Overview
Hearts & Science, a leading media agency, is on a mission to help clients align their media investments with their broader sustainability goals. When a major global financial institution wanted to lower its advertising-related carbon footprint, the agency teamed up with Index Exchange to fine-tune its media-buying strategy. The goal? To eliminate wasteful or high-emission inventory, without compromising campaign performance.
A cleaner, more sustainable advertising ecosystem can have a significant environmental impact. Research from Scope3 found that programmatic advertising generates 215,000 metric tons of CO2 each month across the US, UK, France, Germany, and Australia. What’s more, websites responsible for the highest emissions produce twice the industry’s average amount. If marketers choose to re-allocate ad spend from these sites, it could save 33,500 metric tons of CO2 per month.
Solution
Hearts & Science demonstrated its commitment to sustainable advertising by running a display campaign for their client through Index, benefiting from rigorous inventory and ad quality standards. Index proactively audits every site on its exchange to prevent fraud, eliminate made-for-advertising (MFA) sites, and ensure brand-safe, quality inventory.
Additionally, through Index’s strategic partnership with Scope3, Hearts and Science gained access to Green Media Product (GMP+) inventory packages. These packages prioritise lower-emission inventory and automatically block inefficient media, ensuring high quality and sustainable advertising.
Scope3’s emissions modelling uses the IAB Tech Lab’s global placement ID (GPID) framework to provide very detailed, per-placement insights. It tracks refresh rates, lazy loading, and other efficiency factors that affect the carbon footprint of an ad placement. With this data-driven approach, Hearts & Science could refine its media mix without sacrificing results.
Results
Over a four-week campaign, Hearts & Science saw impressive performance gains alongside a major reduction in emissions. Excited by the early success, the team doubled the campaign budget midway through and later renewed the strategy for future activations—proving that sustainability and strong performance can go hand in hand.
Results include:
- 70% Lower cost per land (vs. prior campaign)
- 51% Lower carbon emissions per impression (vs. AU benchmark)
- 13% Higher viewability (vs. prior campaign)
- 56% Higher click-through conversion rate (vs. prior campaign)
“It’s results like these that encourage us continuing to expand our use of lower-emission media solutions. This campaign exceeded our performance expectations and supported our client’s emissions reduction goals. It’s a win-win.”
Ashley Wong, Chief Digital and Innovation Officer
Hearts & Science
Get in touch today to learn how GMP+ Inventory Packages can help you reduce emissions, improve supply efficiency, and maintain strong campaign performance.
