Find the new article by Nadr El Hana, Senior Lecturer The Sorbonne Business School, Galina Kondrateva, Teacher-Researcher at EDC Paris Business School and Silvia L. Martin, Full Professor of Marketing at California State University!
Does digital marketing and advertising really take into account the environmental impact of their actions? If we look at performance indicators, we can see that the effectiveness of a campaign takes little account of this. When will there be a CO2 cost per 1,000?
In the world of digital marketing, performance indicators are well known: impressions, clicks, conversion rates or number of views. These "metrics" structure decision-making and guide brand strategies. But there's another, as yet little-known metric that's gaining in importance: the carbon footprint of digital campaigns. This phenomenon remains largely underestimated, even though digital today accounts for 4.4% of the national carbon footprint in France.
A 2022 study by Fifty-Five, the French firm specializing in data and digital marketing, quantified the impact of a standard campaign: up to 71 tons of CO2 emitted, equivalent to 35 round-trips from Paris to New York, or the annual carbon footprint of seven people. These emissions come not only from the distribution of content, but also from its production, hosting and consultation by end users.
An energy-intensive advertising channel
Not all digital formats have the same carbon footprint: videos, especially high-resolution or auto-play, are among the most energy-intensive. A 15-second spot broadcast on a cell phone consumes more energy than a static visual viewed with a wifi connection. Platforms also count: TikTok is proving to be more energy-hungry than YouTube or Facebook, due to the sheer volume of data and its intensive algorithms.