What does "Advertising × Sustainability" look like when learned from Sweden, an environmental leader?

Sweden is known as a particularly environmentally advanced nation within Europe. Among companies originating from Sweden, the adaptive streaming service provided by SeenThis is currently gaining significant presence in the digital advertising industry. The company established its Japanese subsidiary in October 2024, beginning efforts to enhance advertising performance and support sustainability contributions in the Japanese market.

In this article, Ryo Aoki of Dentsu Digital Inc. and Ryuya Mizushi of Dentsu Innovation Initiative (DII), who have supported SeenThis's entry into the Japanese market, share insights into the "Advertising × Sustainability" trend likely to emerge in the near future in Japan, based on their experiences learned at SeenThis's headquarters in Sweden.

*Adaptive Streaming: Technology that optimizes video and image streaming delivery based on the user's connection status and device.
 

<Table of Contents>

▼From Meeting SeenThis to the Sweden Business Trip

▼What's the Key to Successful Partnerships in the Nordic Market?

▼What Future for "Advertising × Sustainability" Did We Sense During the Sweden Trip?

From Meeting SeenThis to the Sweden Business Trip

We first learned about SeenThis in December 2023. The author's organization, DII, handles R&D for the entire Dentsu Group, including global operations. While keeping an eye on solutions in the ad tech and martech domains, we gained the opportunity to be introduced to SeenThis through dentsu Singapore.

SeenThis provides a next-generation video ad delivery service that applies its proprietary adaptive streaming technology to digital advertising. This service enhances user experience and cost performance by displaying high-quality video ads faster and more comfortably than traditional digital ads. It also reduces CO2 emissions by minimizing unnecessary data downloads.

After our team heard from SeenThis, we recognized its technology as unique not only as ad tech that improves advertising performance but also from a sustainability perspective.

At the time, SeenThis had no presence in Japan, but the company expressed interest in entering the Japanese market. We therefore began supporting their market entry, aiming to make Japan's digital advertising environment cleaner and more high-performance.

However, initial sales activities targeting the Japanese market proved unexpectedly challenging. This was because, in typical client organizational structures, sustainability-related departments and digital advertising departments are separate. Consequently, the CO2 reduction effect—one of SeenThis's key technological strengths—was not prioritized by the digital advertising departments we were pitching. Faced with this challenge, we traveled to SeenThis's headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden ( ) to explore partnership insights from the Nordic market, where SeenThis's services were gaining traction.

What is the key to successful partnerships in the Nordic market?

Based at SeenThis headquarters in Sweden, we gathered with dentsu Sweden, dentsu Norway, and our clients, gaining valuable opportunities for interaction, diverse input, and discussion. Incidentally, FIKA—an essential part of Swedish culture—also enriched our stay.

Fika is a moment to relax and enjoy coffee and sweets during work breaks. This habit is more than just a break; it also functions as a place for people from different backgrounds to exchange ideas and generate new concepts.

FIKA scene

Given that European countries are generally known for their high environmental awareness, we had thought before the trip, "In the European market, isn't SeenThis perceived within the context of sustainability?" However, when we directly interviewed people about the Swedish and European markets, an unexpected aspect emerged. That is, no matter how high the sustainability awareness, the reality is that, just like in Japan, advertising performance is ultimately the top priority.

For example, during one session at SeenThis headquarters, we had the opportunity to speak with Joakim Dahlgren, Customer Journey Manager at MINI Northern Europe, one of SeenThis's clients. He shared the following comments:

"BMW and SeenThis have been building a relationship since 2019, and we've grown significantly since our first campaign. At BMW Nordic, we view SeenThis as a key partner, aiming to optimize the quality of our ad creatives while improving performance and minimizing the environmental impact of our advertising.

SeenThis plays a vital role for us in co-developing compelling and innovative campaign features and formats to transform the landscape of display advertising. On the creative side, SeenThis's operations team is fast, precise, and dedicated, enabling us to launch new campaigns swiftly."

Joakim Dahlgren
Customer Journey Manager – MINI Northern Europe

Joakim's message also indicates that while reducing environmental impact is one added value of SeenThis's technology, its core value remains advertising performance, creative quality, and the business side of ad operations.

Similarly, the success of the partnership between dentsu Sweden, dentsu Norway, and SeenThis was attributed to the enhanced ad viewability achieved through streaming technology, the seamless execution without any interruptions during campaigns, and the ability to maximize creative potential. In other words, it is precisely because the core value—the business value as ad tech—is highly valued by clients that it has led to the establishment of strong partnerships in the European market.

What future for "Advertising × Sustainability" did I perceive during my Sweden trip?

After revisiting the context for introducing this in the Japanese market based on these insights from Sweden, we saw increased engagement both internally and from clients. While opportunities to emphasize the CO2 reduction value of SeenThis's technology decreased after returning to Japan, we now realize that by relentlessly pursuing improved advertising performance, we are simultaneously and steadily accelerating contributions to sustainability.

Incidentally, at the entrance of dentsu Sweden, the CO2 reduction achieved through SeenThis's technology was visualized on monitors like the one in the photo below, raising awareness among employees and visitors. By 2024, they achieved results equivalent to suppressing CO2 emissions from driving 1.3 million kilometers.

Within the EU, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) came into effect in January 2023, mandating sustainability metric disclosures for applicable companies. Similarly, initiatives regarding sustainability information disclosure are being actively discussed in Japan. Furthermore, the government has announced plans to fully implement a greenhouse gas emissions trading system in fiscal year 2026, imposing levies on companies failing to meet reduction targets. Against this backdrop, the future where CO2 reduction targets are added as KPIs in Japan's advertising sector may be approaching.

However, currently, digital advertising and sustainability often exist as separate entities, and solutions like those offered by SeenThis are still scarce. Yet, the two themes of advertising performance and sustainability need not be mutually exclusive; rather, they can coexist and mutually enhance each other. The innovation brought by the partnership between SeenThis and dentsu could provide a hint for overcoming such future challenges.

It will be exciting to see how new products, services, and approaches to market expansion breathe fresh life into Japan's advertising industry. As discoveries in Sweden demonstrate, relentless pursuit of performance is essential for this realization. We look forward to seeing more such initiatives spread throughout Japan.