TRENDING NORTH: APR‘23
A monthly look at the marketing and advertising industry from NORTH’s point of view.
Offsetting Digital Ad Campaigns’ Carbon Emissions
Landie Viljoen, Channel Strategy Director
In honor of Earth Month, let’s discuss the carbon emissions generated by digital ad campaigns due to the high amount of energy required and what media partners are starting to implement to offset their carbon footprint.
According to a study by fifty-five, a single digital campaign can generate more than 70 tons of CO2eq, which is equivalent to the carbon footprint of about seven people for a year. A recent study by Ebiquity and Scope3 calculated the global weighted average of digital ad emissions as 670g CO2PM based on 116bn ad impressions — the equivalent of flying 1.35 million passengers from London to Paris, or a level of carbon that would take 3.7 million fully-grown trees one whole year to absorb.
Media partners have started rolling out sustainable offerings, and North has started to test how these sustainable options can help offset the carbon emissions of our digital ad campaigns. Media partners like Vox Media, Viant, and MiQ have partnered with Scope3, a company that measures end-to-end emissions from across media and advertising, for carbon emissions measurement and offsetting. Scope3 calculates the emissions created by a campaign and enables the advertiser to choose an offsetting non-profit project, such as clean water, forestry, and more, to offset the carbon emissions generated by serving ads. Using Scope3’s data and technology, the emissions associated with a digital ad campaign will be accurately measured and compensated for, making the entirety of the campaign carbon-neutral. This is a small step toward decarbonizing media and advertising, but a small step in the right direction.
The Metaverse Today: Growth & Brand Activation Opportunities
Landie Viljoen, Channel Strategy Director
The term “metaverse” refers to a virtual world that is an extension of our physical world, where people can interact with each other in a virtual space using avatars, and engage in activities such as gaming, shopping, socializing, and more. The metaverse is experiencing growth in data volume, value, and significance of security and dependability.
Today, there are 400 million active Metaverse users and analysts predict that one in every four people will use the Metaverse for at least an hour a day by 2026. The metaverse has been growing over the past few years with virtual reality and augmented reality being two technologies considered important to its development. However, it remains a domain of niche applications, used by consumers for entertainment and gaming but stopping well short of an all-encompassing virtual reality.
The metaverse offers advertisers ample opportunities for brand building and marketing. Brands can take advantage of the metaverse as a marketing tool, staying ahead of the competition. Brands ranging from luxury fashion to fast food restaurants have successfully integrated themselves into the metaverse. There are a lot of ways brands can join the metaverse, but most metaverse brand activations involve one or more of the following technologies:
- Virtual, immersive environments via metaverse platforms like Roblox or Decentraland
- Mini-games
- Augmented and/or virtual reality experiences
- Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other cryptocurrencies
- QR codes
Another Step Forward for the TikTok Ban
Madelyn Brennecke, Senior Performance Marketing Manager
Growing conflict with China has put more strain and tension on the potential TikTok ban. Amid rumors of China’s continued support for Russia in the Ukraine conflict and following the spy/weather balloon incident earlier this month, the White House has banned the app from any government-owned devices, and officials in the EU and Canada have followed suit. While TikTok has been under CFIUS review for almost two years, the growing tensions are accelerating the case. TikTok has responded publicly by calling a potential ban an injustice to American’s free speech.
Today, the US House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to give President Joe Biden the power to ban the Chinese-owned app, however, the US Senate is still required to give sign-off before a ban could be implemented. But this is a big step forward in what feels like an inevitable US ban or a forced sell-off to an American company.
Meta Tests Paid Verification
Madelyn Brennecke, Senior Performance Marketing Manager
Last month, Meta announced they will be launching a test of a paid verification program, much like Twitter’s $8 verification scheme. This test will start in New Zealand and Australia, with a goal of eventually rolling it out to the rest of the world.
Many hypothesize that this change comes due to decreased ad revenue after Apple’s tracking updates and increased costs associated with building Zuckerberg’s dream Metaverse. While some are excited about the possibility of increasing their reach and getting increased customer support, others feel this will diminish the value of the verification badge. Similar to Twitter, when anyone can buy a blue badge, the platform becomes flooded with random “verified” accounts, and the valuable creators and note-worthy users get lost in the clutter.
Recommendations for Audio Advertising
Stephen Lawrence, Media Planner
Podcast advertising continues to be a key player in this year’s media mix for advertisers, with podcast advertising spend potentially crossing the $2 billion mark in 2023, encompassing about one third of audio advertising spend. Although many advertisers continue to activate audio placements within podcasts, the innovation of expanding audio ad placements is not slowing down.
As podcasts continue to grow market share, the cost of ad placements continues to drop, allowing advertisers an opportunity to meet their audience in shows that are of most interest to them. Additionally, with automation and dynamic placements, brands can utilize one single script that gets inserted into a podcast network, rather than working directly with individual podcast hosts to make custom voice spots. Lastly, and most interestingly, is the activation of audiobooks into the audio advertising space, allowing brands to activate audio spots in-between chapters within some of the biggest audiobook spaces, such as Audible, Apple, and Spotify. Although in the beginning stages of testing, the possibility to include audiobook targeting into the advertising mix provides an exciting opportunity to meet users wherever they are, in the content they are most interested in.
Spotify Offers New AI Experience
Stephen Lawrence, Media Planner
Artificial intelligence is booming like never before, with huge players like Google jumping into the mix of how to activate AI, it comes at no surprise that most media companies are going to try and find a way into the landscape. This past month, Spotify announced their own version of AI called DJ. “The DJ is a personalized AI guide that knows you and your music taste so well that it can choose what to play for you,” says Spotify.
Although still in beta testing, AI DJ puts together a curated music playlist based off of previous listening behavior, as well as real-time personalization, to provide users a place to get access to new music and information about their favorite artists. As more media giants test AI, it will be interesting to see how user experiences and engagements change and modify to the new landscape.
