Want to Cut Emissions From Your Ad Campaign? Try Old-Fashioned Billboards

Out-of-home advertising could reduce the carbon emissions of your ad campaign.

Global OOH ad agency Billups worked with carbon intelligence firm Cedara to measure the environmental impact of OOH compared with other ad formats.

Cedara’s research found that billboards and other traditional OOH ads were 188% more efficient that programmatic display ads, 246% more efficient than programmatic video, and 336% more efficient than programmatic video on CTV.

The goal of the report is to give marketers better insight into where efficiencies lie and how to use OOH to achieve their carbon-reduction goals, explained Stephanie Gutnik, global chief strategy officer at Billups.

“There can be such a fear around not being an expert—saying something that might be considered greenwashing or getting something wrong,” Gutnik acknowledged. “[We thought:] let’s just put some information out so people can feel more confident and have data that can allow them to just start to make better decisions.”

Standardizing measurement

Using Ad Net Zero’s Global Media Sustainability Framework, Cedara analyzed 1,272 ad campaigns run by Billups.

The framework’s estimates for OOH allowed Cedara to calculate the “emissions intensity” of Billups’ ad campaigns, measured in the grams of CO2 equivalent emissions generated per impression. Cedara then compared the emissions intensity of Billups’ inventory with other channels, including programmatic display, video, and CTV.

“There are a lot of misperceptions about out-of-home,” Gutnik told ADWEEK. “You look at these screens and boards that are in some cases larger than life, and you’re probably thinking, this is the furthest thing from what we need in a reduction strategy.”

The initial report focused only on traditional OOH advertising, but Gutnik said that Billups and Cedara plan to collect additional data on digital OOH.

“There’s been a lack of data,” noted Eric Shih, chief operating officer at Cedara. “Hopefully, with standards in place, more companies will lean in.”

Sustainability regulations incoming

This kind of measurement is necessary for companies operating in Europe, Shih said. Regulations coming next year will require companies to submit detailed emissions reports including marketing and advertising activities.

While the U.S. market isn’t seeing the same regulatory pressures as the EU, Australia, or Singapore, emissions measurement data is necessary for global brands.

“What we’ll see next year is more companies, more brands leaning in,” predicted Shih. “You might not see it at scale in the U.S., but […] we’re seeing it now, starting to get those requests like, ‘How can we measure this? How can we make an impact here?’”