Business must embrace push for greener content production ecosystems

As brands seek to reduce emissions across the entire value chain, the focus is shifting to content production and the ways to create greener content.

Trent Agnew is APAC CEO of TAG, a Dentsu company.

Major Australian and global businesses have been moving towards a net-zero future and with 2030 fast approaching, the question of how to reduce emissions across the entire value chain is becoming something that must be recognised.

The explosion of channels for brands to activate in continues, with more content than ever before being produced and consumed. Marketers demand brand consistency, content effectiveness and personalised experiences at every step of the customer journey – that is a lot of content, so how can businesses and CMOs start to embrace the greener concept?

It starts with a mindset shift. The focus needs to move from projects to partnerships, bringing “greener” sustainable thinking to every aspect of the end-to-end content production ecosystem. The greener concept is based on challenging brands on how they produce content at every step of this journey.

Greener content production is no longer an aspirational target or alignment to future global standards, it is an opportunity for local, regional and global brands to connect authentically with their audiences in an increasingly suspicious consumer landscape.

Consumers are willing to act with their feet (and wallets), with 66 per cent of global consumers willing to pay more for ethically sourced and more sustainable goods. By practising conscious content production, it can play a significant role in driving not only growth or business results but creating a platform for building trust with consumers.

We have seen this thinking be a driving force for innovation in how we create content. There really are a million ways to create a piece of content, but it has made us think all across our production process – is this the right way to do this? Can we do this differently or better? The shift in thinking must take place now, brands need to stop thinking about outputs, and start thinking about outcomes.

For businesses at the start of this journey, the use of data is critical: create science-based targets and goals and be measurable. It’s important to focus on the benefits, and drawbacks, of more sustainable options to assess the type of outcome. Future decisions need to be driven by measurement and informed by data. Especially as increased reporting of non-financial data begins to make not doing so a reputational risk.

When it comes to producing content, a siloed approach is the enemy of sustainability. All desired outcomes must be considered by adopting a more holistic mindset and having the right people in the room. This will mean brands can reduce duplication and make smarter, more efficient decisions when determining how best to respond to a brief. It might mean a review of your digital asset library or being able to have the right conversations around which techniques to deploy, such as utilising digital twins or designing for modular distribution.

It can be as simple as choosing between a physical photo or video shoot and using virtual production to simulate the shot; this alone can reduce the CO2e impact of a production by as much as 68 per cent. Or it can be as complex as analysing every aspect of a global series of experiential consumer effects to effectively deliver them in the most sustainable manner.

It might be the current answer to many challenges within the content creation space, but this is where technology can play a genuine role in helping reduce emissions made across the content production process. From the ability to automate repetitive tasks and validate a piece of content’s effectiveness through AI, to reducing time and effort spent on creative concepting and ideation. AI can help drive efficiencies and thus reduce carbon output, but you need to determine where it fits within your greener concept.

It will take progressive and incremental change to get to where you want to be. It needs to be done authentically in line with the brand ethos that is being presented to the outside world, with any false claims to be met with a severe reaction.

It’s not a task of one, but there must be a joined-up view between brand and agency on how to approach integrating the greener concept to ensure the best results for both the brand and the environment. When done correctly, this has the potential to create value for a business, but establishing the true currency of value is essential to ensure meaningful outcomes are identified and achieved. By demystifying the creation of green content and the environmental impact, brands and brand leaders have the opportunity to deliver beyond that next piece of content.

The push to be greener in the ways we work isn’t going away.

Embrace the greener concept.

Trent Agnew is APAC CEO, TAG, a dentsu company.