That is exactly why we are thrilled to be sponsoring the upcoming Dotdigital Summit.

Ahead of the event, the Dotdigital team asked us to share why we chose to sponsor this year and what we hope to bring to the community. Here are five reasons why the Dotdigital Summit is the right place for us.

1. The audience isn’t just relevant – they’re “Our People”

It’s easy to look at an attendee profile on paper and see alignment, but for us, the connection to the Dotdigital Summit is much more personal. When you walk the floor or sit in the sessions, you quickly realize that the people in this room aren’t just looking for quick fixes or generic software updates. They’re forward-thinking marketers, digital leads, and commerce professionals who are genuinely obsessed with growth, personalization, and customer experience.

There’s a shared language here. We chose to sponsor because these are professionals who understand that modern marketing and robust technology go hand in hand. When we talk to a Dotdigital attendee, we aren’t explaining why integration and data matter – we’re immediately diving into how we can execute it to drive massive ROI. That is a rare and exciting environment to be in.

2. We’re here for true relationship capital, not just logo visibility

We didn’t sign up for the Summit just for brand awareness; any event can put a logo on a banner. We’re there to build genuine, long-term relationships.

Our goals are highly commercial, but we know that the best commercial outcomes come from building deep trust. We want to get in front of specific, ambitious buyers who are navigating complex tech stacks. 

By being present as a trusted sponsor, we’re looking to start meaningful conversations, fix real-world architecture bottlenecks on the spot, and solidify our reputation as the go-to agency for marketers looking to scale. We want attendees to walk away knowing that 5874 Commerce is the partner that bridges the gap between marketing creativity and technical execution.

3. It aligns with our mission to shape the future of commerce

At 5874 Commerce, our role is to help brands keep up with the changes in the marketing landscape without breaking their infrastructure. The industry is currently tackling massive shifts – from data privacy changes to the rise of AI-driven personalization. Many marketers feel overwhelmed trying to connect their marketing ambitions to their commerce data.

Our partnership with Dotdigital allows us to help set a higher standard. We want to shift how people think about commerce challenges, moving away from siloed thinking toward a unified approach. 

Being at the Summit gives us the platform to show brands how a well-connected tech stack can solve the problems the industry is currently dealing with, and what smarter, automated, and more ethical marketing actually looks like in practice.

4. We’re excited to showcase how tech and strategy work together

The Dotdigital Summit gives us access to a highly engaged, high-quality audience, and we aren’t planning on showing up empty-handed. We’re bringing our deep expertise in ecommerce architecture to show how it can get the most out of Dotdigital’s marketing automation.

We’ll be championing deep-data integration. Many brands only use a fraction of their tech stack’s potential. We’re excited to share real-life examples and frameworks of how we help brands build a digital setup that drives strong customer retention. We’re bringing actionable insights, fresh perspectives, and our team of experts ready to talk strategy, growth, and tech.

5. We’re looking forward to the post-event momentum

When the doors close and the stage is packed away, that’s when the real work begins. We aren’t looking at the Summit as a one-day event, but as the launchpad for the next phase of our growth this year.

We expect our team to walk away energized, armed with a clear picture of the immediate pain points marketers are facing right now. Over the months that follow, we anticipate turning the conversations we start at the Summit into thriving client partnerships, new collaborative content, and a stronger position in the market as the go-to choice for Dotdigital users who want to get more from their commerce setup. 

If you’re heading to the Dotdigital Summit, we’d love to connect! Come find the 5874 Commerce team on the day or reach out via our website at www.5874commerce.com to book a chat ahead of time.

About the author – Sara Russell

Every year, our partners push the boundaries of what’s possible, driving results for clients, building smarter integrations, and showing up for customers in ways that genuinely move the needle. These awards exist to celebrate all of their hard work.

This year, we’ve updated our categories to make sure our partners all over the world are recognized. Whether you’re in EMEA, Americas, or APAC, there’s a category for you. Plus, this year we have a brand new global partner award.

So, without further ado, here’s who made the cut.

Advocate of the year

This partner champions the Dotdigital platform, inspires the people around them, and helps spread the word about Dotdigital, inside their organization and across the industry.

Finalists and winners

• JAPAC Winner: Ivin Lim at Oracle NetSuite
• EMEA Winner: Jack Durrell at Playable
• BSS Commerce
• Eber Pte Ltd
• Foundation Commerce
• Nordic Web Team

Best customer success partner of the year

We’re looking for partners who have delivered real, measurable impact for their customers using the Dotdigital platform. 

Finalists and winners

• Americas Winner: Above The Fray
• EMEA Winner: Paragon
• JAPAC Winner: Webqem

Best integration partner of the year

This partner has built, improved, or maintained an integration that makes a genuine difference to their customers and to the Dotdigital ecosystem.

Finalists and winners

• JAPAC Winner: Eber
• EMEA Winner: Trustpilot
• Americas Winner: StratusLIVE
• Happy Horizon
• Junipeer
• Lexer
• Litecard
• SmartTHING Ltd
• Supermetrics
• ZAP~POST
• Zentso 

Innovation partner of the year

Whether it’s a campaign, a project, or a technical integration, this award is for the idea that makes people think: ‘Why haven’t we done this before?’

Finalists and winners

• JAPAC Winner: Litecard
• EMEA Winner: NB Communication
• Vaimo 

Global impact partner award 

For the partner making waves across multiple regions, helping to grow the Dotdigital ecosystem on a truly global scale.

Finalists and winners

• Services Winner: Vaimo
• Tech Winner: Oracle NetSuite
• Distil 
• Zentso

Tech partner of the year 

This one is for tech partners in each region, awarded to the partner who has built the best integration and driven the strongest results for customers.

EMEA finalists and winner

• Winner: Distil.ai
• Access Group
• Playable
• Yotpo
• Zeidman

Americas finalists and winner

• Winner: Oracle NetSuite
• StratusLive

JAPAC finalists and winner

• Winner: Blackpepper
• Cashmirra
• OneCart

Service partner of the year

This is for the top service partner in each region who has built integrations that work, found smarter ways to do things, and delivered results that actually matter to clients.

EMEA finalists and winner

• Winner: Vaimo
• Bluelight
• Paragon
• StrategiQ
• WeDoCRM

Americas finalists and winner

• Winner: DotcomWeavers
• Jellyfish

JAPAC finalists and winner

• Winner: RESORT
• Apparel Web
• Webqem

New tech partner of the year 

This award goes to the tech partner in each region who has hit the ground running, already making an impact for Dotdigital and customers. 

EMEA finalists and winner

• Winner: Dataro
• Dinmo
• Fusemetrix 
• Judge.me 
• Recharge 

Americas finalists and winner

• Winner: Exchange Solutions
• Dataro

JAPAC finalists and winner

• Winner: Eleos
• Litecard

New service partner of the year 

For a service partner who joined in 2025 and has already made their mark, delivering great work for shared customers from day one.

EMEA finalists and winner

• Winner: Extend Marketing
• Hynt

Americas finalists and winner

• Winner: Forix
• Jellyfish

JAPAC finalists and winner

• Winner: Corekara
• Zyber

And that’s a wrap on the 2026 partner awards!

We’ve had a busy time at Dotdigital too. To continue to serve you better, we expanded globally, advanced the functionality of our platform, and analyzed billions of messages to see what’s actually working for marketers. Here’s a look at the milestones that shaped our year, and some of the latest stats to help you plan for what’s next.

A bigger, bolder Dotdigital

This year has been one of incredible growth and momentum for Dotdigital. From welcoming new faces across the business, launching a new global entity, and a huge acquisition, the Dotdigital team has grown and settled in right away. 

• In June, we proudly welcomed Social Snowball to the Dotdigital family when we acquired the #1 influencer, affiliate, and referral platform
• In October, Dotdigital launched its Japan entity. This is an exciting milestone, allowing us to continue to grow and serve businesses in the SEA market 

• The Dotdigital team is expanding, with new hires now making up 17% of our workforce, including four key additions to our Senior Leadership Team

New channels, smarter AI, and faster marketing

It’s been a landmark year for Dotdigital’s platform. We launched a brand-new channel (hi, WhatsApp), shipped dozens of updates, expanded our integrations, and introduced game-changing AI tools to make marketers’ lives easier. 

• Our customers added 155 new 5-star G2 reviews this year, pushing us past 700 in total
• Since launching WhatsApp in April, marketers have already sent over half a million messages through Dotdigital
• We added 20+ new verified integrations, so you can connect, extend, and streamline your marketing tech stack with ease 
• We delivered 60+ platform updates and expanded our AI tools to simplify segmentation, instantly translate campaigns, and summarize survey responses 
• We launched new and improved Data Firehose and Snowflake integrations, making it simpler and faster to sync your data 
• Dotdigital earned 800+ G2 badges, including Leader status across marketing automation, personalization, and customer data platforms

The trends defined marketing this year

From record-breaking shopping moments to always-on email performance and evolving search behavior, this year’s data shows how marketers are scaling, experimenting, and refining strategies in real-time. 

Black Friday/Cyber Monday marketing trends

• On average, brands began using “Black Friday” in subject lines 12 days before the big day
• More than 87 million people shopped online, a 7% increase from 2024
• US shoppers alone spent $11.8 billion on Black Friday 
• Global online spending hit a new peak, reaching $79 billion within 24 hours, marking a 6% year-over-year increase
• Shoppers used Buy Now, Pay Later services for $747.5 million worth of online purchases, reflecting a 30.85% rise from the previous year
• Campaigns sent via Dotdigital reached inboxes in an average of just 17 minutes
• Over 3 billion emails were sent on Dotdigital throughout November alone
• Email performance remained very strong, but the real standout was the way savvy marketers blended MMS, WhatsApp, and push notifications 
• Marketers sent 70+ million SMS messages in November using the Dotdigital platform
• The number of mobile shoppers grew by 7% year-on-year during Black Friday 2025

Email marketing trends

• Email sends have increased by 24% globally
• The global average unique open rate was 33%
• The average click-through rate (CTR) was 3% worldwide
• The global click-to-open-rate (CTOR) was 8%
• Dotdigital’s global delivery rate was 99.28%
• Mailing lists grew by 7.88% 
• Abandoned cart emails enjoyed an average open rate of 73% and a click-to-open rate of 14% globally
• Global email volume is on track to exceed 408 billion messages a day by 2027, up from an already staggering 4.2 million emails sent every second in 2024
• The global email marketing market size is set to soar to $36.3 billion by 2033, up from $14.8 billion in 2025

Search trends

• “Is SEO dead?” attracted 2,500 searches globally every month
• “Is email dead?” was searched 400 times per month worldwide
• Searches for “per my last email” exploded from 100 per month in 2015 to 2,600 today
• “Let’s circle back” grew from 500 to 2,000 monthly searches over the last 10 years
• “Move the needle” searches increased from 60 to 200 per month in the UK
• “Thinking outside the box” declined from 6,400 to 3,000 monthly searches in the US
• In January, informational queries made up 91.3% of those triggering an AI Overview, but by October that share had fallen to 57.1% as commercial (e.g., best noise-canceling headphones) and transactional (buy wireless headphones online) queries gained ground
• The industries with the most AI Overviews in November were Science (25.96%), Computers & Electronics (17.92%), and People & Society (17.29%)

Reports, research and real-world conversations

We doubled down on empowering marketers this year through four exclusive, data-rich reports. We also shared plenty of educational content and how-to sessions at events around the globe. Along the way, we’ve had great conversations, built meaningful connections, and made standout memories with our customers and partners.

• We analyzed the engagement metrics from over 10 billion emails and 500 million SMS campaigns to create our Global benchmark report
• We asked 3,000 consumers what brands could do to earn their loyalty in our Customer loyalty report
• 1,500 marketers told us how they’re really feeling, where they’re focusing, and what tools they’re using in our Secret lives of marketers report
• Our Content Marketing team subscribed to the email marketing of 100 global brands to showcase the email tactics, designs, and flows that leading brands are delivering in our Hitting the mark report
• We released 100 blogs packed with tips and tricks to inspire your next marketing campaign
• We organized 184 partner activities, including our fabulous DotSki event in Whistler, Canada
• We hosted 121 events and webinars, sharing advice, celebrating the wonderful world of marketing, and connecting with lots of brilliant marketers

Connecting through culture and community

Our employee groups have led inclusive, global initiatives that unite our people, celebrate culture, support wellbeing, and raise awareness of important issues.

• We launched two new carbon offsetting projects in India and Bangladesh, accelerating clean energy adoption, cutting emissions, and improving health and livelihoods for millions through solar power and fuel-efficient cookstoves.
• In March, we celebrated International Women’s Week with a mix of virtual and in-person events, including networking sessions, confidence workshops, panel discussions, and a fantastic event with UK charity The Girls’ Network.
• In July, we celebrated Pride with a series of podcast episodes sharing employee stories, virtual Drag Bingo, and we marched in London Pride. 
• Over the summer, we launched Summer Fridays globally, giving employees Friday afternoons off to relax and enjoy the sunshine.
• In September, our teams shared step counts and photos from scenic walks all around the world as part of our ‘On Your Feet Dotdigital’ initiative to get outside and get active. 
• In November, we celebrated our second ECHO Week, a celebration of Ethnicity, Culture, Heritage, and Origin, supported by the DotDEI team and brought to life through podcasts, employee stories, and shared cultural traditions, art, and recipes.
• In December, our DotWellbeing group shared 24 thoughtful wellness tips with employees through a wellbeing advent calendar. Recognizing that the holidays can be joyful and also a stressful or difficult time for some.

See you in 2026

We’re hitting the ground running next year, building on everything we’ve made together, from smart tools that give you your time back to channels that allow two-way conversations. Our goal hasn’t changed; we’re here to help you show up for your audience when it matters most. 

Thanks for being a part of our community this year. We can’t wait to meet more of you in 2026 and help you work smarter, connect better, and deliver some serious marketing results. 

We know that in today’s increasingly competitive online retail environment, it’s crucial that brands deliver exceptional customer experiences. The responsibility to deliver good CX increasingly sits on the shoulders of marketers. We also know that consumers are loyal to brands that offer personalized, engaging experiences across the entire buyer journey—not least on their website.

By blending Dotdigital’s customer insight and cross-channel engagement capabilities with Fresh Relevance’s own cross-channel capabilities and especially its on-site personalization tools, we’re able to offer a solution that empowers marketing teams to drive excellent CX at every point in the customer journey.

Welcoming Fresh Relevance to the Dotdigital Group

For me, it’s an incredibly exciting time to be taking the combined business forward. We’ve worked with the Fresh Relevance team for years as partners and have similar values when it comes to how we innovate and how we take care of our people and customers.

The cultural alignment across our organizations gives me confidence that customers old and new will soon reap the benefits of a more tight-knit offering that doesn’t stop at traditional marketing channels.

As part of the Dotdigital group, Fresh Relevance will continue to operate under its existing brand and Mike Austin will retain a leadership position in his new role as SVP Personalization. Existing customers of Fresh Relevance will continue to enjoy the same levels of service as Dotdigital continues to invest in Fresh Relevance.

About Fresh Relevance

Fresh Relevance was launched in 2013 with a vision to optimize the customer journey and solve the challenges of data aggregation in the ecommerce space. Since then its offering has extended to personalize customer experiences across web, email, mobile app, SMS, and ads. Capabilities include triggered emails, product recommendations, onsite popovers, dynamic content, behavioral and geotargeting, optimization, and customer data management.

Fresh Relevance has more than 300 customers around the world spanning consumer and B2B ecommerce, and travel. Customers include Rip Curl, Dreams, Hoseasons, and Wowcher.

“Over the last ten years, Fresh Relevance and Dotdigital have built a very successful partnership, integrating our technologies to provide incredible value to our mutual customers. I couldn’t be more thrilled to be joining forces with Dotdigital, an organization whose values align so closely with ours. Bringing Fresh Relevance’s industry-leading cross-channel personalization capabilities to Dotdigital’s customer experience and data platform will help marketers better engage with their customers, drive repeat purchases, and build lifelong loyalty across all touch points. I’m proud of what the Fresh Relevance team has built and look forward to the next evolution of this market at Dotdigital.”

Mike Austin, CEO and Founder of Fresh Relevance and incoming SVP Personalization at Dotdigital

A partnership built on proven success

Dotdigital and Fresh Relevance have been long-time business partners and have a growing list of shared customers who already benefit from orchestrating seamless experiences across inboxes, message centers, and websites. We share similar values across our people, culture, and approach to innovation. We’re excited to continue building on this success.

Fresh Relevance already has a strong technical integration with Dotdigital that helps marketers drive engagement with contextual email content like weather feeds, social media feeds, individualized coupons, and web-scraped content. The integration allows users to trigger real-time marketing messages through Dotdigital from a range of Fresh Relevance event triggers including reduced price alerts, new stock availability, browse abandonment, and replenishment. The integration will continue to be available to existing and new customers shared by Dotdigital and Fresh Relevance.

With roots in marketing automation, Dotdigital and Fresh Relevance are experts in building innovative tech that helps marketing teams scale and boost ROI. Over time, we will take our combined strengths and continue to build solutions that empower marketers to build authentic, hyper-personalized customer experiences that are memorable and inspire loyalty. We also look forward to extending Fresh Relevance’s product offering geographically into the Americas and APAC markets.

We are excited about the future—and together with our new colleagues now look forward to delivering even better experiences for our customers, so they can deliver better experiences to theirs. Stay tuned for more updates as we embark on this new journey together!

1. Get energized and inspired

At the Dotdigital Summit, you’ll enjoy a day of immersive learning and fun at London’s phenomenal Tobacco Dock. One of the key highlights of the summit is the inspirational speakers including Dame Denise Lewis DBE, astronaut Tim Peake, and Ogilvy’s Vice Chairman Rory Sutherland. Their stories, insights, and experiences will spark ideas and fuel your creative mind.

2. Become an expert Dotdigital user

Attending the Dotdigital Summit helps you to sharpen your skills on the Dotdigital platform. Get ready to roll up your sleeves for hands-on workshops packed with actionable strategies and invaluable insights. The Summit offers free access to expert trainers for one-on-one sessions with Dotdigital platform experts, so you can learn from the best. Also, our in-house specialists are on hand to help with any Dotdigital platform questions and offer deeper insights into features you want to master, such as WinstonAI, segmentation techniques, and send time optimization.

3. Stay ahead of the curve

You’ll stay ahead of the curve and maintain your competitive advantage. Your team will be updated on the latest cutting-edge marketing trends and strategies. From future-focused concepts to creative messaging, customer acquisition, and data-driven tactics, you’ll leave empowered with the knowledge and tools needed to outpace the competition and revolutionize your marketing game.

4. Grow your network

Dive into a welcoming and collaborative environment where like-minded marketers come together. With attendees from various industries and backgrounds, the Dotdigital Summit is the perfect place for teams to connect and collaborate with industry professionals. 

You’ll get to make meaningful connections with potential clients and partners as well as gain new insights and perspectives from a diverse mix of marketers and thought leaders. The Dotdigital Summit is the perfect place to exchange stories, share innovative ideas, and uncover valuable insights from the practical experiences of fellow Dotdigital users.

5. Bond with your team

The shift towards hybrid work environments has changed the way we interact with our team members. But guess what? Attending the Dotdigital Summit is the perfect opportunity for teams to reconnect, delve into specialized learning “tracks”, explore a variety of marketing topics, and have a great time. So, step away from the office, chat over food, and network with people in the industry.

Free email template: convince your boss to come to the Dotdigital Summit

To make it easier for you to persuade your boss to attend the Dotdigital Summit, we’ve prepared an email template that includes the main reasons for attending.

Subject: Let’s go to the Dotdigital Summit – it’s a great learning opportunity.

Dear [Manager’s Name],

I hope you’re having a great day. I recently discovered this incredible event—the Dotdigital Summit, and I can’t help but think it would be perfect for our team’s growth and success. I’d love to go with your thumbs-up and support as the experience will be worth every penny.

Here are my top reasons why attending the Dotdigital Summit is a must:

• It’s a great source of inspiration, packed with industry experts that can help us learn and improve our skill sets. 
• We can become expert Dotdigital users with free training sessions, interactive demos, and workshops led by in-house specialists.
• We can listen to experiences shared by other Dotdigital clients and gain firsthand knowledge of how you can effectively use the platform.
• The Summit gives our team a chance to bond. We can reconnect, learn together, and delve into marketing themes collaboratively.

I truly think the Dotdigital Summit is just the boost we need to improve our marketing strategy. When you have a moment, check out these top reasons I mentioned, and I’d love to get your thoughts on this fantastic opportunity.

Warm regards,

[Your Name]

Summary

The Dotdigital Summit is far from your average event. It’s packed full of inspirational speakers, industry experts, exclusive insights, and hands-on workshops making for an impressive networking opportunity. Gather your team, step away from the everyday hustle, and immerse yourself in this powerful and unforgettable experience. 

Women in tech and marketing

Only 28% of the tech industry workforce are women, and just like most industries, this drops further when you look at women in leadership positions. Only 26.5% of executive, senior-level and management positions in S&P 500 companies are held by women. Take Amazon as an example within the tech sector; its female workforce is 44.8% of the company, however this almost halves when you look at women in senior management which is just 23.1%.

The percentage of female graduates with core STEM degrees is steadily growing, but the percentage remains low at just 26%. If the current pace of change remains consistent, the economic gender gap will take almost 133 years to close, according to the Women in Tech network.

In the marketing industry, it’s a slightly different story. Women make up almost half of the workforce, at 48%. Sounds pretty equal right? Unfortunately just like the tech industry, when you look at the number of women in senior-level positions within marketing, this percentage drops to just 37%.

Ultimately, the bigger players in the tech industry, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple in particular, are consciously working to end the gender gap within tech. From offering egg freezing to extending maternity leave, tech companies are trying to address the gap with benefits policies that will appeal to women. It’s certainly a start.

International Women’s Day at Dotdigital

International Women’s Day is an opportunity to celebrate women, to advocate for women, and to raise awareness of the issues women face. At Dotdigital we are proud to have a number of causes we care about, and gender equality is certainly one of them. This week a committee from Dotvoice, our employee voice groups, have been running various events to celebrate the women who work for Dotdigital.

We’re also proud to announce our new corporate partnership with the UK charity The Girls’ Network. The Girls’ Network aims to inspire and empower girls from the least advantaged communities by connecting them to a mentor and a network of professional role models who are women. We know that women are incredibly underrepresented in the tech industry, so we’re excited to partner with such a fantastic charity to inspire the next generation of young women.

Standout brands embracing International Women’s Day

We talk about empathetic marketing a lot, it’s important for brands to have causes they care about so that their customers can feel connected on a deeper level. International Women’s Day is a great opportunity for brands to share their support for women and use their platform to empower and educate. Here are some of our favorite International Women’s Day campaigns from brands proudly walking the walk, as well as talking the talk.

fresh

Beauty brand fresh’s campaign celebrates and acknowledges the fabulous women who created the company. fresh also offered something of value to its female subscribers by offering free, professional headshots for women. This shows that the brand understands that the workplace is often tougher for women, and offering something to combat this, especially whilst not super relevant to the brand, is fantastic. It’s a great example of a brand sharing its story and values, and demonstrating those values in a way that serves its customers.

This Works

Skincare and wellness brand This Works sent out a campaign celebrating the women in the business, and kept its products front and center too. Highlighting women within your business is a great way to show your brand truly celebrates women every day, not just when it’s trending. Utilizing real people to highlight their favorite products adds depth to the product, which is something brands need to do to encourage sales in a crowded marketplace.

Splendid

Apparel brand Splendid have utilized email to launch a fantastic initiative. Encouraging subscribers to share their own successes, or those of friends makes for a really positive campaign. The brand states that women are less likely to speak about their achievements, and that needs to change. Picking out a particular issue women face is a nice take on International Women’s Day which can easily become an empty, generic message if you’re not careful. The brand encouraging women to celebrate themselves, and incentivizing it with a generous prize draw is a really nice show of brand values. It’s not a commercially led campaign, but you can guarantee anyone opening that email will, subconsciously or not, warm to the brand and likely opt for them more in the future.

Whistles

British fashion brand Whistles put its money where its mouth is with its International Women’s Day campaign. The brand let customers know that for every sale from its stores or online on March 8th, the brand will donate £1 to The Prince’s Trust’s #ChangeAGirlsLifeCampaign. This campaign is simple, it gets the message across and shows the brand cares. The brand is doing something to drive change where it’s needed, whilst also protecting that bottom line by encouraging sales at the same time.

Stance

Apparel brand Stance used their platform to highlight female voices in a male-dominated industry. The brand shared the stories of two female skateboarders, and two of its in-house designers. This is a great showing of advocating not just for Stance’s brand, but encouraging change in the wider industry too. We also like that there’s nothing but the message in this campaign, it’s not an option for every brand, but leaving out the sales tactics can really help amplify the integrity of your message when possible.

Conclusion

International Women’s Day is a chance to celebrate women, and a reminder that we should all be doing that every day. The marketing industry is powered by great female minds, so we’re looking forward to what this year’s campaigns have to offer. As for the tech industry, innovation is at it’s core, so let’s hope to see equality in a lot less than the predicted 133 years.

Dotdigital is listening, so we have committed to becoming net-zero by 2030.

What are we doing at Dotdigital?

In December 2020, Dotdigital became the first carbon neutral, ISO 14001 certified marketing automation platform in the world.

At Dotdigital, we’re engaging with the science to make sure everything we are doing is the right thing. We understand that as a business, we have the power to help with the changes needed to address the climate crisis, and we will not be shrinking away from that responsibility.

On top of our existing actions, we have committed to being net-zero by 2030. That means we will systematically eliminate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions sources at Dotdigital so that only residual emissions – necessary to continue business operations – remain by 2030. We will make sure to offset those residual emissions with high-quality GHG removal projects.

In other words, we’re looking to meet the requirements of the Paris Agreement 20 years ahead of schedule.

What does “net-zero” actually mean?

Becoming “net-zero” means going above-and-beyond our carbon neutral status. It’s sort of like “carbon neutral plus”. In meeting the requirements of net-zero, we meet and exceed the requirements of being carbon neutral.

It means we will:

1. Reduce our absolute gross GHG emissions to only “residual” levels.
2. Continue to measure and offset our Scope 1, 2, and 3 GHG emissions.
3. Offset all residual emissions with GHG removal projects.

There are a few things to make explicit about the above. When we say “we’re engaging with the science”, we mean it, and we believe we’re accountable for our claims and actions. So we want to be explicit about what we’re aiming for and how we know whether we’ve succeeded.

Absolute emissions vs emissions intensity

First is that we are aiming to reduce our absolute gross GHG emissions. This means the total amount of GHG emissions to the atmosphere from our business activities will decrease to residual levels.

This is in contrast to reducing our emissions intensity, which is often measured as the GHG emissions per $1000 revenue or similar proportional metric. It’s entirely possible for absolute gross GHG emissions to go up while emissions intensity goes down, which doesn’t help towards the world’s climate goals.

GHG emissions scopes

When we count our GHG emissions, we count them in three separate categories, referred to as “scopes”.

Scope 1 includes our emissions due to heating our offices with fossil fuels. Scope 2 includes our emissions due to electricity use in our offices. Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions, which are the emissions in our supply chain and due to other business activities not included above.

To be carbon neutral, a company only needs to offset scopes 1 and 2. To be net-zero, a company also needs to include scope 3. Dotdigital already does this for major scope 3 sources, so we’re well on our way to being net-zero.

Removal vs reduction projects

The final additional requirement reflects the Oxford Offsetting Principles that we already follow to guide our offsetting decisions. This is that we must offset all residual emissions with GHG removal projects, not just GHG reduction projects.

GHG removal projects draw GHGs directly from the atmosphere and sequester them for a meaningful amount of time; preferably permanently (for all practical purposes), but for hundreds or thousands of years at a minimum.

How will Dotdigital get to net-zero?

All of the above complexity and nuances can be simplified to the table below, which shows how Dotdigital is making progress from being “carbon neutral” to being “net-zero”.

Requirement	Carbon neutral	Dotdigital now	Net-zero
Measure scope 1 and 2
Offset scope 1 and 2
Measure scope 3
Offset scope 3
Reduce absolute emissions to residual
Offset with removal projects
Justify residual emissions

There are lots of things that we’re considering at Dotdigital to get us to the column on the right.

We’re:

• Switching our offices to use only renewable energy.
• Making technical changes to our service infrastructure so it relies only on renewable energy.
• Thinking about how we can apply some of the lessons we’ve learned during the pandemic about flexible working to reduce our GHG emissions e.g. by taking fewer business flights and using virtual collaboration tools instead.
• Carefully choosing suppliers that share our environmental goals.
• Starting to research which GHG removal projects we should help fund.

And we have many other ideas too.

How is being net-zero helping above being carbon neutral?

Being carbon neutral is not sufficient to meet the commitments of the Paris Agreement and limit global heating to no more than 1.5C. Becoming net-zero means we should prioritize not producing GHG emissions ahead of offsetting GHG emissions. In other words, offsetting should be a last resort.

This reflects the current scientific understanding that natural systems respond differently to emitting and then removing the same amount of GHG emissions, compared to having never emitted those GHGs in the first place.

Why is net-zero important to Dotdigital?

A heavy burden rests on national governments to legislate and regulate, but corporations and other organizations can listen to the IPCC’s advice and act quickly and decisively without being made to.

We’re hoping that our actions today will mean that future generations can continue to enjoy Nature in the way that we have and live prosperous lives free of climate disaster.

By choosing Dotdigital as your customer engagement platform you’re reducing your emissions footprint. You can read more about this here.

And with us moving to net-zero, you can be confident that we’ll continue to exceed growing customer expectations when it comes to the environment.

Combating the climate crisis is an important issue for Dotdigital staff and our customers alike. As the climate crisis finds its way onto agendas around the world, we wanted to lead the way and help our customers and partners on their own journey.

What does that mean for you?

Instead of us telling you, let’s show you the numbers:

By choosing Dotdigital as your customer engagement platform you’re reducing your carbon footprint.

Here’s how:

• Let’s say you sent 1 Million (1,000,000) emails through your account in the last 12 months.
• That’s 27kgs of C02 equivalent emissions saved thanks to our platform being carbon neutral.*
• This amount of emissions is equivalent to charging your smartphone 2,000 times!

That’s certainly something to feel good about. So, how many emails did you send over the last 12 months?

Here is some feedback from real customers:

Mike Kay, Head of Digital Technology, Woodland Trust: ‘Working with Dotdigital has enabled us to form a cohesive email strategy across the organization, reinforcing our brand and allowing our email channels to work harder for our cause. Our opens are up 16%, we’re 26% up on unique click-throughs, have 3% less send volumes, and are 60% up on revenues attributed to email. Being an environmental charity, it is important for us to partner with businesses that share our values on protecting nature and the environment and we are pleased to see Dotdigital’s ongoing commitment.’ ‘Working with Dotdigital has been a great experience, it feels like they are an extension of our own team, they understand our organization and our aims, and are always on hand to help us push to do more.’

Julie Mathers, CEO & Founder, Flora and Fauna:  ‘I love using Dotdigital, the marketing automation programs are so easy and important to my business and I’ve seen great success especially with the loyalty programs I designed. We try to the best of our ability to align with the most sustainable suppliers out there, Dotdigital made perfect sense for us with their commitment to Project DotGreen which aligns with our own brand identity, values, and culture.’

How can you use this in your own marketing

Shout about how your emails are carbon neutral to all of your customers – we’ve already done the work, so you can celebrate and tell everyone all about it.

• Why not include a statement on your emails, something like:

‘This message was sent with Dotdigital, a carbon-neutral company. Dotdigital offset all their measured greenhouse gas emissions, including Scope 1, Scope 2, and selected Scope 3 emissions.’

Want some further information? We have a whole article about it here.

• Use the above baseline equation to work out how much you have saved by using Dotdigital and let your customers know.
• Start some sustainable initiatives within your business and join us in the fight to save the planet. 

What’s next?

We are already carbon neutral and strive to reduce our emissions at source, we have done that by investing in green hosting infrastructure, changing the way we work, who we work with, and making sure our offices are using renewable energy. We have a very low amount of residual emissions and currently, we offset those with supporting gold standard GHG reduction projects. These include clean cooking projects in India and Ghana and supporting the UK’s Woodland Trust.

But we want to go further. We are pleased to announce that we are committed to being net-zero by the end of our financial year in 2030, a full 20 years ahead of the timeline set out in the Paris Agreement to limit global heating to 1.5 C.

We continue to look out for standards for net-zero that will hopefully be announced at COP26. For now, we are using information from the Science Based Targets initiative to guide our net-zero ambition.

Becoming “net zero” means reducing our emissions to a level where only truly unavoidable emissions remain. We will then look to partner with innovative partners to offset these “residual” emissions with GHG removal projects, (nb different from reduction) which remove GHG emissions directly from the atmosphere and store them for long periods of time, for example as rock or biochar.

Stats from Dotdigital**

• There are no net greenhouse gas emissions for sending emails with Dotdigital.
• We reduced our CO2 emissions by 40% in 2020-21 compared to 2019-20.  And we offset the remaining emissions.
• Our offset greenhouse gas emissions from our last financial year (2020-21) is the equivalent of taking nearly 140 cars off the road.
• By using ultra-efficient data centres, Dotdigital reduced its emissions by 780t CO2e in 2019-20 compared to the equivalent low-efficiency data centres. Equivalent to a reduction of 1.8m vehicle miles travelled!
• Our support of the Woodland Trust has helped:
  • restore nearly an acre of ancient woodland
  • plant 330 trees on land bought by the Trust
  • generate over £3700 through fundraising for next year’s funds

*We utilized Microsoft Azure’s sustainability calculator to understand what our emissions would be if we were using a low-efficiency data center. Including calculating the potential emissions produced by our key cloud providers & data centers if they were not using renewables.

**In 2019-20 the emissions were 378t CO2. For 2020-21 the emissions were 230t CO2 for GHG scopes 1, 2 and 3 (which cover business travel, major cloud infrastructure providers, remote workers, data centers & hosting, transmission & distribution losses, and employee commuting).

Where possible green energy suppliers & third-party providers are used within our business activities. For unavoidable emission activities, all of our measured Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions and key Scope 3 emissions (including business travel, major cloud infrastructure providers, and data centers) have been offset with high-quality carbon reduction projects from Climate Care, following the Oxford Offsetting principles.

Based on data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. 

The first steps towards a sustainable future

1999: seeing an opportunity for a greener future

2001: aiding digital transformation with sustainable alternatives

2015: empowering our people to drive organizational change

2019: setting the scene before going green

January 2020: a green collective consciousness

March 2020: committing to change

April 2020: becoming agents for change

August 2020: setting a baseline

October 2020: smashing our goals

December 2020: officially ISO14001 certified

Therefore, as of December 2020 dotdigital became the first carbon-neutral, ISO 14001 certified marketing automation platform in the world. And still, we’re not satisfied. As the new year approached we took a step back to decide what our next steps should be.

April 2021: eyes on the future

Keeping our eyes on the prize

Just as email marketing became marketing automation, today’s forward-thinking marketer is increasingly seeking an omnichannel marketing solution. This acquisition enables faster product innovation to better meet the needs of future marketers, extending our proposition to include mobile messaging comprising of SMS, social media channels and live chat tools.

COMAPI is already a successful brand with strong growth and revenues within the CPaaS market and, with Dotdigital’s full support, will continue to work directly with its customers, which include Gap, eBay, TSB, British Airways, Carphone Warehouse and Collect Plus. Dotdigital and COMAPI already have numerous shared clients which include Superdry, Hayes Recruitment, Daisy Group and betting giant Ladbrokes.

“By adding COMAPI to our business, Dotdigital is executing its vision to be an omnichannel marketing automation platform,” said Milan Patel, CEO of Dotdigital group.

“COMAPI has built an impressive platform which, integrated with our software, will allow our customers access to the next generation of consumer engagement marketing technology, aiding retention and boosting our competitive advantage in securing new customers. We are pleased to welcome the COMAPI team and look forward to supporting their business plan and introducing their technology to our global customers.”

COMAPI’s Managing Director Paul Putman, who was involved in the deal, commented on how the merger will have a positive impact on the CPaaS market:

“We are all excited by the opportunity the acquisition represents. It enables COMAPI to accelerate its plan and take advantage of the rapid growth in the CPaaS and conversational commerce market. I also believe that with this acquisition, the Dotdigital group of companies will be the obvious technology providers of choice to any business or software platform that needs to communicate with consumers over digital, social and mobile channels.”

COMAPI has been supported by various funders which has helped it to develop and grow over the last 16+ years. Technology Venture Partners LLP’s Nick Simmonds commented on how the news marks a successful exit for COMAPI’s previous funders:

“It has been a pleasure working with Paul Putman and the team at COMAPI and we are delighted with the way in which the company has developed into a technology leader in the conversational messaging market space. We wish the company every success for the future.”

We were already excited about the future, and we are even more so with today’s news. Please join me in welcoming the COMAPI team into the Dotfamily.

For more information about the omnichannel technology, visit www.comapi.com.