How Experiential Marketing Can Improve Its Carbon Footprint

From Innocent Drinks’ 6,000-plant wildflower garden in London’s Trafalgar Square to Netflix’s neon Stranger Things experience in New York, brands are going big on experiential marketing, post-lockdown.

After the marketing events industry was brought to its knees by Covid-19 in 2020, in-person experiences have well and truly rebounded in the U.S., U.K. and across Europe in the last two years. Brands’ events budgets grew 11.1% to $75.16 billion in 2022, according to the global Experiential Marketing Forecast, with analysts predicting spend will return to pre-pandemic levels in 2024.

But whether they’re potting urban plants or opening the gate to the Upside Down, marketers are now under more scrutiny than ever to ensure the experiences they deliver don’t come at a cost to the planet.

While the environmental impact of no-expenses-spared promotional events can hard to calculate, they are often carbon intensive by their nature. Transport, temporary installations, paper, cardboard and waste can all add up, resulting in an experience that has the potential to go viral for all the wrong reasons.

Brands, and their agencies, are all too aware that sustainability is top of mind for consumers—66% of all people say they consider sustainability when they make a purchase, a number that rises to 75% among millennials, according to McKinsey.

Against this backdrop, the ad industry is working out practical, measurable ways to strike the balance between leaving customers wowed while lessening the carbon footprint of physical activations.

Rethinking raw materials

The easiest place to start? From the literal ground up.

Brand pop-ups and temporary installations have been described by critics as the “fast food” of landscape architecture; they’re built with single-use materials and plastics and springing up and down within the space of a few weeks. However, brands are now creating temporary shops and structures that both highlight their products and reduce the waste traditionally associated with doing so.

Eco-designer Stella McCartney was way ahead of the pack with her 2016 Ibiza pop-up store, which was made using only recycled wood, natural wool curtains and energy-efficient LED lighting. More recently, brands including Dior have been experimenting with how to build more sustainable physical activations.

The French fashion house recently worked with 3D printer manufacturer Wasp on a pop-up store in Jumeirah Beach in Dubai. The structure was made up of two cylindrical modules, 3D-printed by combining clay, sand and natural fibers. Wasp initially developed the technology to produce sustainable, low-cost housing for developing countries, before the luxury brand opted in.

Though the tech will continue to play a huge part in how we can unlock “green secrets in the built environment,” brands needn’t get too technical quite yet, according to David Roberts, managing director at FormRoom, a U.K. interior and experiential agency that has worked with clients such as Converse, Nike and Danish window maker Velux.

Roberts said the demand from clients to create sustainable experiences has “accelerated” in the past two years. From the RFPs that land on his desk, it’s very clear corporate sustainability goals are expected to be reflected in physical brand experiences.

However, these briefs aren’t quite fully cooked yet, noted Roberts, with many brands stipulating “fairly vague requirements” around being greener. Roberts’ team uses those as a jumping off point to present more sustainable options, usually rooted in the build itself, with recycled plastics, Mycelium organic bricks (made from fungus), clam shells and commercial waste.

“We always propose more sustainable concepts through material choice, fabrication method or design and then work back from there in terms of aesthetic, budget and timelines,” Roberts said.  

Velux was one client that took this on board for its “Velux Cube” exhibition, which ran at the 2021 London Design Festival. The pop-up was constructed in a modular system so it could be taken down, stored and reused in future locations.

Roberts said the reality, for now, though, is that the most sustainable materials and fabrications are “almost always the more expensive and complex solution,” creating a barrier for many emerging brands that start with the best of intentions.

“Larger corporates therefore have a responsibility to invest, to allow an economy of scale to benefit those lower down the chain,” he suggested. “Once that hits, more brands can have access to those responsible choices while balancing the commercial needs.”

Measurement matters

Beyond the builds, carbon calculators are sprouting up to help brand leaders keep a closer tab on the environmental footprint of their IRL activations, whether it’s an in-store event or influencer breakfast.

Among them is Trace, a tool developed by the experiential industry’s sustainability trade body Isla, which measures the real-time carbon impact of physical and virtual experiences, giving marketers oversight of how they can make an event more sustainable during planning or how they can improve next time.  

In March 2022, Trace formed its first global partnership with Momentum Worldwide, which will see every project delivered by the IPG experience agency tracked.

The collaboration is part of Momentum Worldwide’s shift toward greener practices, led by Selina Donald, global sustainability director. Further plans will see 100% of staff receiving bespoke sustainability training, while third-party suppliers will also be audited to support the company’s net-zero targets.

Greener live experiences

As summer beckons in the Northern Hemisphere, marketers are looking to partner with large-scale event organizers, who also have sustainability on their minds.

In the U.K. alone, the British Arts Council estimates that live music produces almost 405,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year. Concert and event organizers are facing up to this and bringing brand sponsors and partners along with them on their own journey to net zero.

This includes Live Nation, which produces over 20,000 shows annually for more than 2,000 artists. These range from Beyonce’s World Tour to festivals like Camp Bestival. The company’s “Green Nation” charter is seeing it work toward a 50% reduction in scope one and two greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, aiming for all its owned and operated venues and offices and live events to be powered by 100% renewable energy by the same year.

As it phases out the use of single-use plastics at festivals, Live Nation has signed Liquid Death, which is sold in recyclable tallboy cans, as its exclusive water partner for venues across the U.S. In the U.K. it is already working with partners, including U.K. grocer Co-op, to reduce the carbon footprint of on-site activations.

“We know that live musicgoers are motivated to engage in sustainable practices at live events, and so we want to make sure we’re providing sustainable options for fans that are easily accessible and convenient to use,” Lucy August-Perna, director of global sustainability for Live Nation, said in a statement last year.

As the world reopens, making sure there’s a planet to stay reopen in is top of mind for customers. For brands, engaging consumers IRL can no longer come at the cost of the environment.

This story is part of Adweek’s The State of Sustainability digital package, which spotlights climate-focused marketing solutions across the beauty, experiential and media spaces, and examines how an industry that was built to drive consumption is adapting to reduce its impact.