Ethics & Ecology

Danone and Travlrr talk about the ‘Sustainable Remote’ advertising production model

Client Lead Initiative

“If a client doesn’t take the initiative and directly influence…..the behaviours of its partners, no-one will do so on its behalf. It should be a clear, client-driven approach to extend and share with the production partners”  Ezio Saponari

Do advertising producers need to jet around the world to shoot ads in exotic settings? Has technology and COVID-19 made that an unnecessary cost, as well as an environmental no-no?

Ezio Saponari, global category manager for advertising at Danone and Darren Khan, managing director and Founder of Travlrr sat down to discuss the often complex relationship between ad production and sustainability.

They started by asking two fundamental questions. What does sustainability mean in advertising content production? What are the parameters that companies have to look at when shooting new ads?

For Darren Khan it’s fundamentally about ensuring that the complete ecosystem of the advertising content production chain explores all the potential ways of reducing the carbon emissions created when producing content –  from how they operate and run shoots all the way back to the beginning when a creative is drafting a script. Khan says “It should be at the very core of everything they do and not just an afterthought at the end, a few paper cups on a set or, as in most cases, nothing at all. As someone might say, carbon emission reduction is not just for Christmas. This is something we need to tackle every single day”

Khan says that one of the most effective reduction parameters should be a question they ask themselves at the conception of an idea “is it absolutely critical to the creative output and ultimate success of the campaign in terms of sales, not awards, if a team of people jump on a plane for a pre-production reccy and then the actual shoot, or could we create content just as well if we approached it with a sustainable and remote mindset?”

Khan goes onto to suggest that creative success can still be achieved by not sending a team but perhaps just one or two people, a director of photography or producer, to work with the local in-market production team and director.

And Khan says that there’s another fundamental question to be asked “what will be different when ultimately clients need to quickly shift to an always-on approach, given that more of our clients’ consumers are shifting to video, digital and social media – which has accelerated at such a furious pace since the pandemic. “Can we find new ways of working? The old analogue approach to advertising production, which was slow, expensive and certainly not sustainable, is no longer scalable” says Khan

It’s up to the client to drive change

In answer to this Ezio Saponari says the call for change is in the hands of the client, “no-one else in the ecosystem will drive or help creatives think systematically in this direction. If a client still sees sustainability and in a parallel extended way, diversity and inclusion, as just a “nice to have”, a proper step up simply won’t happen” adding that “If a client doesn’t take the initiative and directly influence, even commercially, the behaviours of its partners, no-one will do so on its behalf. It should be a clear, client-driven approach to extend and share with the production partners”.

And in a rhetorical question Saponari asks if it is enough for clients to just take a position on sustainability? “Not really” argues Saponari “because your partners can benefit as well from your lead. Market reputation and PR are key non-economic drivers in advertising and could help your partners to raise their profile outside of your organisation” He says that it should be seen under the wider, more comprehensive industry view “it’s good for the planet, it’s good for the client’s reputation and it’s also good for the production partners to brand themselves as sustainably responsible across the market”

And Saponari certainly agrees with Khan regarding the speed of change in new approaches to production and scalability “new technologies behind the lens are developing faster than ever before, it’s becoming more and more impressive what you can create out of physical sets. Even in terms of casting selection, you’ve seen some of the new works made fully in the studio by virtual sets”

But whilst the results are very promising Saponari says they’re still fitting more with stills than moving images. “but a further acceleration and democratisation of these breakthrough technologies is the real, and probably unique, disruptive force in the industry right now, focusing not only on the right quality of the assets, but also considering the second major pillar of a modern content strategy: quantity of deliverables. It would be silly to simply ignore it” says Saponari.

Measuring Change

So, Saponari asks, the question then is “how do you communicate these changes? How do you measure the positive shift? And how can you validate or measure, for instance, the reduction of CO₂ generated by each new ad production shoot?”

Khan says that it must start with the challenge coming from the client to the agencies, setting them clear, sustainable goals that are aligned with the overall company’s sustainable objectives and then rewarding them for achieving these goals.

“You need very clear KPI’s that are set out, each year, at the planning stage, these can be easily implemented and measured by independent experts. And these must be clearly communicated to agencies and key stakeholders and agreed before a pen even touches a storyboard” Khan says “and If training is required then this must also be provided”

He says that there are some great environmental agencies out there, such as Green Element, who can help define the goals, measurement, results and implementation of any necessary training“ AdGreen have some fantastic free resources and training sessions available. Individuals should have a thirst for sustainable knowledge” says Khan

And, asks Khan, could Saponari see a business with all the right sustainability credentials, sitting between him as a client and his agencies, helping them to achieve his company’s sustainable creative and production goals and objectives?

Also Read: Carbon Data: AdGreen launched by UK Advertising Climate Action Working Group

Also Read: Green Element explained: What do they do and why are they so important for the ad industry?

Finally, as a client, what will Saponari expect over the next two years as far as sustainable creative and production are concerned?  “Will this come to the top of the agenda? How will you select which creative and production agencies you will work with, and how you will work with them? What if they refuse to change or are slow to change?” Khan asks.

“Personally I don’t feel agencies would push back, unless for specific business or personal beliefs” Saponari says “Advertising is a world based on people. In any case it would be virtually impossible for agencies to fend this off. Yes, this might mean traveling less to the sets, and maybe having a little less fun when shooting; possibly it could result in a call to review some long-lasting ad production rosters; but measurable sustainability in ad creation is no longer negotiable: those other things are minor inconveniences”

Will creative excellence be compromised?

Saponari says this brings us to the classic question that’s often, if not always, asked “how is this impacting the quality of the creative and the production?” he continues “It shouldn’t impact it at all. Preserving the creativity and the proper quality of the assets in relation to the communication channel still remains a primary goal for any ad. Ideally, as a prerequisite, clients should plug sustainable principles and KPIs, validated by independent bodies, into any brief shared with the creative”

But he says “ when I say ideally, that means it’s rarely happening” Saponari says that it’s not an impossible task to move production in the right direction but that a creative mind may not necessarily be an expert in designing and scheduling content productions and not many clients have the right level of internal knowledge either. “We all have the same objective in protecting the quality of the creative”

Saponari says that to get this over the line there is in each creative job a “golden hour” in the production chain in which to firmly outline environmentally friendly shooting “it’s actually the precise moment when you receive and approve the storyboard. The real shooting design, including your ability to build in sustainable practices, starts here” he says. “Your producers should frame the production method right here: how, when and where to shoot”

“Danone is a little unique in that, but realistically it’s rare that a client is able to do that alone and it’s most likely that only direct clients’ creative production experts, whether internal or external , can drive it on the ground” And Saponari emphasises that sustainable ad production is at the heart of the client’s purpose; it’s not solely a creative agency mission.

But Saponari acknowledges that it’s not an easy job using new, remote production methods and there’s a subtle balance to find. However says Saponari “if partnering with your own independent producers and empowering them to act as an integral part of your organisation feels too risky, because you’ve never done it before and you see it as just another cost, then I would say that possibly you are slightly off track, that perhaps you see and treat sustainability as just another buzzword. Luckily for the industry, there are a few incredibly good producers and production consultants out there to help clients’ through the process”

And finally Saponari says that client’s also need independent organisations to measure and validate the process and record the positive environmental impact of what they produce. And then, most importantly, client’s need to communicate this internally, and maybe externally “If you don’t communicate it, the job simply doesn’t exist” says Saponari, a reference to fact that it’s just as important to talk about sustainability as it is to produce sustainably.

Of course, Saponari says, this is the daily shoot by shoot approach, and that’s fine, however how do you ensure the journey is seen in a more consistent, strategic, organic and long-term way?

Picking up these points Khan says that fundamentally brands need to adopt new ways of working, take back some of the control and accelerate creativity by fusing production and technology. He says “at Travlrr & Clickon we have been building a Creative Operating System (OS) that transforms the production, management and delivery of digital communications into something faster, more efficient, accountable and, most importantly, sustainable. We have built sustainable, remote and easy to plug in solutions for today’s content revolution”

He continues “Teams need content at speed to power their marketing and growth. Our creative expertise, globally-located production pods and innovative technology enable us to deliver accelerated omni-channel marketing at scale for clients, which is helping them to let go of some of the legacy models”

“Not only do we remove the need to fly teams and kit around the world, we have also been funding the planting of trees to the equivalent of 7500kg of carbon emissions” the amount that a typical UK household might generate in seven months “with the award-winning Trees for Life in Scotland since early 2019. And we work closely with AdGreen in the UK for training, to make sure our local production partners are being as sustainable as possible on the shoot”

More recently says Khan, they launched the world’s first sustainable automotive production solution by partnering with the Moving Picture Company (MPC) to help clients shoot “Live Plates” in over 100 countries and then put the car in using CGI by the award-winning MPC team. This was immediately used by Land Rover Defender.

And Khan finishes with this observation “if we could get to a point where TV ads were approved by Clearcast with a substantiated graphic stating that “this ad was made 100% carbon free”, then we will know we have made a difference and achieved what we set out to do in 2018 – to be the conduit for clients to help their agencies shift to a ‘Sustainable Remote’ production model and in doing so, achieve their own sustainable business goals and objectives”

About the authors

Ezio Saponari, global category manager for advertising at Danone and Darren Khan, managing director and Founder of Travlrr