How Green Is the Online Environment?

“Today’s environmental concerns are more complex, far-reaching and interconnected than those of the past,” says Paul Verna, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, Green Online: Growing Awareness. “And the Internet provides a powerful forum for corporations, marketers, policymakers and average citizens to engage in active conversations about how to approach the issues.”

“Last year was the tipping point for green marketing as a whole,” Jessica Hogue, research director of Nielsen Online, tells eMarketer. “Every type of company is now getting into the mix.”

And many of them are getting into the mix online.

“The We Campaign, an environmental awareness project launched by former Vice President Al Gore, has allocated a substantial portion of its projected $300 million budget toward online advertising,” says Mr. Verna.

The campaign is using display ads, video ads, e-mail, social networking, mobile outreach, viral marketing and other new media tactics to advocate its cause.

Retailers (Wal-Mart and Home Depot), technology companies (Apple and HP) and packaged-goods manufacturers (Unilever and Procter & Gamble) are experimenting with environmental programs and road-testing them on the Web.

“Consumers who are on the receiving end of corporate green marketing efforts are using blogs and discussion forums to dissect and discuss marketers’ claims,” says Mr. Verna.

Many bloggers and other self-appointed online watchdogs are highly attuned to corporate “greenwashing”—the art of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company.

“Green can do very well online. It’s a topic that people get very passionate about and there are few barriers to entry,” says Jarvis Coffin, CEO of Burst Media. “If you have a bone to pick about, say, plastic recycling, you can start a Web site and, in a year, you might have 75,000 visitors.”

Burst Media studied the frequency with which US adult Internet users viewed green ads and found that 46% of them reported frequent exposure. A comparable 40% of respondents said they viewed green ads “occasionally,” while only 14% said they saw these types of ads “infrequently.”


To find out how green the Internet is going to get, and how that will impact marketers of every stripe, download the new eMarketer report, Green Online: Growing Awareness, today.

via:: eMarketer