Agency Bleublancrouge has officially launched a specialist programmatic consultancy division, Glassroom.

The name is meant to communicate a focus on transparency, said Glassroom president Dave Gourde, who will continue his role as partner and VP of media with BBR on top of his new duties.

Also joining the new division is Charles Beaulieu, an agency partner and GM who is also the shop’s director of digital media and programmatic.

The new division will advise advertising clients on all aspects related to programmatic and digital ad buying, establishing compliance standards for digital performance management and educating clients on data capabilities.

Beaulieu told MiC that although Glassroom’s primary client focus will be advertisers (not publishers, exchanges or agencies), it’s not positioning itself as an agency.

“We don’t want to take the place of the media agency,” he said. However, he added, Glassroom sees a massive opportunity in the number of advertisers who are choosing to look at alternatives to traditional agencies.

Gourde cited a recent survey from the World Federation of Advertisers that showed that 56% of advertisers have introduced internal training programs on digital performance. He said with a growing number of advertisers poised to go their own way without an agency, a consultancy like Glassroom is essential.

“For us, the internalizing of data capabilities is a good thing,” he said, adding that Glassroom has a goal to make its clients autonomous enough that within one to two years, an approach he admitted is ambitious considering how quickly the industry moves.

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