“The expected performance of influence campaigns still very little includes the carbon impact, even of the most committed players”

Greenstory is a branding and communication agency that has been supporting brands and impact projects for more than 10 years. From the start, the founders of Greenstory, Elodie Dupré and Camille Cian, were convinced that the Influence lever is absolutely key in a marketing strategy, but only if it is finely worked, in line with the advertiser's DNA. They know perfectly the profiles of KOLs, who are both aware of responsible consumption and talented prescribers, and master the co-creation of original devices that make it possible to convey the key messages of their customers, in accordance with the editorial guidelines of content creators. In this interview, Elodie Dupré, Head of Media and Influence explains how the agency integrates carbon footprint issues into the design of its influence campaigns.

‍How do you assess the level of awareness of influencers and influencer marketers about the environmental impact of their activities?‍

Serious discussions about the carbon footprint of influencer marketing activities are really recent!

So-called “committed” influencers are for the most part aware of the general impact of their digital activity on the environment, but rarely in a precise and numerical manner.

In reality, influencers who are interested in the more responsible practice of their profession rely on common sense to limit the negative consequences: as little over-packaging as possible in packages, the limitation of air travel when possible, etc. But this affects more the upstream than the downstream of the production of content. Because, even if video broadcasting weighs heavily on the carbon footprint of an operation, advertisers, agencies and influencers will tend to use this format, since the algorithm of the most used social platforms, such as Instagram for example, greatly favors video creation. This type of living content is very popular and allows us to achieve our business goals with really interesting quantitative and qualitative results. So yes, most influencers and our client brands want to be able to take more account of these environmental aspects, but not at the expense of excellent marketing reports... Today, the expected performance of influence campaigns still very little integrates the carbon impact, even of the most committed players.

However, it is essential to start asking questions about “how to optimize an influence campaign, taking into account its environmental impact throughout the chain”. Always ask yourself: what can we do about it? You have to be ingenious! At Greenstory, we have been developing our social media editorial recommendations for several years now by capitalizing on the rules of “slow content”, for a content ecology! We clearly aim at the recyclability of qualitative productions.

Another practice, certainly marginal, but which has multiple advantages, is hand-carrying. Since the Greenstory teams are based in Paris, Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux, we like to meet content creators to give them our customers' products in person, over a coffee. It's low impact (long live the subway, the tram, the bike!) , very effective in getting key messages across the brand and products and, last but not least, it humanizes the agency x influencer relationship; it's really nice and rich to see each other IRL! In fact, that's how I met the person who then became my partner 7 years ago: Camille. She was already the agent of the green influencer Coline and I was giving her customer products over coffee when we had this professional crush!

‍You work with impact brands that are already aware of the need to reduce our impact on the environment: how willing will they be to compare campaign performance to its carbon footprint and to make changes?‍

As a marketing consulting agency whose environmental considerations are integrated into our business thinking, our role is also to make our clients aware of the overall coherence of their actions. If they sell products that respect nature and humans, the way they are promoted must also be as low-impact as possible... and influence is one of them.

We are very lucky, because all our customers, from start-ups to large SMEs, all sectors combined (food, beauty, maintenance, mobility, tourism, associations, private, public...) sincerely want to be part of a continuous improvement process and are therefore very attentive to what we want to change each year, with them.