Q. Tell me about what Channel 4 is doing currently in the ESG and sustainability space and the role you play in this?

A. It’s been a busy start to 2024 at Channel 4 in the ESG space. Channel 4 has always been at the forefront of innovation and at the end of 2023 we had our Science Based Targets validated. This means our near-term and net zero emissions targets are verified by the Science Based Targets Initiative and align with a 1.5 degree global climate change trajectory. Science based targets help lead the way to a zero-carbon economy, boost innovation and drive sustainable growth by bringing ambitions in line with best practice for delivery.  We have since been flat out implementing the processes to ensure we have a clear transition plan to dramatically reduce our emissions.

More recently we launched our first equity strategy, which will build diversity and inclusion into all our decision-making across the business, while ensuring that there are fair outcomes and opportunities for all those we work with. The strategy, “Equity by Design”, provides a blueprint for continued progress and allows us to drive industry-wide change on multiple fronts. It is a framework for us to continue being a disruptive force for change with a focus on societal impact.

In the commercial team we’re excited about the return of the Paralympics in Paris this summer. It’s a unique opportunity to work with likeminded brands to align with the greatest show in the world. There’s always a real buzz at Channel 4 when the Paras marketing drops and the content is firmed up. It’ll also follow the debut of the winning ad from our most recent Diversity in Advertising Award competition. It’s Channel 4’s annual £1 million creative competition challenging UK brands and creative agencies to be more inclusive in their TV campaigns. The award is an established industry scheme designed to encourage greater and more authentic representation of diverse UK communities through mainstream UK television advertising. The overall ambition of the award is to get more representative advertising campaigns on air and encourage greater inclusive thinking within the creative process behind the campaigns. In 2023, we asked brands to be bold & embrace being ‘Proud All Over’ by submitting ground-breaking campaign ideas representing the LGBTQIA+ community. It revisited the theme of 2019’s award, LGBTQ+ representation.

As a publicly-owned, remit & purpose driven business, environmental sustainability and equitable representation are the foundation of Channel 4. In my role as Commercial Development & Sustainability Lead for Channel 4 Sales I’ve been working across the business to ensure everything we do as a sales team has considered people, planet and profit.

Q. Do you think advertisers (our clients) should be planning media investment with ESG goals in mind?

A. Yes. Broadly we are seeing shifts in people expecting more from brands in this space, moving to expecting more meaningful action. People are spending more time engaging with social issues and there is more emphasis on brands to stand for something beyond selling products. But of course, any campaign that is ‘purpose led’ needs to be genuine. And not solely for winning awards or latching onto social media trends. Citizens can smell inauthenticity a mile off and will take brands to task if they aren’t walking the walk.

Q. Are advertisers and their agencies leaning forward on this topic collaboratively do you think?

A. Our Black in Business initiative is a good example of media owner, agency and advertiser collaboration. Channel 4 and Lloyds Bank launched Black in Business to help boost up to five black-owned businesses with TV advertising airtime worth more than half a million pounds.

In addition to receiving airtime, each of the five business owners had a creative bespoke TV advert made for them and six months of tailored marketing and business support from Channel 4, Lloyds Bank and social enterprise, DOES.

The initiative offers support to small businesses that are new to TV advertising and comes after research commissioned by the Channel 4 commercial team revealed that black entrepreneurs face more obstacles setting up and running their businesses than their white counterparts.

Black in Business, launched in partnership with Lloyds Bank, forms part of Channel 4’s Black to Front legacy – which is our ongoing commitment to improve black representation on-screen and more widely in the TV industry.

Q. Are there companies you feel have already demonstrated a robust strategy in this space and if so, what are they doing? And who is inspiring you or innovating in this area at the moment?

A. Specifically, in the “green” space, Channel 4 is a founding signatory of the Ad Association’s Ad Net Zero steering group and contributed to its book ‘Sustainable Advertising: How advertising can support a better future’ written by AA’s Matt Bourn and Sebastian Munden, former CEO of Unilever, chair of WRAP and ANZ. Ad Net Zero and its members have built a pretty robust strategy to transition the advertising industry to be more sustainable. It has five clear actions for the ad industry to follow and, importantly, holds members accountable by auditing emission reduction. The AA will also be launching a gold standard carbon calculator for media planning with a methodology agreed by the industry and verified by academics.

An organisation in the creative and media space that I’m in awe of are the Purpose Disruptors. They are on a mission to transform the advertising industry into a force for good that will promote a thriving future. It recently launched The Agency For Nature which is a team of young creatives from top UK agencies who are harnessing their collective expertise to connect citizens back to nature and a sustainable lifestyle. It has already launched several inspiring and punchy campaigns.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, in the research and climate comms space are ACT Climate Labs. It does some incredible work debunking misinformation, supercharging climate comms and offering strategic advice for its members on best practice for impactful campaigns. Its insight, including The Persuadables (the 69% of people in the UK who are neither climate activists or climate deniers), has been invaluable to the C4 commercial team when responding to client briefs and in forming our own strategy.

Q. What do you think key players in the industry might be focused on in 2024 with regards to an ESG agenda?

A. AI is obviously attracting a lot of attention at the moment. What if AI & ESG combined? How can we harness the power of technology to better society? Protect the planet?

Q. If you were King for the day, what ESG policy would you decree?!

A. There are already plenty of strong ESG policies out there – my decree would be to adhere to them! Make them front and centre of all decision making! As a communication industry and the architects of desire we have the power to shift perceptions and inspire meaningful change. What a world it’d be if the advertising and media industry exercised that power by protecting people, planet and profit? Make those your key KPIs.

Jamie Gibbins, Account Manager

Jamie Gibbins, an Account Manager here at MI is up next in our ‘A day in the life’ series. Jamie sat down to talk to us about how he found a career in media, the great client work he has done with his team over the past year and advice he would give to those wanting to enter the world of media. 

Q. Tell me about what Mobsta is doing currently that relates to ESG and how you’re positively contributing to the ESG movement in media 

 A. Mobsta uses lots of different data sets to work out the locations where people are likely to be. Respecting GDPR and personal privacy, we have developed a platform that indexes thousands of different audiences to tell you where they are likely to be at any given time. This means we can make sure the work we do is highly targeted which leads neatly into sustainability.  

Two and a half years ago we started focusing more on our carbon emissions after a conversation with a client. The client thought viewability and brand safety on campaigns were spot on but enquired about whether the emissions could be measured. That same week I’d had a conversation with another business about it tracking its emissions and it just seemed serendipitous. When we started to look into it, it was clear there was little information about the media industry’s emissions which prompted us to think about change. We took it upon ourselves to find out which led to the development of our calculator. We weren’t tracking anything at that stage so were unaware of our output as a business. We decided to get this off the ground and worked with a consultancy called Zero Bees which helps SMEs understand their carbon emissions. Together, we developed the first digital media owner carbon calculator GreenLight, that looked at full emissions from the data centre, on to data transfer, through to end user device. At the beginning, the only thing people were properly able to measure was the end user device which we knew only accounted for 58% of emissions. We were the first company of our kind to track full emissions on digital campaigns and have now been doing this fully for two years.  

We can help clients reduce their emissions before they launch campaigns in the following ways

• Targeting: This works by reducing impressions. For example, rather than buying 5m impressions on the open marketplace in order to reach very broad audience, we reduce this down to find a far better targeted audience (approx. 1m) and instead serve that segment the impressions, removing a lot of wastage around it. Just by doing this you will still reach the audience and get the desired impact, however it also reduces emissions by more than 50%. 

• Creative selection: This involves having carbon emissions in mind when selecting formats when buying a campaign (e.g. display formats, video formats, native). A 30 second pre-roll video is 101x carbon heavier than a standard display ad. We don’t dictate to clients how to build a campaign to be most carbon efficient, but we highlight the carbon impacts of the formats to add a new planning currency into their plans. We aren’t saying never do video as we know it has a place in digital plans, however we might suggest ways of lowering e.g. reduce 10% of video impressions. 
• Streamable ads: When you serve a video to someone’s mobile device, whether they watch it or not, the carbon is expended. We partnered with SeenThis which only charges as you’re watching it. If the consumer was only to watch two seconds of the ad, the client will only pay for the segment of the ad that was watched and hence reduces carbon emissions. 

On average we try and reduce every campaign we are involved in by between 80%. There will always be residual emissions on campaigns, as there is on everything. To account for this, we offset to balance these emissions. We invest in forward facing, gold standard projects that prevent carbon going into the atmosphere in the first place, such as investing in water filters for families in third world countries to avoid burning fossil fuels.  

Q. Do you think advertisers should be planning media investment with ESG goals in mind? 

 A. Absolutely. We’re aware that agencies and brands have a tough time proving performance on campaigns and we don’t want to take a hit on performance just to meet ESG targets. When we talked about streamable ads, those case studies have seen increased engagement and increased attention because the ad runs smoother when it’s streamed. Therefore, by doing the thing that reduces carbon you can enhance the user experience. It’s difficult sometimes to get clients to take it seriously or do something about it. Everyone talks about it, but actually doing something seems harder. Our advice is take the first step. It doesn’t need to be perfect. A test and learn approach is what’s needed and once they see it’s effective and working, it will become more accepted. 

  Q. Are advertisers and their agencies leaning forward on this topic collaboratively?  

 A.There’s a lot of talk now compared to two years ago. I think the key is taking action on it. Talking is the first step, measurement is the second step, action is the third step. In the UK we are leading the charge.  

  Q. Are there companies you feel have already demonstrated a robust strategy in this space and if so, what are they doing? Who is inspiring you or innovating in this area at the moment? 

A. We went to a PR company about getting our ESG message out and they wanted to know “what is the result that makes you see what you have done as a success?”. For example, is it that you’re hoping to onboard more clients and campaigns, is it that you want to make more money? We said no. All we want is for people to be talking about it, we want raised awareness and to pick up on it and be doing it within business. I’m not upset others are doing what we are doing, I am glad that, collectively, media companies are collaboratively part of the movement.  

Last year we worked with Child’s Farm. The marketing team wanted to work specifically with a B Corp. It had in previous years focused its audience on another digital vendor as it was the right audience for the brand. But they chose to move their budget to Mobsta due to our campaign response being impressive for its delivery and impact offering, as well as being backed up by our B Corp credentials. I admire brands that try and take the charge. 

We have recently been working with Lego to help it understand what carbon emissions are in the media space and understand its own emissions. For a large brand to consider this in its media planning and buying is great to see and, although it might not have a commercial benefit to us directly, it feels like the right thing to do. 

 Q. What do you think key players in the industry might be focused on in 2024 with regards to an ESG agenda? 

A. I think there’s a wider ESG question. When we became a B Corp it wasn’t just about measuring carbon emissions, it was ensuring we are doing right by our people. We try and have a relatively flat structure, good culture and give useful benefits. Obviously, everyone wants to make a profit, but we are people and planet first and we really do believe that. We all need to do whatever we can to make the world a better place and help our teams to do their best work. 

Also, a lot of people are talking about the “post Cookie world” and when it’s going to happen. At the moment, with Cookies still in play, you can be targeted and buy for impressions. Without Cookies the way the industry targets audiences will need to change. Mobsta is already post-Cookie ready and has been for a while as our audience and insights planning tool “TraffiQ” lets us index your audiences to a full postcode level. This means we don’t need Cookies to reach people in a targeted way and there’s less wastage. With the end of the Cookie and in the absence of the right tools, I hope the industry doesn’t start casting the net too wide again as this would be wasteful. Instead I hope the industry looks to innovate and develop new ways to be targeted that are GDPR compliant and ESG friendly.  

Thinking invertedly, in the future we realise that within programmatic advertising there’s an inconvenient truth that there’s a carbon emission expended when you bid for an ad whether you win it or not. Our own goal for this year and beyond is trying to work with DSPs to reduce the bid/win ratio. 

Q. Do you have any frustrations with how the media industry is handling ESG? 

A. There’s a level of greenwashing which I find frustrating. However as long as businesses and people are doing something to tackle the issue and not just talking about it, that’s fine. When I think of off-setting, it has a bad stigma around it and obviously it isn’t always enough, but we do have to cut people some slack. At least companies are taking a step in right direction.
 

 Q. If you were King for the day, what ESG policy would you decree?! 

A. We can’t do anything as an industry until we measure everything. I would decree that for every media plan that goes out and is bought, the carbon is measured. Because until people know the impact of their own work and what it means, people aren’t going to take it seriously. Everyone needs to be aware of their own responsibility before they can improve.  

The BBC’s bold move: advertising on audio platforms

News broke that the BBC is poised to venture into uncharted territory by introducing advertising on its radio and podcast content via third-party platforms like Amazon Music, Apple Music and Spotify. While this strategic move could bolster commercial revenue for the public service broadcaster, it has ignited some debate within the industry. Ads are expected to appear on smaller factual, drama and comedy content initially, with popular programs following suit if successful. News and current affairs content will remain ad-free.

Introducing ads on BBC’s audio content is a contentious decision. It’s apparent that it will boost revenue for the BBC, however it risks compromising the BBC’s reputation for ad-free quality programming. Striking a balance between financial sustainability and maintaining public trust should be the priority. Not only this, but it will also cause tension with other broadcasters and media houses in general. There’s a question of whether this approach is fair and if it’s going to destroy the advertising industry as it exists now. Although the BBC has announced it will advertise on audio programmes, that is not to say it won’t expand to other channels and platforms in the future. This could take away from competitors who don’t have public funding and start to damage trade substantially.

Reading into why the BBC is looking for this opportunity is interesting. It seems unlikely that it is purely just for commercial benefit, but considerably to do with the pressure and actions of the Conservative government. This government over the years has significantly reduced the BBC’s funding, impacting talent retention and programme quality. It has also been threatened with license funding being withdrawn by the current government and will undoubtedly be trying to make up for the license freeze during the pandemic.

In this high-stakes game, the BBC treads carefully, navigating the fine line between tradition and adaptation. The outcome will shape not only its own future but also the broader media landscape.

What’s happening on the social scene? A month of social media insights

In March we invited a diverse mix of media owners from the social media realm to our offices to update us on the social landscape. We soaked up key insights on the opportunities currently available to clients and brands and the trends that are capturing people at the moment. We heard loud and clear that social just keeps on growing, remaining the popular marketing choice for so many brands and companies.

Lisa Batty from TikTok highlighted its transformation from a platform for self-expression during lockdown to a fully-fledged creative hub and search engine by 2023. TikTok’s algorithm tailors content to users, diversifying its influence across topics from fashion to finance. With an audience-first approach, TikTok’s skippable ads reap high engagement rates, with 61% of brands seen for the first time on the platform prompting action from 92% of users. WeAre8 reminded us of its unique planet positive offering, presenting a platform free from hate and supporting positive change through incentivised, opt-in ads fostering community, engagement and happiness. It has recently partnered with the BBC on a distribution deal for BBC Earth content; the first of its kind between the platform and a broadcaster. The partnership paves the way for new commercial opportunities by bringing together social media with the premium digital inventory of BBC Studios. Meanwhile, Fifty and Meta both paid attention to how AI can be leveraged in order to craft efficiency, gain actionable audience insights and sustainable media strategies which are aligned with client objectives.  With AI revolutionising the advertising and marketing space, brands are embracing personalised experiences and redefining targeting methods to stay ahead in the digital landscape.

Media Innovation: standing out in a saturated market

There were four key actions within a new brand strategy that contributed to the overall success of Snickers’ ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’ campaign.

1. The campaign launched with a memorable creative, using a combination of humour and celebrities to convey the core message that people aren’t themselves when they’re hungry and a Snickers bar is the solution to get people back to their usual selves.
2. The appearance of well-known faces within the creative, as well as endorsements via innovative social media posts, was tailored to the brand’s global audience. Snickers used local celebrities in each market to illustrate the ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’ messaging.
3. Snickers expanded from its traditionally young and male target audience to a larger, more diverse audience, with the intention of making the brand relatable to everyone that likes chocolate.
4. To reach this new broader audience, the brand also updated its marketing mix to include TV, radio, print, OOH, cinema and social media.

Snickers launched the campaign in the US on the perfect stage to create fame: the 2010 Super Bowl. The ad starred Betty White starring as a struggling American Football star who gets tackled until she eats a Snickers and American Football star Bert Belasco returns to his normal self.

Q. Tell me about what you’re doing in the ESG and sustainability space at MiQ?

A. John: There are two main areas we can split this into: how we help our clients to become more sustainable and meet their ESG goals and what we are doing to get our own house in order.

Debbi: To speak to the client side, I would say we can break this down into two further categories. Firstly, how we help clients buy with carbon emissions in mind. To do that, we have partnered with Scope 3 (a popular partner and standard bearer for carbon data in the media industry) to access and analyse every impression we serve so it can be tracked and scored. We can then use this data in several ways. One way is private marketplace deals for programmatic buys. This is where clients can buy inventory which MiQ has determined to have lower predicted carbon emissions and is already optimised for a specific client KPI. This results in good performance at the same time as lowering carbon emissions from marketing. Another is to give clients a bespoke “green score”. That green score is calculated from Scope 3’s emissions data for every impression we serve, mapped to create a sustainability index which shows advertisers how their campaign emissions compare to that of their industry and market. This is something we do as standard with all clients running a campaign with us.

The other aspect of how we work with clients on this topic is around creative. We use companies such as Seen This which reduce carbon emissions across different creative formats by loading those creatives in bitesize pieces, therefore reducing wastage.

That’s a snippet of our work from a purely carbon emissions perspective and the only thing that I’d add to that is we don’t use and view sustainability as a marketing KPI on it’s own. A lot of the work we have done to lower carbon emissions and make it easier for clients to buy into has involved creating models off the back of this work which look at campaigns from a multi-KPI view. Therefore, rather than just considering the carbon footprint of a campaign, we tend to consider attention, carbon, and performance metrics in one place to build a holistic approach for clients.

John: When we consider our internal efforts, starting at the ESG level, there’s four areas that are really important for us as a business:

• Responsible advertising – making sure our ads are well placed, and brand safe, that they include appropriate messaging and that there’s a high level of data privacy among our best practices.
• DE&I – this is something we’ve been focused on for the past four years. We produce an annual public-facing report that we are really proud of. We feel as though we’re making some really good progress in this space. For example, 47% of our managers are women – up from 33% in 2020, and 27% of our managers are BIPOC, up from 20% in 2020.
• Employee centricity – ensuring we have an amazing employee experience so we can retain and grow talent while offering training and support.
• Environment –we have a specific focus on greenhouse gases and reaching Net Zero. We’re only 18 months into the journey in this area. However, we have just produced our first public facing report in 2023 in terms of measuring our carbon footprint. We’re trying to enhance our ability to report accurately every year, implementing a Net Zero strategy to be achieved by 2030 with Scopes 1 and 2 to be met by 2025.

Q. Are advertisers and their agencies leaning forward on this topic collaboratively?

A. John: I think if it’s really central to a brand’s identity, then it is the client that’s pushing it and the agency is simply finding creative ways to execute. However, there are some agencies, particularly some of the bigger agencies, where ESG is becoming a central theme. In that instance, there is some momentum and movement on this. The latter camp I believe is more in its initial phases.

Q. What percentage of clients are leaning into the data and measurement that’s being produced by agencies?

A. John: Right now it’s the top 5-10% most vocal advertisers for who sustainability is part of the fabric of their brand. Outside of that, we are trying to make this a mainstream option so it’s a win-win for clients. Performance isn’t going to go down just because there’s slightly more focus on ESG. In some cases performance may also improve! It’s just about a mindset and behaviour transition.

 Debbi: I would say there is a lot of interest but also nervousness around the performance side, which is why we have spent a lot of time focusing on the performance aspect of carbon emissions and green scores. The easiest way for us as a managed service to help clients benefit and bring about change in their own media buying is to work on it behind the scenes while still delivering performance. We will still continue to put things like the green scores on Post-Campaign Analysis (PCAs) so that clients are aware. However, this is something our traders can do without needing to obtain serious levels of client buy-in and support as it’s already built into our existing capabilities. We don’t charge anymore for providing this, we wouldn’t increase the CPM for that analysis. It’s a balancing act of the clients asking for it and wanting a lot more, as well as those who just want to dip their toes into this measurement and care more specifically about performance.

Q. Are there companies you feel have already demonstrated a robust strategy in this space and if so, what are they doing?

A. Debbi: It depends on what lens you look at ESG through, whether that’s societal or environmental. B Corp registered businesses seem like a good place to start as an indicator of their commitment to ESG, but beyond that there are some bigger brands that really carry this ESG ethos through everything they do. You can see this in brands like The Co-op. The Co-operative Bank’s TV ad last year was a great example of this.

Broadly from the societal and governance side, there are agencies such as Mullen Lowe Agency  that take pride in how they create very best possible employee experience and give back to society. They seem very advanced and strong when it comes to issues such as women’s health and invisible issues.

John: There are companies within the programmatic space really leaning in here too. On the ad tech side, Open X is pushing both to get to Net Zero and elevate the debate. Publishers like The Guardian are also performing well relative to their peers which is a result of their transparency and reporting. It’s encouraging to see this in the data and reassuring us to spend more.

Q. What do you think key players in the industry might be focused on in 2024 with regards to an ESG agenda?

A. Debbi: I think we are likely to see, and hopefully see, focus on the broader set of ESG principles outside of just carbon emissions which is a big focal point currently. The industry has had tunnel vision on carbon as the core ESG focus recently, but there’s actually 17 sustainable development goals. When you think of ESG more broadly, all of these contribute towards the CSR initiatives and ESG health of a business. We have worked with companies like Legacy Media, which provides comprehensive ESG scoring (across all principles) for the whole advertising industry; from big top of the chain companies, all the way down to small programmatic businesses. We partnered with them last year to start looking at what micro, end-of-the-chain areas we could have influence over beyond just a carbon emissions standpoint. Agencies and brands are starting to pay more attention to the broader ESG lens. The growth of this data and how it can be used for pitching or planning is beginning to influence how we are running our businesses more effectively in an ESG context. That’s where I see things heading anyway by applying the broader set of principles to business.

John: Slightly intuitively from a MiQ perspective, we are still very focused on carbon, environment and what we can influence. Biodiversity for example we can’t move the needle on but we do need to stay focused on areas that are firmly within our control. One other area I would call out is the responsible advertising space which we view as a sub-sector of ESG. We can actually make a big difference to society through responsible advertising best practices.

Q. If you were King and Queen for the day, what ESG policy would you decree?!

A. Debbi: Mine would be to set a minimum bio-diversity standard and automatically enforced. To ensure gardens and green spaces are being utilised correctly by everyone to avoid habitat loss. Although this doesn’t relate at all to anything we do, I think it’s important – unless we plant a wildflower for every impression we serve?!

John: As King of the world (going big), I would go for universal cross-border carbon pricing. Carbon is currently this invisible thing. Often if you’re an emitter of it you don’t have to pay for it – we need to create market forces to solve this problem. In a small way, this is what is starting to happen in programmatic media and we are starting to see the cost of carbon in our supply chain, but it would be amazing to do so long-term on a global scale.

I also think education is extremely important and something we haven’t yet touched on. I wouldn’t blame any brand for not knowing what is causing emissions or what they can do to reduce them through advertising campaigns and media buying. It is important now to bring more people with us on this journey and prove there is some significant stuff we can collectively resolve.

Simon King, Business Director

Next up in our ‘A day in the life’ series, we have Simon King, a Business Director here at MI to share his thoughts about our industry, award winning work and his role models. 

Q. Tell me about what Webmart is doing currently that relates to ESG and sustainability and how you’re involved…

A. Two things. Firstly, climate action – I’m now spending 25% of my time waking people up to the issue of Scope 3 emissions specifically. That is downstream products and services that have a carbon value to them that are currently invisible or swept under the rug and have very little measurement on them. It’s about educating people that we should be past light sensors in the kitchen and getting people to cycle to work, really that’s like turning up to an earthquake with a dustpan and brush! What we really need to be talking about is that, if the estimated global emissions of digital advertising is 3-5% and growing, we need to be doing something about this to make a change. So, my climate action piece is to take the challenge to others and educating them on carbon literacy.

Secondly, what’s important is providing a solution. We recently won an award for “Highly Commended in the Lloyds Business Excellence Awards” for most sustainable business recognising our work with carbon calculation tools and methodologies, where we can measure digital activity. This includes measurement of website, emails, social posts etc. and creates a carbon value for this activity. It’s the same with physical printed marketing measuring the release of that campaign and its full life cycle. This allows you to get a very different perspective on how to specify a campaign, how long that campaign lasts and what you do with it at the end. We’re enabling agencies, marketers and suppliers to quantify the sustainability impact of a campaign, alongside measuring the usual impacts such as cost and performance.

Q. Do you think advertisers should be planning media investment with ESG goals in mind?

A. 100%. I think people should be looking also at carbon budgets placed in different media. We want advertisers to be looking to reach their audience in a way that is both budget friendly and carbon efficient. For example, if you look at the distribution department and the logistics of shipping food, there will be a carbon reduction budget measuring the carbon produced within the shipping process, whereas this wouldn’t necessarily be measured in a marketing plan. So, when looking at different types of media and how we plan it, we should consider not just the value being spent but also the carbon impact. If the client looks across the whole channel mix and plans more effectively with carbon in mind, could they have the same reach but also with a smaller footprint to achieve that reach?

Q. Do you think there are other ESG goals outside of carbon that we should be focused on when planning a campaign?

A. As a B Corp, our opinion may evolve over the next few years and indeed it has been evolving for some time. There’s a stance to say you should have red lines when dealing with the fossil fuels industry for example but also there’s an argument to be had around if you are better to work alongside them making the change and helping them to improve. I think the answer for us lies in if they are on the journey and willing to make a change, we would probably consider helping them with the ethical side of things. However, some advertisers may have done too much damage to society already and in this case, we would have to put a red line through ever working with them. There’s quite a fine line between who you will trade with and who you will help. We have some customers who are very responsible and some who are earlier on in their journey.

Q. Are advertisers and their agencies leaning forward on this topic collaboratively?

A. I think it varies. Around 25% of our revenue is through our agency partnerships and the other 75% is direct with clients so we see it from both sides. It varies based on the type of business that we’re dealing with and how responsible they are trying to be, both as a business and with their consumers. We don’t tend to always see a hunger for new things. Companies reach a plateau when they’ve met the level their customers are expecting them to be at.

Webmart has been involved in environmental initiatives since 2005. We’ve built this so thoroughly into our business, we might now be slightly ahead of the curve, so we need further client and agency appetite to be able to take our ESG efforts to the next level. Tactics are out there to force positive change, for example the threat of introducing carbon taxes. We have proactively gone over and above within our business to lead the way on the ESG journey and that’s because we only see things moving in one direction.

With agencies and advertisers, I find there isn’t a pull it’s more a push from our side. People are open to conversations, but I’ve seen a lack of agencies reach out to either match what we are doing or collaborate. It feels more like a badge. I get frustrated by the fact that not everyone is on board with the continual improvement cycle. When you are actually trying to do better every year across all areas of ESG, it does feel a little like we are beating our own drum but not everyone else is dancing to the same beat. It is excellent when agencies do come together to work collaboratively, despite being in a potentially competitive environment.

ESG has been put on the back burner on the government’s priority list in recent years due to the economy. However, many businesses have set ambitious net zero targets and I think when the economy starts to repair itself, we will see a big shift in attention on to ESG where businesses have fallen behind on targets and initiatives.

Q. Are there companies you feel have already demonstrated a robust strategy in this space and if so, what are they doing?

A. There are several agencies that are doing it quite smartly. There’s some people in the digital space that have some new ways of thinking such as Wholegrain Digital, Climbing Trees, Propellernet. These three in particular stand out to me, not just because of how they are doing ESG within their businesses but because they demonstrate a collaborative alliance and global way of thinking on best practices. I respect that all are under excellent leadership and creating collective cultures that further ESG practices. Wholegrain Digital has a publicised an ethical criteria of who it will work with and who it won’t, which is fairly bold and as a result it will have its niche of client.

In terms of clients, I like what Lucky Saint is doing in the market particularly with its messaging and Toast as well, it reuses bread to make beer and it seems to be smart as a brand.

A client I would mention is Tim Fowler and Alex Barbier, the team at Exodus Travels. They won a gold award with us for with campaign for data hygiene. In 2023 Exodus Travel partnered with Webmart to optimise its existing acquisition direct mail with the aim of amplifying response rates while reducing the campaign’s carbon footprint.  Here’s the full case study.https://www.marketreach.co.uk/case-study/exodus-travels-journey-to-sustainability. We think it’s admirable when a client pushes further for a higher standard, so this is why Exodus deserves the award recognition for embracing sustainable marketing.

Q. What do you think key players in the industry might be focused on in 2024 with regards to an ESG agenda?

A. The big one that seems to be hot topic for this year is the conversation around offsetting. There’s been some scrutiny over offsetting, with some seeing it as a box ticking exercise. Some brands are interested in it, others are moving away from it completely as they don’t feel as though it will fulfil their net zero aims. I think it’s probably the year people are going to have access meaningful measurement and there will be a mixture of people waking up being like do we need to do more? Going further than simply offsetting is the stage we are at now. It’s not good enough to just rely on this. Things may get more affordable with carbon capture, sequestration and removal, but until then….offsetting to a gold verified standard is seen as the (controversial) next best. I recommend more focus on measure and reduction before relying on offsetting.

Q. If you were King/Queen for the day, what ESG policy would you decree?!

A. The biggest impact we could probably have would be (and I’m going after digital a bit here) that digital needs to get up to speed with carbon calculation. The industry needs to be better disciplined about any data that is created and shared, which is what we refer to as our carbon footprint. My decree would be to implement digital accountability and recycling. If it was all sat in your garage, you wouldn’t have it there so it shouldn’t be different online. All of our “dark data”, storage and wasteful digital ecosystem practices contribute to higher energy and carbon loads. It’s estimated that this digital ecosystem is equivalent to the airline industry of 3-5% of global carbon emissions, it’s just accelerating whilst we all state we are reducing flights. It’s going the wrong way.

Another decree would be that everyone in the industry should take a carbon literacy course so that everyone has the knowledge and education to understand our goals. We need to ensure people are aware of the impact of their behaviours.

RADIO GAGA…

To address how we can maximise audio effectiveness in future campaigns for our clients, Bauer Media displayed radio’s true potential in building trust and audience loyalty. The radio landscape is expanding and lends itself to the shift towards digital devices. As a staggering 43 million people tune in weekly, DAB, digital audio and smart speakers appear to be the go-to devices where consumers access digital radio content. With multiple touchpoints for reaching listeners, it is vital that we are aware of the advertising options available to brands.

Whilst we know that audio is impactful, measuring it is crucial to its success. Radio offers brands a platform that can boost mental availability, driving through-the-funnel metrics. It goes beyond brand awareness to amplify share of voice. Integrating radio into campaigns can not only enhance perception and consideration, but also brand equity, giving brands a significant competitive advantage. Beyond brand, Radio has its role to play in driving revenue, propelling conversions and purchases. Incorporating radio into campaigns has shown a remarkable 42% increase in driving profits.

So how can brands weave their commercial messaging through radio ads? Luckily for us Radioworks was able to provide us with useful insights into how brands can accelerate their growth. Audio’s real attraction include two important green flags: love and trust. Due to this, audio partnerships are able to drive brand uplift whilst intertwining messages into poignant moments. Back in Q4 2022, Mind ran a partnership with talkSPORT encouraging listeners to break away from the mental health taboo. Whilst this campaign most likely shocked listeners, Mind positioned itself in a way to access a new audience at just the right time, during a major tournament and in the lead up to the festive period.

Whilst sticking to what we know can be tempting, stepping out of comfort zones and away from traditional advertising can really pay off with figures showing that partnerships can be up to two times more effective than traditional advertising, with 43% uplift when partnerships are live.

ANSWERS & APPROACHES

It Is clear that podcast listening is soaring, so how can brands make the most of this? Acast assured us that there is a podcast advertising format fit for every purpose, whether that be direct audio adverts to drive awareness and reach, host read sponsorships or minutes of creative branded segments.

It is a joy to hear that brands’ questions can be answered with a variety of ad options. Advertising options on Spotify can not only be determined between screenless and lean in moments, but streaming intelligence can dictate whether audio or video ads should be served, meaning those active on their phone screen will be displayed with video content, whilst those who are purely listening will hear an audio based ad. Brands’ messaging can be hyper targeted, whether a beauty brand wants to sponsor a ‘good vibes’ playlist or a Charity brand opts for a Video Sponsored Session approach where listeners are gifted 30 minutes of uninterrupted listening in exchange for an attentive video view of the charity’s core message.

Ultimately, we know that radio works, but it’s about thinking innovatively about the best possible approaches for our clients and prospects. It goes without saying, audio is on the up and with it being a constant go to for the majority of us in our day-to-day routines, there are ample opportunities for brands to get their ads to the ears of the right listeners.