4.3.8.6 Active participation in industry and professional initiatives
Publicis Groupe is a member of professional organizations in communications and digital activities in the major countries where the Groupe operates. In order to ensure strategic alignment with the positions taken in these forums, the Groupe and its subsidiaries are represented by one of the local managers. At the international level and on a few selected and limited projects, the corporate teams are involved in certain work, such as:
- for more than 80 years, the communications sector has been governed internationally by the Marketing Code of the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce – www. iccwbo.org). This code is the benchmark in self‑regulation and best practices for advertising and marketing (Advertising and Marketing Communication Practice – ICC Code). The founding principles are that all communication must be legal, decent, honest, truthful and socially responsible. This code is neutral in terms of technology and media; no player can derogate from it. It obviously includes digital communications and mobile applications, the Internet of Things. This code also incorporates issues related to data collection and protection and the right to privacy, and takes into account the different needs of different types of audiences, including vulnerable people. Advertising claims related to climate change and environmental issues have been clarified, in order to clarify the proliferation of arguments and allow consumers to better navigate. The ICC Framework for Responsible Environmental Marketing Communication reports on this collective work on recommended standards. The objective of this guide designed for industry‑professionals is to ban all forms of greenwashing. It includes an Environmental Checklist intended to facilitate the teams’ work and to have clear arguments;
- Ad Net Zero: Publicis Groupe is one of the founding entities of the sector initiative led by the British agency inter‑professional body. After making the calculator AdGreen available, the interprofessional organization and the Communications company groups have decided to work together on a set of methodologies for calculating the carbon footprint and environmental footprint of the business lines, products and services. The challenge is to define a common framework ensuring that everyone uses the same measurement methods. Ad Net Zero worked with the Cannes Lions (the profession’s major annual event in Cannes in June) to ensure that CSR criteria were included in all applications submitted to the organizers and the various juries. Since 2022, Ad Net Zero has been set up in the United States with the aim of defining a common methodology for the impact of broadcasting and the media. The initiative was extended in 2023 to Australia/New Zealand and all of Europe in order to align practices behind a single standard. University work with the University of Oxford and the Saïd Business School was undertaken to find a method to better assess the indirect environmental impacts of the communication professions;
- Groupe agencies play an active role in national and international ad hoc professional organizations. Worthy of note is the work carried out with the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and the MRC (Media Rating Council) on the visibility of digital advertising, and how this can be quantified (viewability). Publicis Media was the first agency to be Gold Standard certified in the past few years. This work is done in close cooperation with other professional organizations such as the 4As (American Association for Advertising Agencies), particularly the 4As Privacy Committee, and the ASRC (Advertising Self‑Regulatory Council) in the United States, as well as the EASA (European Advertising Standards Alliance);
- the Groupe took part in the launch of the GARM (Global Alliance for Responsible Media) in Cannes in 2019, at the behest of clients belonging to the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). Since 2020, Publicis Groupe has been one of the founding members of PRAM (Partnership for Reasonable Addressable Media), with consumer protection as a priority: it is a consortium positioned on inclusion by developing principles and standards to properly address the various consumer groups. These projects require the Groupe’s commitment, in the same way as the work done collectively for many years on Online Behavioral Advertising and Native Advertising, both in the United States and in Europe;
- the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) is the first cross‑industry initiative of its kind dedicated to the fight against criminality in the digital advertising supply chain. Its work focuses on four areas: eradicating illicit traffic, combating malware, fighting against online piracy and promoting transparency (TAG Anti‑Piracy Pledge). The goal is to apply brand safety; that is to say, to ensure brand do not appear on inappropriate sites or environments. The TAG Registry was the second part of the “Verified by TAG” program, whose twofold aim is to combat fraud and crime related to the online advertising sector, and to promote best practices. Publicis Groupe is one of the companies integrated in the TAG Registry. Publicis Media was the first group to be awarded “TAG Platinum” status in 2019, and it has since maintained its compliance in the following areas: TAG Certified Against Fraud, TAG Certified Against Piracy, TAG Certified Against Malware are fully compliant with the TAG Brand Safety Guidelines;
- Digital Ad Trust: this French initiative, launched in 2017, has been fully operational for two years now and brings together all ecosystem players, including the Media agencies. The goal of this approach, coordinated by IAB France (International Advertising Bureau), is to assess and promote responsible sites based on the quality of their content and the advertising practices used (cookie and browsing preference policies).This work resulted in a label qualifying the sites with the best practices in terms of editorial context, visibility of advertising campaigns, the fight against fraud, priority access to content and respect for personal data;
- Publicis Groupe has, for several years, been a member of the Coalition for Better Ads, which brings together all key players in the ecosystem (companies and trade organizations) around the common goal of improving online advertising standards. While it is clear that this finances many digital activities, it also has to better meet the expectations of consumers. One of the areas of work concerns the non‑intrusive nature of advertising and the technical standards to be respected, notably regarding data protection.
