Everything you need to know about Ad Net Zero at Cannes Lions

Special Area in Act Responsible Hall to offer best practice guidance and tips to decarbonise advertising and successfully promote behaviour change

Science-based targets measurement & reporting now mandatory for supporters

Ad Net Zero Global Group welcomes Amazon Ads, Indeed and L’Oréal

Cannes, France, June 19, 2023: Climate action initiative, Ad Net Zero, is running a special area in the Act Responsible Hall, next to the Debussy Stage, during the week of Cannes Lions from 19-23 June between 10-18.00 each day. Delegates and media are invited to find out more about the industry-wide efforts to decarbonise advertising and successfully promote sustainable products, services, and behaviours, including more about Ad Net Zero’s training programme, 5-point action plan and how to become a supporter.

It follows the move by Cannes Lions to include a sustainability question in this year’s award entries, central to Ad Net Zero’s fourth action – to reduce emissions through awards and from events.

In further developments to mark Ad Net Zero’s first anniversary of its international roll-out, all Ad Net Zero supporters, global, and at a national level, are now required to set a public science based net zero target. This can be done through either the Science Based Targets initiative, a commitment to the UN Race to Zero (including via the SME Climate Hub), The Climate Pledge, or other comparable alternatives.

Supporters will also now be required to measure and report their progress annually. Targets will need to be created within 12 months if not already in place and Ad Net Zero will provide guidance to connect supporters with resources to help set, measure and report. An analysis of the industry’s path to net zero, based on the Ad Net Zero’s Global Group publicly reported targets, will be published on adnetzero.com, sharing how many of the industry’s biggest organisations are committing to decarbonisation and by what point.

Sebastian Munden, Chair, Ad Net Zero, said: “Science-based targets in line with the latest climate understanding are now mandatory for Ad Net Zero supporters. We are aligning everyone’s strong intent with the best practices of target-setting and reporting and asking for those to be made public. Many have already done so. We are calling on everyone in the industry to close the gap between intent and action. Companies up and down the advertising supply chain must use their influence to accelerate the removal of emissions and the promotion of the net zero economy. The urgency of this cannot be understated and we need to achieve material progress in the next couple of years. Joining in with our action plan can help businesses do that.”

Ad Net Zero at Cannes Lions

Ad Net Zero will be presenting two sessions as part of the Cannes Lions 2023 programme, both taking place on Monday 19 June. The first is a presentation by Prof Felipe Thomaz of Oxford University’s Said Business School and the second is a special workshop led by Ad Net Zero Chair, Sebastian Munden and dentsu’s Head of Global Campaigns and Stakeholder Engagement, Jordan Hunter-Powell.  On Wednesday 21 June, Ad Net Zero will be taking part in the Open House For Good (OHFG), when the Act Responsible Hall will be open to the public for free from 2-4pm. Ad Net Zero Chair, Sebastian Munden, will be interviewed by a UK Young Lion at 3pm in the Ad Net Zero Zone.

Progress on media measurement

The Ad Net Zero Zone includes details of the IAB Tech Lab’s new Sustainability Playbook with quick wins for decarbonising the ad tech programmatic supply chain, which was launched at IMPACT on June 7. WFA, GARM and Ad Net Zero will be publishing a Quick Action Guide for media leaders to consider how to reduce the environmental impact of media campaigns and operations on Thursday 22nd June. WFA, GARM and Ad Net Zero have joined forces on an acceleration agenda to identify a standard framework for measuring media campaign carbon emissions, with target of taking it to wider industry consultation before end 2023.

Continued expansion

The Ad Net Zero Global Group, which launched at Cannes Lions 2022, has also added three new commercial organisations as supporters – Amazon Ads, Indeed and L’Oréal. Ad Net Zero US will have a prominent presence at Cannes, having doubled their supporters since launch earlier in 2022 including Kroger, Mediaocean, Index Exchange and a number of agencies. John Osborn, US Director, will be involved in supporter programming including the OpenX Sustainability in Media and AdTech panel on Tuesday and the Beet.TV Sustainability Summit on Thursday.  Ad Net Zero launches in New Zealand this August, with further territories in discussion to form national chapters.

Alan Moss, VP Global Ad Sales, Amazon Ads, said: “To build a more sustainable industry, we must take collective, global action. In joining Ad Net Zero, we’re coming together with many of the industry’s largest agencies and advertisers in tackling the crucial issue of media decarbonization.

“We’re also pleased to announce a new collaboration between The Climate Pledge, which Amazon co-founded in 2019 alongside Global Optimism, and Ad Net Zero. This new collaboration means signatories to The Climate Pledge (current and future) are now eligible to join Ad Net Zero as well, based on the commitment they’ve already made to reach net zero carbon by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement, further enabling broader support for the advertising industry’s transition to a net zero future.”

Carmen Graf, VP Global Brand Advertising & Media at Indeed, said: “Fighting climate change requires companies to make substantial changes to how we do business. We are thrilled to join Ad Net Zero and work toward decarbonising the advertising industry. As part of our ESG goals, Indeed aims to have net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and this partnership with Ad Net Zero is an important step toward reaching this goal.”

Mathias Chaillou, Chief Media Officer, L’Oréal said: “As the 4th largest global advertiser, we intend to play a crucial role in the decarbonization of the advertising ecosystem; we aim to measure and reduce our carbon footprint from eco-content production to media activation while promoting consumer behaviour through sustainable ad messaging. L’Oréal is thrilled to collaborate with Ad Net Zero, peers and partners to collectively accelerate towards a sustainable future.”

Ad Net Zero Content for the Zone

Featured content in the Ad Net Zero Zone has been drawn from more than 60 organisations from the initiative’s supporter base, along with content from recent Ad Net Zero showcase sessions and the Ad Net Zero Global Summit. One example is a special diagnostic tool to help companies establish their sustainability maturity and aid communications in this area, first developed by Meta and Accenture. All content is available to freely access on adnetzero.com and via the Ad Net Zero LinkedIn Page for people not attending Cannes Lions.

Sustainability at Cannes

Ad Net Zero plans to use its platform at the Responsibility Hall to celebrate all its global supporters, whether they’re physically there or not. To do this in a meaningful way, the programme is using its large screen to showcase supporters’ work advancing sustainability through short videos. Ad Net Zero UK staff (along with colleagues from one of the founding trade bodies, the Advertising Association) are travelling to and from the event via train to reduce the carbon emissions involved in travel.  All materials in the Zone have been designed with low impact in mind and have been produced, where possible, using sustainable materials and printing processes.

Ad Net Zero in action

Earlier this year, YouTube invited Bayer, Uber, Dove, and Sephora to craft their sustainability stories across multiple video ad formats while following Ad Net Zero principles. YouTube will launch each brand’s story at Cannes to inspire the rest of the industry. The participating brands will leverage YouTube’s AI-powered Video reach campaigns to unite their multiple creative assets into a connected experience. Results and learnings will be shared this autumn, following the live campaign period.