The new initiative “Dark Mode Ads,” developed for energy company Plenitude, raises the question of whether creative design can become a tool for reducing energy consumption in digital advertising without sacrificing visibility or media impact.
Over the past few years, digital outdoor media has become one of the most important communication channels for major brands. However, alongside the growth of the DOOH market, concerns about its energy consumption are also increasing, especially in urban centres where LED screens operate almost continuously and have become part of the everyday visual landscape of cities.
It is precisely in this space that LePub, the agency within Publicis Groupe, is now attempting to intervene. Together with its technology and innovation collective LeGarage, the agency developed the “Dark Mode Ads” concept, a system that automatically converts existing digital ads into darker versions aimed at reducing energy consumption on LED screens.
The idea is based on a fairly simple but industry-relevant insight: lighter colours require more power on LED screens, while darker visuals consume significantly less energy. According to company data, initial tests showed that this approach can reduce the energy consumption of digital ads by up to 74 percent compared to standard formats.
Unlike most sustainability initiatives in the communications industry, which often end with declarative messaging or compensation models, the focus here has been placed on creativity and ad design itself as an operational tool for consumption optimisation.
The first brand to implement the system is Italian energy company Plenitude, which has already started adapting visuals on LED screens in its retail spaces, as well as on DOOH locations across Italy, Spain, and France. The campaign launched across some of Europe’s most prominent digital advertising locations, including Madrid’s Plaza Callao, with additional implementations in Milan, Rome, and Paris. Media planning was handled by Carat Italia.
One of the most interesting aspects of the project is that it is not just a campaign, but an attempt to create a broader industry model. LePub has also developed an open digital platform that allows other brands to automatically convert their own ads into dark mode versions while maintaining visual readability and campaign recognisability.
As a result, sustainability is no longer being approached through reducing media presence or limiting communication, but through optimising existing formats and redefining the way creative work influences the infrastructural costs of digital advertising.
At the same time, the campaign opens a broader discussion about the future of the DOOH industry, particularly at a moment when cities, media networks, and brands are increasingly trying to balance high levels of visibility with the growing energy demands of digital infrastructure.
For the communications industry, the initiative is probably most interesting precisely because it is not trying to change audience behaviour, but the behaviour of the industry itself. Instead of sustainability remaining just another communication layer within a campaign, “Dark Mode Ads” attempts to demonstrate how advertising design itself could become part of the energy management strategy of digital media.
