Methodology Overview

Emissions in the advertising life cycle

To “manufacture” an ad impression, our raw materials are media (content), creative (the ad itself), and human attention (via ears and/or eyes). Different channels will have different combinations of these ingredients. For instance, a billboard often doesn’t have content, just the ad. However, a billboard will have a disposal component when the vinyl is removed or recycled.

Methodology Components

The base components of our methodology are:

• Media distribution: The emissions generated from the distribution and monetization of content, including all corporate overhead not related to content production or ad selection, up to the point the content is viewed by the user
• Ad selection: The emissions generated from selecting which ad to show a user, including ad serving, programmatic auctions, measurement, and all other technologies used outside of the delivery of the creative
• Creative distribution: The emissions generated from the delivery of the creative to the consumer device up to the point where the creative is displayed
• Consumer use: The emissions generated from the display of the media and the creative on the consumer device (if any)
  
  

Our methodology breaks these out so that users can see the components that are causing emissions in a detailed and granular way.

For a deeper dive into the measurement methodology, see https://methodology.scope3.com/lifecycle.