The credits for this Coca-Cola/Premier League campaign state the work was developed by WPP Open X, led by Ogilvy UK, supported by WPP Media and VML.
Gee, a lot of White advertising agencies handled a project that looks like it could’ve been executed by a junior creative duo—or AI.
WPP should be penalized for having too many players on the field.
The scenario seemingly blocks the single White operating company’s goal of simplicity.
Advertising Age published a lengthy fluff piece on “Droga5’s diaspora”—spotlighting White advertising agencies whose White principals emerged from the White ranks of the White advertising agency launched by David Droga.
Diaspora seems an odd term to use for the perceived phenomenon. Cronyism or Brotopia might be more appropriate.
The scenario underscores an Adland reality: White men leverage politics, privileges, and advantages to dominate the field.
Don’t forget Droga5 staged the Ted Royer scandal too.
Diaspora? For the legacy of this place, the best term might be Broga5.
Behind Droga5’s diaspora—and why it’s not a ‘coincidence’
By Ewan Larkin
Walking around the Ad Age A-List & Creativity Awards gala last month, everywhere David Droga turned, there were familiar faces—including those who had once sat across from him on the couch in his office. This time, however, they were collecting awards for agencies of their own. “The magnitude of it was revealed there,” the Australian expat said in an interview. “That was the first time I was like, ‘Oh wow. It really is pervasive.’”
Droga is referring to the diaspora of independent agency founders who have emerged from Droga5’s ranks over the past several years—among them the creators of Isle of Any, American Haiku, Mirimar, Alto and Mojo Supermarket. These new guard leaders learned their trade at Droga5, a creative hothouse founded in 2006 that grew from a Lafayette Street fledgling into a Wall Street heavyweight and Ad Age’s Agency of the Decade.
Not all of these founders came up exclusively at Droga5; some also hail from storied creative agencies such as BBDO and Wieden+Kennedy, but for each of them, it was the last stop before hanging their own shingle.
“I don’t think it’s coincidence at all,” said John McKelvey, chief creative officer of 6-year-old Mirimar, which now counts Poppi and Rocket Cos. as clients. “Some of the DNA from those moments is alive in our new agencies.”
Ad Age spoke with several of the founders, as well as Droga himself, to understand what it was about one agency that produced so many others—the culture that bred independence, the lessons carried forward, the relationships that endured and the occasional tension that comes with building something new in the shadow of something great.
Built to leave
It’s easy to see this situation as something of a double-edged sword for Droga. Many of the industry’s hottest shops have spawned from under his tutelage, but that also means talent keeps walking out the door.
Droga, however, said he “doesn’t begrudge anybody that goes off to do something great.” He’s also quick to make clear the departures haven’t gutted Droga5, with the Accenture Song-owned agency recently nabbing Ad Age’s Global Network of the Year following an overhaul of its leadership team.
“There’s no bittersweetness for me at all,” said Droga, who recently stepped out of the Song CEO role and became vice chair of Accenture. He said one of his greatest dilemmas during his time at the helm of Droga5, which he sold to Accenture in 2019 for about $475 million, was having more great talent than he had room for at the top.
It’s natural that, at some point, “they are going to have to go off and do their own thing,” Droga said.
Droga5 is not the only agency to have seeded a new generation of independents. Over its 43 years in existence, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, the San Francisco-based Omnicom agency, has seen its own employees go on to launch shops including nice&frank, Bandits & Friends, Optimism BH and Argonaut.
Like Droga, GS&P’s co-founders Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein understand that talent walking out the door is part of the deal, said Sarah Thompson, GS&P’s CEO and a former longtime executive at Droga5. “They’re all three very confident people,” Thompson said, and they recognize “it’s never just about one person.”
The culture inside Droga5, former employees said, encouraged independence and entrepreneurship. Droga’s stories of leaving Publicis Groupe—after turning Saatchi & Saatchi into one of the most talked-about agencies in the world—to build something from scratch was the kind of inspiration you couldn’t readily find at a holding company.
“When you have a guy standing up and saying, ‘When I quit my job and did this’ like 900 times a year, it seeps into your head,” said Mo Said, founder of Mojo Supermarket. “And then you’re like, ‘Maybe I should do that.’”
Droga deliberately avoided imposing a house style, making room for vastly different creative voices to develop alongside each other. You can see that in the alumni shops: Jonny Bauer’s business transformation consultancy Fundamentalco, for example, bears little resemblance to Mirimar, which operates at the intersection of advertising and entertainment.
Droga5 was also intensely competitive, multiple founders made clear, but driven by ambition. “I never worked as hard anywhere as I did at Droga5, and I was never surrounded by the same number of driven people,” said Thom Glover, founder and chief creative officer of American Haiku, Ad Age’s 2026 Newcomer Agency of the Year. Other former executives would go as far as to call the atmosphere cutthroat, a meritocracy where, as Said put it, “if you were really creative and really good and you delivered, you stayed; and if you didn’t, you didn’t.”
Droga has never been shy about his determination to always be the best, and that pressure isn’t for everyone, but those who thrived within the agency say it left them well-equipped to go it alone. Felix Richter spent over a decade at Droga5 before leaving in 2022, not to start his own shop, but to join independent agency Mother, where he has risen to global chief creative officer and earned Ad Age’s 2026 Chief Creative Officer of the Year honor.
Still, Richter understands why so many of his friends and former colleagues have taken the risk.
“When you’re successful at Droga, you leave with the confidence that you’re able to be successful on your own,” he said. Added Laurie Howell, co-founder of startup creative boutique and Ad Age 2026 Creative Agency of the Year Isle of Any: “Being around that, seeing what David was doing with the company, made you think that it was possible.”
“There’s an osmosis of that—you go, ‘Oh, okay, cool. I can see how this works,’” said Howell.
While most of the indie agencies that have emerged from Droga5 appear to have been founded by men, Karen Land Short, a longtime Droga5 creative leader who went on to Accenture Song, recently founded her own shop, 400 Humans. Droga5 also pointed to a number of female alumni who have gone on to senior leadership roles across the industry, including Tara Lawall, chief creative officer at Rethink New York; Susie Nam, CEO of Publicis Creative U.S.; and Lindsay Cole, president of Uncommon New York.
Lessons learned from Droga5
For some ex-employees, striking out on their own provided an opportunity to scratch a different itch. Hannes Ciatti, who opened Alto in 2019 after co-founding JohnxHannes alongside Mirimar’s McKelvey, wanted to build a shop that reflected the nature of agency-client relationships, with marketers gravitating towards project-based assignments. His time at Droga5, he said, showed him what to “protect and what to shed” at Alto; he’s betting that a small, senior team armed with the right tech and freelancers can do what once took hundreds of people.
“I’m trying to keep the ambition of a place like Droga5, but build it also for the realities of 2026,” Ciatti told Ad Age.
Droga, for his part, gets why. He noted that peak Droga5 New York was around 850 people, a scale he doesn’t think a creative agency needs to reach anymore. “Hannes is right,” he said of Ciatti’s approach.
Isle of Any founders Howell and Toby Treyer-Evans are leaning into their roots as industrial designers, blending product design and experiential work with advertising. The British-born duo is looking to move away from what they see as the “project” model most shops employ, prototyping early and iterating often. In other agencies, “there’s a process to how you make things,” Howell said. “We’re trying to collapse it all.”
Indie founders are, to some degree, going it alone, and the pressure to stay afloat presents the temptation to appease clients at the expense of the work. Droga5, though, taught employees the opposite instinct.
McKelvey described weekly Acela rides to Baltimore, and Droga’s work building creative trust with Under Armour founder Kevin Plank, as a crash course in client relationships. Droga “taught me a lot ... about how much nerve it takes to protect an idea before everyone understands it,” Ciatti said.
“There’s actually a bigger reward when you do work that might get you fired,” he added. “That was a big learning curve for me—not being afraid to be brave, sometimes needing to say no to lawyers or people that wanted to stop you.”
These founders cited Droga’s hands-on approach to the work and willingness to back his teams in client meetings, among other things. Many said he was involved as they prepared to strike out on their own, offering advice on everything from finances to landing first clients. As McKelvey prepared to leave, Droga told him the door would always be open if things didn’t pan out.
“Think about the confidence of someone telling you if this thing fails, the worst thing that’s going to happen is you’ll get a great job,” McKelvey said.
Bits of camaraderie, bits of tension
Some of these agencies, like Isle of Any, are now working with former Droga5 clients. The shop has drawn early raves for campaigns with Coinbase, OpenAI and The New York Times—a client they’d worked with for over six years back at Droga5. Treyer-Evans, however, said Isle of Any is careful to keep a clean break from their former shop, never poaching clients or staff.
Droga said he has no issue with the client overlap, noting that he introduced Isle of Any’s founders to Coinbase, the same client Accenture Song worked with on the 2022 Super Bowl QR code spot. “As long as great work is coming out of it, and it moves our industry forward, I’m not that insecure about it, to be honest,” he said.
American Haiku has staffed up with several Droga5 alumni, including Jessica Kingsbery, formerly managing director of Droga5 New York, who was named CEO. The agency’s heavy Droga5 representation wasn’t “by design,” Glover said, though it did result in an “awkward conversation” with Droga himself. “Those people all have a way of working and communicating with each other that makes it easy when you’re small and you want to get a lot done,” he explained.
Droga understands this part of the business well; he spent years bringing trusted people with him across stints in Singapore, London and beyond. Still, the AAF Hall of Famer is competitive and doesn’t want to see Droga5 hurt.
“You can’t come to me for advice one day but then also go around my back and take people the next day,” said Droga.
Said, who also hired Droga5 employees heavily early on, eventually came to see it the same way, that the “etiquette of having a mentor and stealing from a mentor” didn’t sit right.
As for the founders’ relationships with each other, not everyone talks all the time, but there is a general sense that the line is always open. Many of the former employees said they have a low-fi get-together at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, a slice of camaraderie that serves as a reprieve from the competition. “We’re on pitch lists together, we’re going after the same candidates,” said Glover. “But it’s all generally friendly.”
Across Ad Age’s conversations with Droga5 alumni, it’s evident that some are keen to avoid being pigeonholed as just another shop that came out of the agency. Said found himself feeling the same way in the first few years out of the gate, but time has a way of softening that instinct, especially when people start leaving Mojo Supermarket to start agencies of their own.
After Mojo Supermarket won Ad Age’s Small Agency of the Year in 2022, Said wanted to send the award straight to Droga. “I was just like, I’m so happy to be the ‘Better Call Saul’ to your ‘Breaking Bad,’” he recalled.
“We will never be that good of a show. But there are so many spinoffs that are bad, for one to be kind of good is the greatest compliment to you,” he added.
MediaPost reported Dentsu flattened its EMEA org chart, which squashed the EMEA CEO, a 20-year veteran now being squeezed out of the holding company.
Gee, that move looks familiar.
Dentsu Global CEO Takeshi Sano declared, “Since stepping into the Global CEO role, my focus has been on building a simpler, more agile and an even more client-centric dentsu. Our evolved cluster model in EMEA reflects that commitment. It reduces complexity, brings leadership closer to clients, and improves our ability to collaborate, deploying talent and capabilities with speed.”
Gee, that scheme sounds familiar. Oh, right—it’s what every CEO from a holding company or single White operating company is saying.
Dentsu Flattens EMEA Org Chart, Regional Heads To Report To Sano
By Steve McClellan
Dentsu today announced what it called a “simplified model” in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) that will have Dentsu executives Annette Male, Sawomir Stepniewski, and Mariano Di Benedetto managing broader sections of the region and reporting directly to recently appointed global CEO Takeshi Sano.
With the new reorganization, the position of EMEA CEO is eliminated and long-time company veteran and EMEA CEO André Andrade will leave Dentsu after more than 20 years with the firm. Giulio Malegori, executive senior advisor, Dentsu & chairman, Dentsu EMEA, will continue in his post.
Sano stated in a release announcing the move that “Since stepping into the Global CEO role, my focus has been on building a simpler, more agile and an even more client-centric dentsu. Our evolved cluster model in EMEA reflects that commitment. It reduces complexity, brings leadership closer to clients, and improves our ability to collaborate, deploying talent and capabilities with speed.”
Under the new setup, Stepniewski will manage the “core cluster” of Central Europe. Male will lead the Northern Europe cluster, expanding her remit beyond the UK and Ireland to include Nordics, Benelux and the Baltics.
Di Benedetto will lead the Western & Southern Europe and MEA cluster, expanding his remit to take on Spain, Portugal, France and Sub-Saharan Africa, in addition to his current remit of Italy, Greece, Israel, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Qatar and Türkiye.
The changes are effective in July.
The EMEA management reorganization is not a template for other regions, a company rep stressed. “Each regional approach is specific to client needs and local market dynamics,” he said, noting the recent promotion of Beth Ann Kaminkow to CEO, Americas and chief global client officer. She was previously North America CEO.
MediaPost reported WPP elevated two White men to global presidents of client growth.
It must be a confusing time for WPP drones and leaders, as the single White operating company reels via restructuring, redundancies, and RIFs while simultaneously readying for revitalization, reinvention, and growth.
Both White men are credited for achieving success with media and advertising pitches at earlier versions of WPP.
Seems they’ll now face the challenge of first defining what they’re pitching.
Wise people have said it is only through adversity that we experience growth.
At least the newly appointed global presidents of client growth have plenty of adversity to leverage.
WPP Elevates Jenner, Heimann To Top Growth Roles
By Steve McClellan
WPP agency veterans Toby Jenner and Philip Heimann have been promoted to global presidents of client growth. The roles are new and designed to drive the company’s “single unified growth strategy” spelled out by CEO Cindy Rose earlier this year.
They both report to WPP chief operating officer Devika Bulchandani.
Jenner, a 20-year company veteran, was previously global chief business officer at WPP Media and before that CEO of company media agency Wavemaker. Most recently he’s credited with shaping WPP Media’s unified go-to-market strategy and leading successful pitches for adidas, PlayStation, Reckitt, Amazon and more. He will continue to oversee WPP Media growth as part of his broader holding company remit.
Heimann was previously global chief growth & marketing officer at Ogilvy. He’s credited with boosting the agency’s pitch win rate over six years from 22% to 60% leading the team that won assignments from companies such as Verizon, Audi, Kimberly-Clark and more.
With the promotions, both executives join WPP’s executive committee. Jenner will also serve on the WPP media global leadership team and Heimann will serve on the WPP creative leadership team.
Advertising Age reported Dentsu retained Heineken global media duties after a review, while creative duties were consolidated across Publicis Groupe, WPP, and Stagwell.
The Heineken Chief Commercial Officer stated, “Moving to fewer, better and bigger agency partners is part of our broader commercial transformation.”
Um, partnering with four of the six biggest holding companies underscores the exclusivity in Adland.
Independent White advertising agencies are shut out from serving global accounts.
Multicultural agencies likely receive even fewer crumbs—if anything at all.
Anyone not in a holding company is resigned to cry in their locally-brewed beer.
Heineken sticks with Dentsu for global media, shakes up creative roster
By Ewan Larkin
Dentsu has retained Heineken’s global media business following a competitive pitch process, with the brewer also consolidating its creative roster across Publicis Groupe, WPP and Stagwell.
Publicis retained global secondary production duties and, along with WPP and Stagwell, will handle creative for Heineken’s Amstel, Birra Moretti, Desperados and Tiger brands, as well as select local priority brands.
Creative for the flagship Heineken brand was not part of the review and remains with Publicis.
COMvergence estimates Heineken’s global media spend is $550 million.
Mediasense handled the agency review.
Dentsu’s reappointment is a much-needed vote of confidence for the Japanese holding company, which reported its worst annual loss last year and lost marquee media accounts including Microsoft. Dentsu has worked with Heineken since 2016, with the relationship expanding through a global media consolidation in 2021 and a two-year extension announced in March 2025.
The consolidation is part of Heineken’s EverGreen 2030 growth strategy and a broader commercial transformation initiative the brewer calls “Freddyai.” The goal, per the company, is fewer and deeper agency relationships built for speed, efficiency, and creative consistency across global markets.
“Moving to fewer, better and bigger agency partners is part of our broader commercial transformation,” Bram Westenbrink, chief commercial officer, said in a statement.
Adweek and MediaPost reported WPP US President Michael Houston—a 24-year veteran of the recently relabeled single White operating company—is shifting to an advisory role through Q1 2027.
On a sidenote, it’s pathetic that Adweek still refers to WPP as a holding company, despite publishing content where WPP CEO Cindy Rose declared the corporation is “no longer a holding company.” Apparently, Adweek editors are not reading their own reporting.
The new appointment for Houston demonstrates a “natural and planned evolution for WPP, as our operating model continues to evolve,” Rose stated via a note to drones and leaders in the flaming dumpster.
The Adweek report is subscriber-only content not worth paying for, so it’s unclear if Rose provided more details, rationale, and/or motivation for reassigning Houston.
Regardless, it’s a bad look for WPP.
After all, Houston is a rarity—a Black man holding a C-suite position in Adland.
When DEIBA+ still mattered in 2020–2021, former WPP CEO Mark Read confessed internal data “underlines the work we have to do to ensure greater representation of Black, Asian and other under-represented communities within WPP—especially at the more senior levels … we have a huge amount of work to do…”
In contrast, Rose has not mentioned DEIBA+ at all. In her defense, the topic is no longer an industry concern.
Yet for someone whose alleged ambition is to revitalize and recreate WPP, Rose’s moves to date arguably indicate reverting to an enterprise of exclusivity.
The LinkedIn post depicted above called out Wall Street Journal content spotlighting WPP CEO Cindy Rose, questioning the article headline: Advertising’s First Female CEO Isn’t Afraid to Fail.
The post author felt the headline was misleading. While the article clarified Rose is the first female CEO of a holding company—or single White operating company—the author believed the net impression positions Rose as the first-ever female CEO in Adland.
The author asserts Mary Wells Lawrence earned the title of first female CEO of a White advertising agency by co-founding Wells Rich Greene in 1966, and the iconic leader has been followed by countless female CEOs in Adland over the years.
Initial comments ranged from White men in agreement to White women seemingly expressing passive offense with the author.
Of course, there’s no mention of Barbara Gardner Proctor, founder of the first advertising agency owned and operated by a Black woman—a feat achieved in 1970. Ditto snubbing for Caroline R. Jones of Zebra Associates and Mingo-Jones Advertising. Carol H. Williams is a living legend. And there are many other invisible women of color throughout the history of Adland—all of whom contributed waaaay more trailblazing accomplishments to the industry than Rose.
Yet the author and commentators arguably missed a bigger issue with the WSJ headline.
That is, over 98,000 WPP drones will see their leader isn’t afraid to fail—and will likely fire thousands of them to achieve resounding failure.
Adweek reported ADCOLOR is celebrating its 20th anniversary while Adland is celebrating its never-ending commitment—and renewed dedication—to systemic racism.
Adding indifference to insult, Adweek couldn’t even bother to spell the organization’s name right—according to the website, ADCOLOR is all caps.
This year, ADCOLOR is revamping its program and pushing its annual awards soiree to 2027. Hard to guess if the changes are intentional or resulting from reduced White advertising agencies’ sponsorship. After all, the anti-DEIBA+ vibe impacting Adland—and corporations in general—diminishes any sense of obligation to support heat shields.
Additionally, the ADCOLOR website currently lists IPG/FCB as Community Group Partner. Did the Omnicom acquisition of IPG create redundancies affecting partnerships on a financial level?
ADCOLOR Founder Tiffany R. Warren’s mood has shifted from Pollyannaish to hopeful melancholy. Although Warren insists her dream of a more diverse creative field—especially at senior levels—has surpassed her original expectations, which indicates delusional thinking or low expectations. Probably a combination of both.
Regarding ADCOLOR Nation, the organization’s Vice President of Partnerships gushed, “This is a true community of people who believe in the mission in a way that they’re not just talking about it, they are acting on it.”
Okay, except Adland is acting too—that is, the few remaining DEIBA+ initiatives continue to be performative stunts.
Adcolor Marks 20 Years With a New Program for a Changed DEI Landscape
Year-round events, a new awards approach, and a 2027 conference are among the evolutions to this year’s program
By Hannah Bowler
As Adcolor celebrates its 20th anniversary, founder Tiffany R. Warren acknowledges there have been “setbacks” in the fight for representation across the industry. That’s why reaching its two-decade milestone is a moment worth celebrating.
The organization focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in advertising has unveiled an expanded slate of programming for 2026 that addresses the shifting landscape and evolving needs of its community.
Since its launch two decades ago, Adcolor has built its community around an annual flagship conference and awards hosted in LA. Now, the organization is shifting to year-long event programming and making changes to its awards and mentorship initiatives.
“It can’t just be another year that we celebrate, particularly during these times when we have to remind not only our community, but the world how important and how beautiful it is to build and support a diverse community,” Warren said.
The activities will kick off at Adcolor’s annual networking event at Cannes Lions in June, followed by gatherings in New York in August and LA in October. The program will culminate with the Adcolor Awards and conference in LA in early 2027, pushed out from its usual early November date.
The format of the annual Adcolor Awards has also been updated. Instead of a traditional nomination process, winners will be selected by a jury of alumni. Warren positioned the shift as both a way to thank the community that has supported it over the past 20 years and to spotlight its own alumni.
The nomination process will return in 2027.
“We’re turning 20, and for a good 19 of the 20 years we have been going, going, going, and I’ve not realized how much of a milestone 20 years is,” Warren said. “We needed to take a step back and look at what we created and celebrate that in the way that it deserves.”
There will also be changes to the Adcolor Futures (early career) and Leaders (mid to senior-level career) programs. Instead of running within the main conference, both will have dedicated, immersive programming in LA in 2026. Applications for both are already open.
The goal is to create a more focused environment for mentorship, professional development, and community-building among the industry’s next generation of diverse leaders, Warren said.
Changing winds
When ADCOLOR was established in 2006, DEI conversations were “nascent,” Warren told ADWEEK. “Multiculturalism was growing, but it was still very unique, and you didn’t see it in various places within the industry. It was very much marginalized and siloed,” she said.
Reflecting on the current pull back on corporate DEI initiatives, Warren said the past two years have been “tough” but that her “dream” back in 2006 of a more diverse creative industry, particularly at senior level, has surpassed her expectations.
She said the current moment makes her “a little sad” because of the “swiftness of the change in temperature” of how people feel about “providing opportunities for underrepresented communities.” While she described her outlook as “melancholy,” she added that she has hope this moment is temporary.
“I hope to look back and say that that was a moment in time and that joy returns again and support returns again,” she said.
For Adcolor’s part, Ana Leen, vice president of partnerships, said the community is only growing stronger.
“What we’re seeing with these community groups is there is such a hunger to connect to learn from each other to support each other. The networks that the Adcolor community builds are really strong and supportive,” she said.
People are also becoming more vulnerable, Leen added, pointing to individuals asking for help on LinkedIn amid layoffs and job uncertainty. “We are seeing people very willingly help out a stranger just because they’re part of this community,” she said.
This sense of mutual support will sustain Adcolor through challenging periods, she said.
“This is a true community of people who believe in the mission in a way that they’re not just talking about it, they are acting on it,” Leen added.
This campaign for Brazilian Men’s Football Team Corinthians—titled “Racists Have No Seat Here”—was produced by End to End and AREA 23 in Brazil. The concept is explained as follows:
After Palmeiras goalkeeper Carlos Miguel was racially abused during a match at Corinthians’ Neo QuÃmica Arena—and the individual responsible could not be identified—the club made an indefinite, visible intervention: it removed the seat from the section where the incident took place. In its place is a message reading, “Here, racism has no place. And never will,” along with a QR code that directs fans to educational resources on how to identify, document and report racist behavior during matches. The idea is simple, but hard to ignore: if racism cannot be allowed a place in the stadium, then the seat itself had to go. The empty space becomes the message.
The campaign, created with Corinthians and End to End, was developed with AREA 23’s creative leadership and is designed as both a symbolic act and a practical reporting tool turning an unidentified act of hate into a reminder of collective responsibility.
To call the tactic “a practical reporting tool” is ludicrous. After all, how many stadium visitors or sports fans might even be aware of the campaign, let alone see the missing seat message?
And why would a healthcare agency be involved in such an endeavor, except with the self-absorbed intention to submit the work for awards?
If the true objective is communicating people have a responsibility to report acts of hate against racial and ethnic minorities, start by calling out the systemic racism prevalent at AREA 23 and its new parent Omnicom.
