Why and how to effectively promote sustainability efforts with Amazon Ads

According to a 2022 Amazon Ads and Environics Research study, 73% of consumers are tired of brands acting like they are exempt from environmental responsibility, and 78% think that brands should do more to encourage people to be conscious consumers.¹ Furthermore, consumers want brands to help them turn their values into action: 62% of consumers state that sustainability has become more important to them over the past three years², while 65% of adult Gen Z and Millennials said it was important that brands they purchase from are committed to sustainability.³

Research from Kantar shows that 66% of U.S. consumers try to buy products with more-sustainable or environmentally- minded packaging when they shop. Additionally, Amazon's Higher Impact 2023 report shows that consumers are doing their own research when it comes to searching for more-sustainable options– and they’re most likely to trust products with credible third-party certifications when making their decisions. Meanwhile, well over half of consumers in the U.S. and Europe say they are prepared to pay more for more-sustainable products.⁴

In fact, the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business found that more than half of the growth in consumer packaged goods in the past five years came from sustainability-marketed products.⁵ Taken together, the data shows that embracing sustainability for advertisers is a must, or a “modern mandatory,” as coined by Katie Decker, the former global leader of essential health and sustainability at J&J Consumer Health.

Highlighting sustainability in advertising campaigns is not just a trend; it’s an opportunity for brand growth. For instance, in 2020, Lavazza released a documentary film titled Coffee Defenders: A Path From Coca to Coffee, showing how the lives of farmers and locals can be transformed by sustainable development programs. While promoting the campaign, a brand lift study conducted by Amazon Ads showed a positive increase in aided awareness across Italy, the U.K., and the U.S. (2x market norm, Europe, beverages), brand favorability (8x market norm, Europe, beverages), and purchase intent (20x market norm, Europe, beverages).⁶

The Climate Pledge Friendly program makes it easier for shoppers to purchase more-sustainable products on Amazon. The program works with trusted third-party certifications and two Amazon certifications to highlight over 550,000 products that meet sustainability standards with the Climate Pledge Friendly badge.

“Amazon and the Climate Pledge Friendly program allows us to break through and capture customers’ attention,” said Benjamin Young, a senior manager at Seventh Generation, a home and personal care brand. “This is the first and most critical step to convincing customers to give us a try.”

An easy and free first step for brands is to create a Store on Amazon and showcase Climate Pledge Friendly offerings in their own “aisle.” This step can help customers easily discover products within a brand Store that align with their more-sustainable shopping preferences.

Amazon has first-party signals that can help advertisers reach relevant audiences when using Amazon Ads solutions like Amazon DSP. With the demand-side platform, advertisers can reach audiences that have purchased Climate Pledge Friendly products, or those looking to make more-sustainable purchases across categories such as grocery, beauty, apparel, consumer electronics, and home. Advertisers like Seventh Generation have seen positive performance signals from these audiences, with higher click-through rates and new to-brand purchase rates, and lower cost-per-purchase.

Once you’ve adjusted your Store and determined the audiences you’d like to reach, you can drive awareness of your Climate Pledge Friendly products through a special option in our Amazon Streaming TV ads solution. Other awareness-driving options include our on-box advertising solution, which brings out-of-home displays into the home by using Amazon packages to help tell your brand story.

Brands that successfully include sustainability practices as part of their advertising messaging are driving growth and customer engagement. Amazon’s mission is to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, and that includes supporting our advertisers and our shared customers who want to do their part.

We firmly believe that success and scale bring broad responsibility: We must be humble and thoughtful about even the secondary effects of our actions. Our local communities, planet, and future generations need us to be better every day. Amazon Ads is committed to helping you showcase your more-sustainable products to customers, so they’re empowered to make more-sustainable choices, too.