EcoMetrics: How to price the measurement of sustainable advertising?

Txema Garitano, founder and CEO of media and data consulting firm Indaru, faces a critical pricing decision for the company's latest product: EcoMetrics. Designed as a SaaS tool, EcoMetrics allows companies to measure the carbon footprint of their digital presence, including online advertising and website traffic. The tool was developed in response to increasing sustainability regulations, such as the European Union's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which requires emissions reporting across the entire value chain. Despite the growing importance of environmental accountability, EcoMetrics had yet to secure its first customer, and Txema was preparing a new proposal for a major French beverage company.

With minimal implementation costs and ISO certification, the product has strong technical potential, but commercial traction has proven elusive. A previous proposal to Hewlett Packard was unsuccessful, largely due to pricing-Indaru's tiered pricing structure lost out to a competitor's simple flat fee.

Now Txema must decide what pricing model and tier to propose to the French company, which has a digital advertising budget of around €200 million. Should he go for a flat fee, a price-per-impression model, or keep the tiered structure? Beyond pricing, he also needs to consider his go-to-market strategy: Should EcoMetrics be sold on its own or bundled with other Indaru services? Should commercial efforts focus on sustainability-minded clients, large advertisers, or digitally native companies?