Dentsu, Japan’s top marketing agency, has built a tool that will enable clients to measure the carbon footprint of ad campaigns and make them more sustainable.

The tool will be integrated into Dentsu’s internal CCS software system. The system, which rolled out in 2016, is used by the marketing agency’s employees to plan ad campaigns.

“With around $740 billion being spent on advertising per annum, media can be a material and significant emission source for brands, so we have the responsibility to be the major catalyst needed for reducing carbon across the media supply chain,” highlighted Peter Huijboom, the CEO of Dentsu’s media and global clients group. 

Tokyo-based Dentsu is the largest marketing agency in Japan. It’s believed to manage more than a quarter of the annual ad spending in Japan and is also a major player internationally with annual revenues of over $9 billion.  

To make its employees more productive, Dentsu has developed an application called the CCS Planner. The application finds the optional mix of marketing channels that should be used for an ad campaign to maximize return on investments.

CSS Planner can evaluate more than 60 marketing channels when determining how to carry out an ad campaign. Additionally, it provides Dentsu employees with access to relevant market data.

The new sustainability tool that Dentsu is integrating into CSS planner will enable employees to view the carbon footprint of ads. The tool will provide sustainability statistics at the impression level, according to the firm, which suggests that the data is highly detailed.

Dentsu will allow corporate clients to set carbon targets for their ad campaigns. According to the firm, clients will have the ability to compare different ad delivery methods when developing a campaign and find the ones that best align with their sustainability objectives.

Dentsu first began working on technology to calculate ads’ environmental footprint in 2019. As part of the project, the firm built a web-based tool for calculating emissions associated with online ads.

Last year, Dentsu introduced an enhanced version of the tool that can also measure the environmental impact of ads distributed via other channels. The enhanced version can analyze TV, radio and print ads. 

“For the last two years we have been collaborating with some of the world’s largest media companies and platforms to get to the data we need,” said Dentsu Global Chief Sustainability Officer Anna Lungley. “The integration into our planning systems means we can now actively decarbonise media planning, helping both dentsu and our clients achieve ambitious Net Zero targets”.

text

text