Not all ad formats are created equal

With brand demand for detailed emissions data steadily increasing, Scope3 is excited to share that we’ve expanded our emissions model to include custom ad formats.

Years of growth in the digital advertising space has led to an incredible diversity of offerings in every area of our industry; from creative through to media, publishers, and platforms, and within each of these there is huge potential for carbon reduction. But, effective decarbonization depends on the precision and accuracy of the emissions model. In digital advertising that means modeling across channels, screens, devices, placements, and ad formats. The Scope3 methodology now covers each of these areas.

Modeling the emissions of ad formats

Think about the variety of ad formats that exist today. If you consider the difference between a lightweight and fun AR lens that you might find on a channel like Snap, or a dynamic video or image format on a media property like Vox Media, it is clear that the associated emissions from each would also be different. And sure enough they are.

The above image shows three real life examples of how bespoke ad formats are modeled within the Scope3 Collaborative Sustainability Platform (CSP).

Importantly, when we start to consider the nuances of each ad format, we have the information necessary to identify what practices can reduce emissions that stem from an ad’s creative delivery. With this data, we can encourage the industry to adopt more sustainable media buying behaviors.

The way video formats are used is a great example. SeenThis technology that optimizes creative delivery for data that is actually consumed, and out-stream players that buffer, can make a huge difference to the emissions from data transfer. Offering the capacity to skip an ad that’s buffered or only triggering a creative if the user interacts with the format are also ways to make video more carbon friendly.

Additionally, we can look closely at publishers and media owners who’ve invested in developing their own creative and engaging ad formats. These ads often combine unique elements, such as interactivity or subtle movement, to capture the attention of users and spark consumer engagement. Each of these ad formats has a different carbon footprint. Each also offers a different experience to the user. In some cases, these components are low carbon.

The first example below shows an interactive ad format from Vox Media called Athena Play alongside the modeled emissions associated with the creative delivery of that type of format. While the second example offers a side by side comparison between two different, but similar ad formats from TripleLift. On the left is a native cinemagraph ad and on the right is a branded 15-second video ad.

Brands can now combine the creative emissions insights available in the Scope3 platform with other campaign information to find an optimal balance between the estimated carbon cost of an ad and the level of attention it has the potential to deliver.

Ad formats data is now at your fingertips

Working closely over the last few months with many of our publisher and platform partners, we created a simple process for inputting custom ad format data directly into the Scope3 UI to be automatically modeled for their emissions in our collaborative sustainability platform. A huge thanks to our publisher and platform partners Snap, Vox Media, TripleLift, La Presse and SeenThis for helping us refine this new feature and being the first to model and publish their ad formats in our platform.

The model ad formats feature is now available to any of our partners that wish to have their creative offerings included on the platform, and provides a spotlight for creative studios to show off their optimization technologies and native advertising through the lens of sustainability powered by the Scope3 model.

Agencies and brands can also now log into the CSP to explore this ad formats data and compare carbon emissions across a wide variety of evolving and updating creative assets. Log in today to explore and compare ad formats.