In today's digital landscape, programmatic advertising has revolutionized how brands reach their target audiences. However, this powerful marketing approach has a hidden dark side: a significant environmental impact and wasteful emissions.
Recent studies have brought this issue to light, underscoring the urgent need for change. Thankfully, there is a solution – Receptivity, a groundbreaking attention metric developed by Contxtful that not only reduces ad wastage but also helps optimize carbon emissions.
According to a comprehensive study conducted by Ebiquity and Scope3 Research, programmatic advertising generates a mind-boggling 215,000 metric tons of carbon emissions monthly across five major economies: Australia, France, Great Britain, Germany, and the USA. To put this into perspective, it's equivalent to the combined emissions produced by thousands of households. The study further revealed that the average emissions per 1000 programmatic ad impressions amount to approximately 514.8 grams of CO2, which is comparable to the carbon footprint created by doing a load of laundry without drying it. This alarming statistic underscores the urgent need to address ad wastage and reduce carbon emissions in the advertising industry.
Here's where Contxtful attention metric Receptivity comes into play. This innovative solution empowers advertisers to shift their programmatic advertising buys from the open exchange to direct purchases from publishers. By adopting Receptivity, brands can significantly reduce their carbon footprint. The study found that when programmatic advertising is bought directly from the publisher, emissions drop to a mere 250 grams of CO2 per 1000 impressions. In contrast, buying through computation-heavy exchanges results in emissions of around 850 grams of CO2 per 1000 impressions.
Beyond the environmental benefits, Receptivity also addresses the issue of ad wastage. The study revealed that a substantial 15% of brand ad spend is wasted, contributing to both high carbon emissions and no return on investment. By leveraging Receptivity, advertisers can optimize their ad spend and ensure that their messages reach an attentive audience, thereby reducing waste and improving ROI. Some examples of that would be in two recent case studies, one featuring a major European grocery store chain that saw a 42% lift to in-store visits, and one featuring Dentsu's client Pandora where they lowered their CPA by 50% using the Receptivity metric
Receptivity provides a transformative opportunity for brands and consumers alike. It enables consumers to exercise their purchasing power to support publishers directly, fostering a more sustainable advertising ecosystem. In this empowered consumer landscape, brands that align with consumers' environmental values will thrive, and the demand for transparency and sustainable practices will shape the industry. Advertisements will be placed when the audience is attentive, avoiding wasteful emissions and fostering a virtuous cycle where brands, consumers, and the environment coexist harmoniously.