CANNES – The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this year was notable for introducing sustainability criteria in every advertising award category for the first time. The new requirements come as the media and marketing industries become more aware that their marketing activities result in greenhouse-gas emissions.
“For many years, we’ve been focused on climate action,” Martin Bryan, global chief sustainability officer at Interpublic Group’s IPG Mediabrands, said in this interview with Beet.TV contributor Mike Shields.
“We have a sustainability report which holds us accountable for the emissions that we are generating in our business across scope one, two and three,” Bryan said. “We are also working actively with our clients to help them in the downstream emission measurement that is required for them to report to their shareholders.”
IPG Mediabrands participates in a variety of industrywide efforts to do something about climate change. Organizations such as Ad Net Zero, IAB Tech Lab and the World Federation of Advertisers have made sustainability a bigger priority.
“We need to communicate about this and we need to broaden the tent,” Bryan said. “There are carrots and sticks that are critical to implementing sustainability in an aggressive and fast fashion.”
IPG Mediabrands set a goal to reduce emissions from automated advertising activities by 30%. The programmatic marketplace relies on networks of computers whose electricity often comes from fossil fuels.
“We’ve got the tools and the solutions that enable us to measure those emissions,” Bryan said. “So setting those goals, working with those partners, that’s a really fast accelerant for adoption.”
You’re watching coverage of the Sustainability & Responsible Marketing Summit at Cannes Lions 2023, presented by Adlook & Sharethrough. For more videos from Beet.TV’s Cannes Lions 2023 coverage, please visit this page.
