With 2024 being the hottest year since records began, and new regulations coming up in Europe, understanding the environmental impact of marketing activities is important for the advertising industry. However, with the challenging economic circumstances causing many European businesses to reevaluate their objectives for the year ahead, where does sustainability sit in the list of priorities?
Against this backdrop, FreeWheel partnered with independent research firm CoLab Media Consulting for the fifth year running, to understand how marketers across advertisers and agencies in five European countries — Italy, UK, France, Germany and Spain (EU5) — are thinking about their budgets, adjusting spending priorities and tracking their progress towards a greener future.
Technology can help to reduce carbon footprints
A positive aspect highlighted by the study is that while the complexity of reaching sustainability targets can be a challenge, a majority of marketers are showing genuine commitment to the issue. Nearly three in five say they are already tracking the carbon footprint of their digital marketing campaigns, with those in the UK (62%) and Germany (61%) leading the way in this respect.*
The study also revealed that marketers are keen to investigate the operational and technological aspects of ad delivery to drive efficiency. Nearly two-thirds (66%) said that it was ‘important’ or ‘very important’ to optimize their advertising operations and reduce the number of intermediaries involved in the transactions.
Supply Path Optimization (SPO) — finding the shortest path from buyers to inventory acquisition — is recognised as an effective means to reduce carbon impact by many marketers. Overall, there is widespread recognition across the industry that SPO can enable marketers to get more out of their marketing budgets by increasing efficiency while reducing environmental impact.
Is good for the planet good for business?
Just under three out of every five (59%) marketers surveyed thought that the impact of sustainability is important to their business. While this is a majority, the number has declined from 77% back in 2021.
Spanish marketers are the most concerned of the EU5 countries about the impact of sustainability on their businesses, with 68% saying it was ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ important, compared to 55% of German marketers.* In France, the importance of sustainability in advertising has declined for the third year in a row, with only 12% of marketers thinking of it as ‘very important’ and 37% agreeing that it is ‘somewhat important’.**
A potential factor is the tough economic circumstances in Europe putting marketers under pressure to deliver more with fewer resources, meaning they have had to adjust their priorities — though this pressure has affected some industry sectors more than others.
Marketers in the media and entertainment (73%), travel and tourism (73%), and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) (70%) categories are more likely to see sustainability as an important issue for their business than those in medical (54%), retail (53%) or finance (53%), for example.
With marketers in FMCG expecting to see a net change of +20% in marketing budgets in 2025, compared to a net change of –25% for marketers in the medical sector, the importance of sustainability could be tied to the available budget.
Carbon emission tracking shows commitment to sustainability
Additionally, one-quarter of marketers have committed to science-based targeting initiatives (SBTi), to go beyond Scope 1 and Scope 2 to include Scope 3, which not only include carbon emissions produced by the company alone but also the entire value chain of its digital advertising campaigns. One in five EU5 marketers has even constructed sustainability engagement programmes to evaluate the environmental impact of the value chain.
Just under half (47%) of the marketers surveyed have set a date for their organisations to achieve carbon neutrality. Of these, 85% expect to reach their target by the end of this decade, which — when compared to the previous survey’s responses — shows marketers are still aligned with their net-zero targets.
Conclusion
Achieving carbon neutrality in advertising operations is a multifaceted challenge for marketers. While the digital landscape offers vast opportunities for reach and engagement, it also contributes significantly to carbon emissions at every stage, from data centres to the consumption of digital content.
Marketers must navigate the complexities of measuring the carbon footprint of their digital campaigns, ensuring that their efforts are both effective and sustainable. Additionally, marketers and the wider industry will need to balance the costs associated with carbon-neutral initiatives against the potential benefits, all the while staying compliant with evolving regulatory standards.
Collaboration with industry partners and continuous innovation in advertising technologies are essential to overcome these challenges. Ultimately, the journey towards carbon neutrality in advertising demands a long-term commitment and a strategic integration of sustainability into every aspect of marketing operations.
Sources:
1. * Source: CoLab Media Consulting for FreeWheel. 500 Marketers in UK, France, Italy, Spain and Germany, August 2024
2. ** Source: CoLab Media Consulting for FreeWheel. 500 Marketers in UK, France, Italy, Spain and Germany, in 2022–2024
