Singapore – Global media and marketing solutions group IPG Mediabrands and software development company Scope3 announced a first-of-its-kind industry partnership today, with the aim of measuring and reducing the former’s clients’ carbon footprint from digital advertising.

Mediabrands will be offering their clients emissions measurement, compensation, and reduction capabilities using the standards established by Scope3, while helping increase the capacity of players across the digital ecosystem to decarbonize media emissions at scale.

The partnership will introduce complementary and mutually dependent services that provide a road map to net zero. This includes measurement and reporting of emissions generated by the end user consuming the ad by augmenting Mediabrands’ existing media consumption carbon calculator. 

It will also include using Scope3’s Green Media Products to achieve carbon-neutral campaign activations, as well as leveraging Scope3’s emissions measurement, while Mediabrands initiate dialogue and collaboration across the digital supply chain to promote ad delivery paths optimised to reduce emissions.

“Our partnership with Scope3 is one of many commitments Mediabrands is making to take intentional steps in support of climate action as part of our broader Media for Good efforts,” said Eileen Kiernan, global CEO of Mediabrands.

She added, “For action to be taken, access to accurate data and reporting is an essential first step. Scope3 provides critical insights and information that enable us to make smarter, cleaner investment choices.”

Scope3 CEO and co-founder Brian O’Kelley also commented, “From the beginning of Scope3, Mediabrands has been an incredible partner. They were the first agency network to purchase Green Media Products as part of a decarbonization strategy. They have tirelessly advocated for sustainability with their clients, vendors, and publishers.”

IPG Mediabrands has also partnered with Amplified Intelligence last year, in its efforts to optimise its clients’ media selections.

London, UK – Global marketing insights company WARC has partnered with top advertising organizations LIONS and the UK’s Advertising Association to launch the WARC Sustainability Hub, a one-stop resource to help marketing practitioners worldwide tackle the challenges and find innovative ways to implement more sustainable actions to address the climate crisis.

WARC said the new hub is in response to the ongoing global mission of reaching net-zero by 2050, and to lead in empowering the marketing industry to be aligned with the said mission. Environmental and social organizations all over the world, such as the United Nations, have been pushing for the coalition to achieve net-zero emissions in order to manage global warming and keep the global temperature rising above the safe threshold of 1.5 degrees

The new WARC Sustainability Hub brings together a curated collection of content including best practice, effectiveness case studies and thought leadership. Additional resources will be curated from Ad Net Zero, a UK industry-wide initiative led by the Advertising Association, the IPA and ISBA, to reduce the advertising industry’s carbon impact.

Paul Coxhill, CEO of WARC, said that as an industry, advertising and marketing players should not only take the lead in helping change consumer behaviour but also need to look at “own conduct.” 

“To kick-start the launch of this Sustainability Hub, we are delighted to release the WARC Guide to Net Zero Marketing, freely available to all, to help cut through the noise, by providing actionable sustainable marketing best practices to start addressing this global emergency,” said Coxhill. 

Stephen Woodford, chief executive of Advertising Association, commented, The challenge of climate change requires collective action, not just in the UK but around the world. This new Sustainability Hub will help advertising practitioners reduce carbon emissions and produce work to support more sustainable ways of living.”

To launch the Sustainability Hub, WARC has also recently released the WARC Guide to Net Zero Marketing. The report provides a roadmap to help the industry drastically reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions it produces, and achieve a net-zero target.

The Guide contains a compilation of recent industry research and features contributions from more than a dozen industry experts from across the world. It presents frameworks to help marketers drive behavioural change, features examples of brands showing climate leadership, and practical advice on how to avoid the perils of greenwashing.

Lena Roland, author of the report and managing editor of WARC.com, said, “The global marketing industry is well-placed to help in addressing the climate emergency, given its position at the intersection of several business disciplines with a major environmental impact. But reducing carbon emissions requires systemic change, including rethinking how adverts are made and taking a lean approach to media planning”. 

The report is available for download on WARC’s website. In addition, a series of podcasts on the topic will also follow, which will be available to listen to on all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple, Castbox and RadioPublic.

Singapore – Global banking institution Standard Chartered has released a new ‘colorful’ ad that aims to reiterate the danger of carbon emission to the environment and the bank’s commitment to helping to achieve the net-zero goal by 2050. 

The bank recently announced its new net-zero approach which aims to mobilize US$300b in green and transition financing in helping clients reach net-zero targets and to reduce absolute financed thermal coal mining emissions by 85 percent by 2030, among others.

“Carbon – it’s helped build everything we have, but to keep moving forward, we need to leave carbon behind,” said the ad.

Developed together with creative agency TBWA\Singapore, the ad rightly focuses on the imagery of carbon, where ‘carbon’ is the ‘star’ from start to finish. From a massive cloud of black carbon enveloping the community, it is eventually met with carbon in Standard Chartered’s bright brand colors of blue and green symbolizing how the bank is stepping in to help impede the growing environmental hazard.

TBWA\Singapore said that with the ad, which used an underwater technique to deliver the stunning imagery of smoke, they aimed to move beyond the clichéd visuals typically associated with sustainability communications.

“While the conversations around sustainability and carbon transition have been re-energized in recent months, the depiction of these initiatives in mainstream advertising is anything but fresh,” said Asheen Naidu, global creative director at TBWA\Singapore.

Naidu adds, “To disrupt the sea of sameness and really get our message noticed, we opted for a more artistic approach – partnering with the brilliant Eben Mears of Psyop, to tell the story of a world under threat and visualizing how Standard Chartered is working to minimize and ultimately remove that threat.”

The ad was produced by production studio Psyop. According to the campaign’s team, they used a unique production technique involving jets of food colorant in a water tank, creating the illusion of smoke engulfing a city and its residents. As the black clouds billow through the 3D-printed underwater model, two more jets of colorant are then introduced – this time Standard Chartered’s signature blue and green brand colors.

The StanChart team further shared that the film was developed without CGI and shot using a high-speed robotic motion control system, allowing the camera to move through the model city at precise angles and speeds. The jets were also carefully controlled to create sharp, vivid footage of the food colorant flowing through water at varying pressures and speed in the aim to create a captivating film that artistically showcases the role of the bank in transitioning to a carbon-free future.

Emma Sheller, global head of brand and marketing at Standard Chartered, commented, “Coinciding with the recent announcement of Standard Chartered’s pathway to Net-Zero, the new campaign leverages the power of creativity to portray our commitments to tackling climate change and helping countries and businesses accelerate their transition to carbon neutrality.”

According to the team, to stay true to the theme of the campaign, the film production had an exceptionally low carbon footprint, and the entire shoot was conducted remotely with the agency in Singapore, director in New York, and production team in Germany.