Ad Agencies Interested In Carbon Neutral Ad Space

Interactive agencies and publishers might be considering ways to promote ad space as carbon neutral, Internet News reports.

The Institute for Sustainable Communications wants to work with groups like The Green Grid and receive funding from ad agencies and other groups to quantify just what computing resources are used to generate ads, content and e-mail.

According to the article, ISC has received calls from four different interactive agencies who want to be able to calculate the carbon footprint of ads.

The idea is that ad agencies and publishers would see value in promoting themselves as certifiably carbon neutral through some kind of offset program they pay into.

From: environmentalleader

Yahoo! Taps Agencies for 'Green' Spots

Yahoo! is looking to capitalize on the user-created advertising craze by holding a contest for advertising professionals that mimics similar calls from brands for spots created by amateurs.

Yahoo! is soliciting from ad agencies "green" ads (30 seconds or less of multimedia content) that encourage people to make the world a better place, whether by conserving energy, recycling or protecting wildlife. Users will vote on submissions, with the highest-rated ones going to a panel of well-known agency creatives, including Ogilvy's David Apicella, Crispin Porter + Bogusky's Jeff Benjamin and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners' Jeff Goodby.

The "Big Shot in Cannes" contest (http://promotions.yahoo.bigshot) will reward the three top submissions with a trip to the International Advertising Festival held in Cannes, France, from June 17-23. At Cannes, winners will receive a Yahoo! Big Idea chair, have their commercials screened in the Palais and be entered into the 2008 festival. The contest kicks off today and runs through May 7.

The idea is to familiarize advertising professionals with the ins and outs of consumer-generated media, according to Jerry Shereshewsky, Yahoo's roving ambassador to ad agencies.

“In the last 30 days, how much have you seen about this thing called user-generated content?” he said. “One of the questions I’m constantly being asked is, ‘What is this stuff?’ It seems to me the best way to learn about something is to do it. If user-generated content is going to be part of what the advertising landscape looks like [in the future], doesn’t it make sense for the people who do the work to get their fingers dirty?”

The rise of YouTube and other Web creative outlets has led some advertisers to look to consumers for inspiration and creation of executions. Yahoo! partnered with Doritos to solicit commercials to run during the Super Bowl. Other brands, like Dove and the National Football League, have run consumer-created spots.

While the contest is geared to agency professionals, anyone can enter, Shereshewsky said.

From: Brandweek