In a time of high resolution, what if you could reduce your creative carbon emissions by 89% with a positive effect on performance?

The other day, during my daily scroll on one of Sweden's premium publishers, I encountered a fullscreen desktop ad that, while visually appealing, piqued my curiosity. Intrigued, I downloaded it, and to my surprise, I discovered that it weighed 2.7 MB. I took the image from the ad and dropped it in our service, Madington Station, and instantly I had an ad weighing 144 kb. 95% lighter and with no visual deterioration of the graphics.

Taking that into consideration and acknowledging that desktop ads on a wired/wifi network consume less data with a smaller carbon footprint compared to mobile networks, I chose to perform some random checks on my mobile device. It didn't take me long to come across a fullscreen ad weighing 977 KB.

Imagine this mobile campaign displayed 100,000 times; it would amass a total of 97,7 GB* in downloaded assets (Let's talk about caching later). Each download directly contributes to emissions. However, if the same campaign were optimized manually or through an automated system, one could easily get this particular ad to 50 KB with no significant loss of visual quality. The total downloaded would only be 5 GB*. This equals 95% less data transfered and an >89% reduction of carbon emissions as you can see in the calculation below.

Calculation:

• 977 KB * 100K imps = 11 246 g CO2

• 50 KB * 100K imps = 1 145 g CO2

• 11 246 g - 1 145 g = 10 101 g (89,8%) reduction of CO2

Note: Above calculations have been made with the assumption that the 100K impressions were from a phone on a mobile network in Sweden and have been done using the Scope3 API. We are also aware that browser caching has an effect on the number of times the ad is downloaded and in above assumption the 100K impressions are new, non cached impressions.

Even if I shouldn’t be surprised, I actually thought that the industry had made more progress considering the environmental impact such large assets have when distributed and downloaded repeatedly.

* Decimal unit

How can we do it better?

While the current practice may not stem from ignorance but perhaps a lack of knowledge, there's a better way. Digital designers and producers adept in tools like Photoshop can reduce images for high impact creatives to, let´s say, 50-200 KB with minimal visual deterioration. And for someone who masters the softwares, this is a small effort that pays off well, both for performance and for the environment.

For those seeking an easier solution, Madington Station offers a hassle-free self-service platform. This tool optimizes and compresses images and videos, transforming them into streaming and lightweight creatives that adhere to leading publishing environments' size limits. The service, compliant with IAB/TCF, supports both I/O and programmatic inventory.

Examples

These two images below are from a totally different campaign and advertiser than the one mentioned above. In Madington Station, they have been compressed from 1.3 MB to 0.175 MB without any visible deterioration.

Before Madington Station Compression - Original image 1,3 MB

After Madington Station Compression - Original image 0,175 MB

Better Performance

Concerning performance, loading unnecessarily heavy creatives is avoidable. The perceived visual quality to the end-user is minimal, if noticeable at all. Faster loading times improves the user experience and ensures more viewable and visible impressions, reaching campaign targets faster and more sustainably.

Conclusion

Even if a service has no restrictions and allows files as large as 2.7 MB, can't we agree to ensure that we reduce the image sizes in the ads, regardless of the chosen method? At least now when you know it has negative effects on both the environment AND the performance.

Madington - Sustainability and Attention

At Madington, a core value since our inception has been delivering high-impact user experiences while considering the long-term performance and sustainability effects.

When developing Madington Station, our objective was to create high impact ads that are lightweight, minimizing their carbon footprint while ensuring optimal loading and viewing performance according to publisher and browser limits. All exported ads undergo optimization to reduce their sizes significantly without compromising visual quality. This not only enhances overall performance and achieves campaign goals faster with fewer impressions, but also prevents any negative impacts on the brand."

In summary, as we explore sustainable advertising practices and product development, it's crucial to consider the entire chain and cut waste where possible. Recognizing that seemingly small steps can have significant long-term impacts, every kilobyte shaved from creatives leads to massive reductions in resources spent on reaching your audience.