, serving all stakeholders in the journey to net zero. As businesses review their options and trial multiple routes, uncomfortable periods of change will follow. Behaving responsibly and keeping their workforces and communities supported and resilient will ensure businesses’  investors and customers remain loyal and trusting through the uncertainty. 

Progress is rarely linear - it's often one step forward, two steps back. The past year has seen governments and industries run into the very real challenges of what it actually will take to move the needle forward on halting and reversing climate change. And while it may seem that the advertising industry has been slow to move, there are meaningful changes starting to accrue, but we are still very much in the early stages.

From the increased focus on decarbonising the media supply chain to a new focus on product circularity, there are changes happening. But progress will increasingly need to speed up to have a meaningful impact on the real problems - reducing energy use, transitioning to clean energy, reducing product and packaging waste, and building products with longer lifespans.

 

The ad industry has an increasing responsibility not only to decarbonise its own operations, but to lead the UK and beyond culturally into a new era of sustainability. Ad Net Zero was created in 2020 and expanded globally in 2022 to do just that.

 

Whereas UK-based companies may have been given mixed signals by the government’s recent rollback, we are seeing that the majority of our supporters, whose work normally spans European or global markets, are continuing to step up to their responsibilities. In particular, the most recent Ad Net Zero report shows that 88% of supporter advertisers and 100% of our tech platforms now have science-based net zero targets. Feeling the full brunt of increasing disclosure requirements and consumer pressure, advertisers are the leading sector in our supporter base for driving the transformation towards net zero. In order to stay relevant and competitive, as well as keep up with a tightening regulatory environment, we urge the rest of the advertising ecosystem in its entirety to begin reporting and working towards credible net zero transitions. This is why Ad Net Zero introduced mandatory reporting of science-based targets earlier this year.

 

Furthermore, Ad Net Zero created its five-point action plan to provide an immediate and practical path to progress that will drive momentum quickly in the sector. From step-by-step immediate action guides, to deeper sustainability partnerships and the Campaign Ad Net Zero awards, the tools, resources and inspiration to measure emissions and transform business practices are all operational and accessible across the Ad Net Zero action plan. 

 

Finally, it's imperative that the ad industry begins to proliferate groundbreaking, behaviour changing creative, as only it knows how. Only through the innovative reimagination of creative campaigns, helping the consumer see an easy path into sustainability, will we begin to see the cultural shifts nature needs from us.

 

Winning examples of this kind of behaviour changing work can be viewed here, and the findings of Ad Net Zero's first annual report, published November 2023, can be viewed here.

 

The UK advertising industry has been working since 2019 on taking action to address advertising’s role in climate change, and to help the industry move to a position where it can positively support a sustainable future. The formation of Ad Net Zero in 2020 was a critical moment, as was its international expansion in 2022. In the UK, the ASA’s own climate action workstream has seen clear guidance brought in for advertisers wishing to make environmental claims in their campaigns, with more guidance to come as the climate science develops.

 

We are working hard to find the very best ways to help all participants in our industry, across advertisers, agencies, media owners, and tech platforms to decarbonise their operations, adopt more sustainable business practices and to champion the type of work which will help build a net zero economy. We are also in regular communications with UK government and policy leaders on ways that our industry can support green jobs, most recently attending events at the party conferences and including MPs and peers as judges in the Campaign Ad Net Zero Awards.

 

We agree with everyone about the need for fast action to change our industry and want to support all those that use our industry to communicate about the product and service innovations needed to get us all to net zero. This includes working with international partners to ensure the best knowledge and expertise in this area is shared at a pre-competition level so all parts of our industry transition, wherever they are.

 

In summary, we know what we need to do to move our industry to a sustainable footing, and to help others to do the same. We are rapidly developing the tools, skills, and insights to make that happen. Can they be adopted even more quickly? Yes.

 

We ask everyone to engage with the work of Ad Net Zero, and the ASA in the UK, to ensure they take the important actions to ensure more and more of our work is made sustainably and is in support of a sustainable future. Finally, we point to a new book called Sustainable Advertising which will be published by Kogan Page in March. Written by Ad Net Zero Chair, Sebastian Munden, and the AA’s Communication Director, Matt Bourn, it will help all advertising professionals understand more about the actions we all need to take in this critical decade for climate action.

Since our founding in 2020 we’ve increasingly seen brands and agencies (not to mention production and post companies) earnestly engaging with this work to tackle waste and emissions in our industry. Most companies in advertising set 2030 goals – that’s seven years from now - but unless they are transparent  with their progress, it is impossible to understand how  much they are achieving. New legislation, notably from California, EU, and the UK, is going to require brands to report Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, which will provide a lens by which accountability will be assessed.

Green The Bid does not certify, measure or track; our role, as a non-profit organisation, is to support the industry in its transition with resources and education. We exist because accomplishing sustainable and regenerative production practices necessitates a framework of understanding, available open-source resources, and a willingness to be candid about and committed to an ongoing and ever-changing process to achieve meaningful impact goals.

You can find a complete set of resources here.