CANNES — In an industry where performance and sustainability are often seen as mutually exclusive, Patrick Gut, VP, Head of Sales, US, at Adlook, firmly believes that they can and should go hand-in-hand.
In this fireside discussion with Ad Net Zero US director John Osborn at Cannes Lions, he introduces Adlook’s new product, Green Path, which aims to promote sustainability in ad serving. “Green Path enables us to query the Scope 3 database – the currency for right now, emission data – in real time and we’re optimizing the actual supply path of an impression serve to make sure it is taking the lowest carbon-emitting impression,” he explains.
The VP adds that Adlook has made this sustainability feature simple to use. “There’s one button in our system, you click it and that’s it. It’s enabled, it runs,” he says.
Performance and Sustainability: A Yes-And Conversation
Gut says Adlook is trying to change the narrative that performance and sustainability are an “either-or” proposition. “What we decide to do in order to evoke more action for brands is to make it a “yes-and” conversation,” Gut says.
He further explains: “Our DSP guarantees performance on every single campaign, fully transparent. And when the trader goes in, they set up the campaign based on the worst possible outcome it can achieve. So, it won’t deviate from your brand growth KPIs. And then you click the sustainability piece.”
When asked about how Adlook is ensuring transparency and accountability, Gut replies, “The digital ecosystem unfortunately was built, has a bad rap because of a lot of lack of transparency. So if we’re going to do sustainability right, if you’re not transparent, you’re already starting way behind where you should be.”
Future measurement
Adlook has forged key partnerships with major players like Comscore, Kantar and Nielsen to offer brands a wide range of choices for their campaigns. “It’s our job to enable them to use who they want in the most efficient and effective manner,” Gut emphasizes.
Looking forward, Gut envisions a shift in how sustainability in advertising is measured. “Impressions don’t buy products, people do. Maybe we shouldn’t be looking at carbon per impression. Maybe we should be looking at carbon per unique reach, carbon per user,” he muses.
In this future scenario, Gut sees Scope three data or other similar metrics integrated into the mix, allowing advertisers to assess the ROI of their campaigns in terms of both sustainability and performance. “I want a larger and larger overlap between sustainability and performance. And anything we could do to do that, we’re going be trying to accelerate,” he concludes.
Ad Net Zero is a global organization that helps companies take a collaborative approach to that mission.
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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.
