Milan, April 28, 2026 – Plenitude presents Dark Mode Ads, an innovation in digital advertising that introduces a paradigm shift: optimizing the energy consumption of digital ads through creativity, without compromising their visual impact. The campaign, ideated by creative agency LePub with the support of its tech and innovation collective LeGarage, is based on a simple yet powerful idea: converting advertising content into dark mode. Initial results show that this approach can lead to a reduction in energy consumption of up to 74% compared to traditional visuals1.
LED screens are now one of the main touchpoints of urban communication; however, this constant brightness comes with a significant energy impact. Plenitude challenges this model starting from a key insight: darker colors require less energy to be displayed. This is also confirmed by a study conducted by Certimac, an independent research institute appointed by Plenitude, which highlights how color choice directly influences the energy consumption of LED screens. Rather than reducing the presence of media, Plenitude proposes an optimization driven by creativity, capable of maintaining high visibility while simultaneously reducing energy impact.
The initiative is not limited to owned assets: Plenitude has already started converting the LED screens in the windows of its Italian stores and its DOOH advertising spaces in Italy, Spain, and France into dark mode. To encourage large-scale adoption, LePub has developed an innovative digital platform – https://darkmodeads.com/ -, available to all brands, capable of automatically converting creatives into dark mode while preserving their visual effectiveness. The goal is to enable a new standard for digital advertising by involving brands, media owners, and agencies in a concrete rethinking of the role of creativity in reducing energy consumption.
The campaign was launched with an activation planned by media agency Carat Italia in some of Europe’s most iconic and brightest DOOH locations, including Plaza Callao in Madrid, alongside coordinated executions in Milan, Rome, and Paris. A choice that demonstrates how creative solutions oriented toward sustainability can maintain high standards of visibility and impact.
With this initiative, Plenitude reaffirms its commitment, as a Benefit Corporation, to raising awareness against energy waste, offering a concrete example to the industry and helping to encourage increasingly widespread and shared reflections on the importance of reducing consumption, including in the world of advertising.
