MG Motor announced they've partnered with global ad tech platform Good-Loop on a new climate-friendly online ad campaign to promote its new electric vehicle. 

Digital advertising leaves a substantial carbon footprint around the globe, with a typical campaign emitting 5.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide - almost half what an average person in the UK and Ireland produces in a year.

To ensure its online display campaign for its new electric SUV, the MG ZS EV, doesn't have a negative impact on the environment, the car brand became the first to use Good-Loop’s new Green Ad Tag, which enables advertisers to measure and offset the carbon cost of their online campaigns in real time.

Good-Loop’s Green Ad Tag is like a viewability tag, for the planet. The ad tech company’s 1x1 tracking pixel - which can be appended to any digital campaign - detects data transmission in real time, allowing for variations in creative, ad tech usage, territory, device and time of day. This bandwidth usage is then combined with data on the climate impact of the local electricity grid to enable brands and agencies to closely track and then offset CO2 emissions through their own dashboard.

The Green Ad Tag is bought on a ‘Tree-PM’ model, which means for every thousand impressions served, Good-Loop will also plant one tree. This means that not only is the campaign fully carbon offset, MG’s digital advertising will also plant a forest to invest in a greener future.

Natasha Maher, marketing and PR manager from MG Motor, said, “very early into planning for the launch of our new MG ZS EV the idea of a carbon neutral campaign was mentioned, and it’s something we immediately got on board with. As a brand we’re passionate about doing our bit for a more sustainable future and we’re keen to do that across all aspects of our business, advertising included. So we’re thrilled to partner with an innovative platform like Good-Loop to work towards offsetting the carbon footprint of our advertising activities.”

Amy Williams, CEO and founder of Good-Loop, said, “I’m really excited to partner with MG Motor and UM on this incredible campaign. Moving to electric vehicles is such a fundamentally important part of our move to a Net 0 economy and so I’m proud that our technology has enabled MG to communicate this message in a truly sustainable and impactful way.

“We designed our Green Ad Tag to make the move towards climate-positive advertising as easy and seamless as possible.  It’s like a viewability tag for the planet. It may only be a small, simple tracking pixel, but the impact it could have on the industry is huge, providing brands and agencies with the information and tools they need to not only offset but to also adjust and minimise their emissions over time.”

The climate-friendly campaign also includes a video ad, run through one of Good-Loop’s purpose-powered ad units, which unlocks free donations to plant trees around the world every time someone watches it. Funding will go towards nursery costs, transportation, planting and protection.

At least 43,100 trees will be planted as a result of this campaign alone. A tree absorbs approximately 25kg of CO2 per year. Media buying for the ad campaign - which launched across Ireland last week during the COP26 climate change summit - is being handled by UM Ireland. The video campaign is due to launch on November 22.

Michelle Meehan, senior digital account manager at UM Ireland, said, “we had been doing some activity recently for MG Motor around ensuring they were present across as much sustainable and climate focused content as possible, but with this campaign, and with the launch of their new ZS EV LR, we wanted to see if we could take it to the next level. So I was really excited when we came across global ad tech platform Good-Loop, and found that by partnering with them there was a way we could actually make our entire digital media campaign carbon neutral. Utilisation of Good Loop’s Green Ad Tag by MG is a media first and UM are thrilled to be able to help MG in ensuring their digital media is as sustainable and climate-friendly as their cars are.”

As well as the Green Ad Tag, Good-Loop has also launched a suite of solutions to help advertisers reduce the carbon footprint of their digital advertising, including its free Carbon-Calculator. Good-Loop also supports carbon offsetting projects to ensure all their ad campaigns are carbon neutral by default.