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Global Marketing Management Update

30 March 2022


Welcome to the March edition of TrinityP3’s e-news

The majority of the public supports climate action and the need for government and business to commit to Net Zero targets. But what role does advertising and marketing have to play? And what will be the impact on marketing budgets?

While it may be easier simply to ignore climate action, the fact is the world is on course to achieve Net Zero emissions in the next ten to twenty years. So, rather than stick your head in the sand, it is important to understand what this means for marketing and particularly for marketing budgets, as the cost of GHG emissions becomes a tangible cost to business.

To help people who are not currently directly working in the sustainability division of the company we have structured this guide into three parts. This will help the marketing community better to rewrite their strategies to support Net Zero targets.

1. Explaining the language around Net Zero Carbon Emissions.

To get you started, we have translated into marketing terms the standards and reporting requirements covering Net Zero Targets which are by necessity detailed.

2. How Corporations are Structuring and Communicating their Net Zero Targets.

In the second article in this series, we explain what’s included and what is not, the pitfalls and the way this affects marketing. And why marketing has its part to play beyond managing brand reputation and what possible outcomes you could be aiming for.

3. The Dos and Don’ts of Marketing Activity within Net Zero Targets.

The final article outlines the opportunities available to all forward-thinking marketing practitioners. This includes why lowering carbon emissions in your supply chain will lead to better targeting and therefore better value from your budget, rather than losing it paying often miscalculated off-set costs.

What Marketers Can Do Now on Net Zero

Thankfully there is finally some movement on understanding and reducing carbon emissions within the hallowed world of marketing.

Until now, most marketers have chosen to ignore this subject, and therefore failed to be included in their organisation’s sustainability target and reporting conversations. This is a problem as marketing’s Scope 3 emissions, which arise predominately from their external expenditure on promoting their businesses’ goods and services i.e., advertising, are starting to come under the spotlight.

But let’s focus on media spend as it is by far the largest budget item and the biggest contributor to carbon emissions in marketing. According to WPP, Group M spends $60 billion p.a. on media placement on behalf of their clients. This would translate to around 3.8 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year. That sounds like a lot and it is, being the equivalent to the emissions from over 800,000 cars running around the roads each year. Find out more here .

Time to join Communicators Declare

Are you a communications, media, marketing or advertising professional? Declare you will work towards a safe climate

here

The Challenges for Marketers Achieving Net Zero

For a good example of how knowledge of carbon emissions in marketing is useful, it’s worth having a closer look at an old case study for the then Forster’s Group.

It demonstrates the importance of including carbon emissions from advertising expenditure in any claim of carbon neutrality or in today’s Net Zero Targets. It also shows that by measuring and interrogating these emissions that they can be reduced.

An issue arose when the company was claiming to have measured all its carbon emissions and then to have offset them from the production and distribution of a new ‘Green’ beer, ‘Cascade Green’, to claim the ‘Greenhouse Friendly’ accreditation.

The entire marketing strategy was based on the claim that this was the first 100% carbon neutral beer. Unfortunately, while an initial boundary of carbon measurement was drawn around the production and distribution of the product covering all scope 1 & 2 and transport in scope 3, the marketing of this beer was excluded from this boundary. It’s very difficult to sell a new beer with a unique proposition (first carbon-neutral beer) without telling the beer drinkers of the land about it!

So, under the watchful eye of the ACCC (Australia’s consumer watchdog), there was a need to ensure all aspects of the product had been measured including the advertising. Read more here .

Measure Your Marketing GHG Emissions

Wondering about the GHG emissions of any part of your marketing supply-chain? Using the CO2 Counter, we can assess your current emission levels to identify where you should best focus your Zero Net efforts.

Find out how here

Your Guide to Net Zero Targets

We read and hear every day about the setting and importance of Net Zero 2030 or 2050 Carbon Emission Targets. The other term that is being used is Carbon Neutral (by a certain date). Companies are setting neutrality targets for a specific site, product, product portfolio or other boundaries. For instance, Daimler AG states that it aims to reach carbon neutrality by 2039 for its car division (Mercedes-Benz Cars), including a new carbon-neutral passenger car fleet. We will return to this statement in our next article and examine what does this not include.

The go-to definition of Net Zero Emissions is from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) which defines Net Zero as that point when “anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere are balanced by anthropogenic removals over a specified period”

All well and good from a scientific standpoint but what does it mean to reach Net Zero emissions at the corporate level? Find out here .

What’s hot

Here are the most read, most shared and most commented on articles from the TrinityP3 blog in the past month: