Sustainability a key focus for JAPAC media professionals

Nearly half of all marketing budgets within the JAPAC region are set to be allocated to carbon-neutral partners within the next 12 months, new research finds.

That’s according to Sustainability in Advertising - JAPAC 2023, a report* from market intelligence business ExchangeWire in association with supply-side platform OpenX.

Why sustainability in JAPAC matters

Reducing carbon emissions is important but it’s just one of a range of sustainability goals. Social sustainability, for example, addresses factors such as poverty and gender inequality (cited by 11% of the survey). 

Takeaways

• 85% of JAPAC marketing and advertising professionals see sustainability metrics as being important within their business over the next 24 months, with 43% rating these a top priority.
• Japan is an outlier, with 52% deeming sustainability metrics not important, versus 2% in Indonesia, 3% in Australia and 6% in India; and less than 10% of respondents in Japan were actively measuring their carbon emissions. 
• Leading sustainability goals are reduction in carbon emissions (cited by 29%), business preservation and boosting sales via sustainability efforts (28%), brand reputation (18%) and waste reduction (13%), as well as social sustainability.
• Reduction of carbon emissions is a priority for brands (39%), while agencies and publishers are more focused on business preservation (39% and 36% respectively).
• Increased operational costs are seen as the main obstacle to achieving carbon reduction goals (cited by 53%). 

Key quote

“Sustainability is an incredibly important initiative for the JAPAC market as a whole. As a result, we’ve seen earlier adoption of sustainability measures and actions across both buy-and-sell sides, with clear expectations and timeframes for when these are to be implemented” – John Harvey Faurholt, director, advertising and retail media partnerships/JAPAC, China, Microsoft Advertising. 

* findings are based on a survey of 220 media professionals working within an agency, brand or publisher in Australia, India, Indonesia and Japan. 

Sourced from OpenX, ExchangeWire