The average person sees around 10,000 advertisements daily, and while avoiding overconsumption might be on their radar, the environmental cost of ad production may not be.
Some agencies are on the case, though, including AMV BBDO. As reported by Adweek, the London-based agency has used AdGreen's carbon calculator to reduce harmful pollution from production by as much as 95%.
The calculator, which launched in 2021, is made possible by a 0.25% levy that participating agencies pay into for advertising production costs. Other major players who have adopted this calculator include Saatchi & Saatchi and Havas.
Mark Graeme, executive producer at AMV BBDO's Red Studios, told the trade publication that early planning is a key part of ensuring a more eco-friendly process.
"We've been trying to push producers into using the AdGreen calculator preemptively, rather than retrospectively," he explained. "Otherwise, it's just an admin tax. You're documenting, in a detailed fashion, the harm you've already caused."
Proper recycling and eliminating single-use plastic bottles were already points of emphasis for many production teams, but AdGreen global director Jo Fenn noted that alone wasn't enough.
"Broadly speaking, what we've found so far is that travel and transport is always the highest [polluter in production]," Fenn told Adweek. "Spaces is always next, then materials. And then a tiny, tiny, tiny part is disposal."
Virtual backdrops are one of the tools for more sustainable advertising, as they can recreate just about any landscape or cityscape. That eliminates the need to trek to distant locations — and lug heavy equipment in the process.
"We've tried to get people to reshift their priorities and use the limited energy and time that they have in production to focus on the things that really make a difference," Fenn explained.
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AMV BBDO has seemingly embraced the process. A series of six ads for retail chain Currys and a film for healthcare company Bupa have already used virtual production.
"That's a nice journey to go through with creatives because everyone is naturally skeptical and a bit nervous to start with," Graeme told Adweek. "Once you do it, you [realize] actually this was great, and we enjoyed that. That was easy."
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