Isba in partnership with Ebiquity has launched The Business Case for Responsible Media, to explain the commercial advantages of buying ad space ethically.
The new guide, which follows Isba’s 2025 Responsible Media Guide, includes a Responsible Media Campaign Checklist to help marketers aim for a higher standard of responsibility.
Bobi Carley, director of industry relations at Isba, said: ‘Responsible media is no longer a nice to have or a purely ethical consideration; it is a commercial one based on effectiveness.’
She added that better-governed media investment can ‘reduce waste, improve efficiency and strengthen return on spend’, as well as reducing regulatory risks for brands.
‘What’s really clear in the industry right now is that marketing is under pressure, and marketers need to get more from the same budget,’ Carley said. She explained that responsibility and savings are ‘not singular’, with improvements in one often leading to improvements in the other. ‘They have a ripple effect, and they help the whole process.’
Carley defined responsibility as comprising five areas: sustainability, inclusion, AI, brand safety and data.
One of ISBA’s case studies with Reckitt showed that governed AI use could lead to time savings of 30-40%. Reckitt found that some of the marketing team were spending 40% of their time on business reporting, and automating that process through AI using ISBA’s guidance led to significant savings. Carley explained: ‘AI finds the inefficiency but governance makes sure it removes the right inefficiency.’
AI is not the only area where she is convinced that governance leads to tangible improvements for brands. In another example, Currys ran an inclusive ad called Sigh of Relief, which won Channel 4’s Diversity in Advertising Award. This campaign was far more successful than others which were put together without inclusiveness in mind, with a 23:1 sales return on investment and a 9% increase in awareness of Currys’ assisted shopping services.
Asked why responsibility should be a priority for brands, Carley explained that marketers are incentivised to focus on short-term metrics and make improvements to performance, efficiency and effectiveness. With this guide and checklist, however, she argues that the process of asking the right questions and finding the right partners can be simplified and made accessible to every brand — giving every brand the opportunity to make the efficiency savings that come with responsible buying.
‘The incentive is getting better returns,’ she said. ‘The incentive is seeing that it performs better. The incentive is being able to prove to the board that being smarter gets better results.’
One example of these ‘smarter’ improvements is Yorkshire Tea: The brand grew its market share from 18% to 33% over a four-year period with no changes to price after it began a carbon neutrality program with Natural Capital Partners and committed to full carbon neutrality.
She added that she does not see responsibility as a trade-off but as a driver: ‘It’s often been framed as the right thing to do, not the smart thing. Only when you look at it all collectively do you start to be able to work together and see the benefits.’
