We see media as an investment. It isn’t just an expense, but an opportunity to generate revenue. A conscious investor is keenly aware of where they’re investing and the impact that their investments will have. Conscious media investment is when advertisers and their media agencies actively invest in media that reflects their values. Media investments can support social causes like DEI, environmental sustainability, independent journalism, and the list goes on.
Media buying, or media investing, happens behind the scenes much like most financial investments. Even though it may not be as obvious to the average consumer as other products and services, there are significant opportunities for the industry to improve its social impact. Most people know that Super Bowl ads are expensive, but do they know that their carbon footprint this year is comparative to 2,800 flights from Philadelphia to Kansas City (the 2023 Super Bowl teams)? Or that minority-owned media only represents 7% of all media entities, and only 1.2% of the media dollars held by the largest media holding companies currently go towards diverse owned and diverse targeted media entities?
Responsibility comes with the buying power of advertisers and consumer influence of the media. “Money is power.” (I think Andrew Jackson gets credit for that.) The first step to conscious media investment is understanding the power that comes with your investment, and the responsibility that comes with your power. Conscious media investment isn’t a decision you make once. It is an ongoing commitment to make decisions through the lens of consciousness.
Think about media as a brand’s behavior in the world. Creative is the words a brand uses but the context and placement is the media and it is just as important to how the brand will be perceived by the audience. If you want your brand’s behavior to be socially responsible and inclusive, then your media planning needs to be socially responsible and inclusive.
But back to the part about generating revenue. The goal of conscious media investing is to achieve positive financial returns while also having a positive impact on society. Financial gain and social impact are not mutually exclusive. As consumers are increasingly making decisions with greater consciousness they gravitate towards brands that share their values. It will become more and more necessary for brands to align their media investments with their values in order to achieve positive ROI.
Our approach to media buying is both conscious and highly data-centric. Our tracking, modeling, and reporting capabilities provide a strong understanding of the performance and optimization opportunities for each media tactic. This reduces wasted impressions which is not only more cost effective but reduces carbon emissions that would be generated by wasted impressions.
We do not outsource the management of our audience data and media campaigns. Our in-house media buying means there are no third-party companies that take a stake of the media unreported. This maximizes the media investment brought to market and eliminates layers of margin as well as carbon emissions generated by additional stakeholders.
Our media buying solutions include options for green private marketplaces (PMPs) and green media products (GMPs) measured by Scope3 to improve the carbon footprint of media campaigns. We also evaluate minority-owned media and seek opportunities to support under-represented groups by purchasing inventory packages through our media platforms.
Our philosophy is to do the right thing. To us, that means buying media with a wider consciousness of the impact. We believe the best stewards of your media investment are actively considering the impact of your brand’s behavior in the world.