Green Marketing Online: The Publisher Perspective

In a feature ClickZ published last week on the greening of digital marketing, I discuss how big marketers have turned up the volume on their marketing around sustainability initiatives — which are in some cases authentic and in others pure greenwash.

One area I only touch on, but which is undergoing a lot of change, has to do with how large Web properties are acquiring or launching properties focused on the green market. Those big publishers are now figuring out how to package and sell inventory adjacent to that content, and it’s not always easy.

I want to clarify one point relating to that aspect of the story. In discussing Yahoo Green, I wrote, sustainability is “not a large enough category for Yahoo to justify a dedicated salesperson.” While that’s technically true, it misrepresents the nature of Yahoo’s sales group. I’ve since heard from the company that it doesn’t have any vertical sales positions. No salespeople are focused on selling ads on Yahoo Cars, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo News, or the homepage. Learn something new every day.