17477: Delving Into Droga5’s Diaspora.

 

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.

17128: Delayed WTF 65—David Droga Drops Dookie.

MultiCultClassics is often occupied with real work. As a result, a handful of events occur without the expected blog commentary. This limited series—Delayed WTF—seeks to make belated amends for the absence of malice.

 

Advertising Age—along with most trade journals and business publications—reported David Droga stepped down as Accenture Song CEO.

 

Across the board, the related content bathed Droga in fawning and favorable light, positioning him as among the last of the mythical creative mavericks.

 

Really? Did Droga really bring breakthrough innovation to Accenture?

 

Publishers indicated the man orchestrated a “major transformation” at Accenture Interactive, coordinating over 40 acquisitions and groups under the Accenture Song banner. That sounds like the dubious accomplishments of visionary luminaries such as Mark Read, John Wren, Arthur Sadoun, Philippe Krakowsky, Yannick Bolloré, and Mark Penn.

 

One publication remarked Accenture Song “has evolved its focus from the creative elements of marketing to a more CRM and customer-data focus.” Droga countered by declaring, “Most advertising, most marketing, most journalism, most music, most architecture—it’s pedestrian and garbage anyway. And it’s written by something worse—scarier than AI. It’s written by compromise and research.”

 

So, where are the provocative concepts and award-winning campaigns?

 

(Cue crickets chirping)

 

It appears Droga and Accenture presented a David and Goliath scenario—and this time, Goliath slayed David.

 

Accenture Song should be renamed Accenture Dirge.

 

David Droga to step down as CEO of Accenture Song

 

By Brian Bonilla

 

David Droga is set to step down from his role as CEO of Accenture Song, the company announced Wednesday.

 

Ndidi Oteh, who is currently the Accenture Song Americas lead, will become CEO of Accenture Song on Sept. 1. Droga will remain as vice chair for the broader Accenture company.

 

Nick Law, creative chairperson for Accenture Song, will become Song’s creative strategy and experience lead as part of the move. Both Oteh and Law will join Accenture’s Global Management Committee.

 

Droga made one of the biggest moves in advertising when he became CEO of what was then Accenture Interactive in 2021, shortly after selling his creative agency, Droga5, to the consultancy. Since taking the helm, he has led Accenture Interactive through a major transformation by unifying over 40 acquisitions and groups under the name Accenture Song.

 

Since Droga joined the company, Song has grown from $12.5 billion in revenue to $19 billion for the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2024.

 

“I honestly could not be more grateful for my career and the opportunities I’ve had,” Droga said in a statement. “The people who believed in me, the talent I’ve worked alongside, the clients we’ve served, the trust, the ambition, the camaraderie, it’s all part of me. After 30-plus years of leaping, I am ready to catch my breath. And being vice chair will allow me to do that, but also to contribute in new ways.”

17102: Droga Delivers Dumb Drivel.

 

More About Advertising spotlighted David Droga, who delivered a whiny jab at Adland: “Most advertising, most marketing, most journalism, most music, most architecture—it’s pedestrian and garbage anyway. And it’s written by something worse—scarier than AI. It’s written by compromise and research.”

 

Okay, but Accenture Song—Droga’s swan song—reportedly “has evolved its focus from the creative elements of marketing to a more CRM and customer-data focus.”

 

Bravo, Droga, bravo.

 

Jane Austin: lessons from David Droga on becoming an ad legend

 

By Jane Austin

 

It’s the end of an era in advertising, and not just because AI is potentially putting the entire industry out of business. David Droga is stepping down as CEO of Accenture Song after 37 years in advertising. In Cannes this week, Droga has been doing a lot of reminiscing about his celebrated career.

 

Could creatives entering the industry today hope achieve Droga-level industry fame? As the cult status once bestowed upon ECDs is swiftly becoming a thing of the past, it’s unlikely. But if you’d like to have a go at becoming a legend anyway, here are some lessons from Droga himself.

 

Make great ads

 

An obvious one, I know. But if want to emulate Droga you’ll either have to be talented enough to make multi-award winners yourself or employ people who can. For inspo, some of Droga’s top ad hits include The New York Times “The Truth Is Worth It” ad; “The Great Schlep” for the Obama campaign; and the Coinbase Super Bowl QR code spot. Speaking about the Coinbase ad at Cannes this week, he said: “(It) was voted the best and worst commercial. Twenty million people took a picture of this stupid QR code and linked it to Coinbase. But 80 million were upset. Our job is to not satisfy everybody.”

 

Let your name be your brand

 

Coming up with a name for your ad agency was a lot easier in the days when the industry took the same approach to branding as law firms and undertakers. And what better way to build fame than by naming your company after yourself?

 

When Droga first launched his startup, he took his cue from his old employers, Saatchi & Saatchi, and put his name on the door. He then took the self-referencing to the next level by adding on the ‘5’ to represent Droga being the fifth of six children in his family.

 

It’s also worth noting that, in the early years, Droga was known as Dave. Then when he started to go global, everyone had to call him David. This was likely part of his strategy for getting the business world to take him more seriously, and clearly it worked.

 

Channel Mr Darcy

 

Sex sells and Droga knew this all too well, as evidenced by the photo of him on the cover of Creativity magazine in 2006 standing in the sea in a sopping wet shirt, a la Colin Firth as Mr Darcy.

 

Be flexible and agile

 

We’re not just talking about agency models here. Droga’s nickname back in the day was ‘Dave Yoga’ because he did yoga three times a week. Back in 2003, he was described by Ad Age as having a “wiry frame, slightly more than a goatee beard and dress-down everyday attire”. The lesson here is: flexibility is all very well, but when you find a look that works for you, stick to it for life.

 

And finally, don’t compromise

 

At Cannes this week, Droga had this parting shot for the industry: “Most advertising, most marketing, most journalism, most music, most architecture — it’s pedestrian and garbage anyway. And it’s written by something worse — scarier than AI. It’s written by compromise and research.”

17080: Droga Put The Con In Consultancy.

 

Digiday reported on David Droga’s shift at Accenture Song, speculating on the consultancy’s future.

 

Whoop-dee-damn-doo.

 

Does anyone really think Droga transformed Accenture Song into a creative powerhouse—or even a creative outhouse?

 

As Digiday noted, Accenture Song “has evolved its focus from the creative elements of marketing to a more CRM and customer-data focus.” That’s not exactly a triumph for someone purporting to be a creative maverick.

 

Accenture Song is a lot of song and dance—and Droga’s swan song.

 

The Rundown: What Droga’s move at Accenture Song means for a creative group in flux

 

By Michael Bürgi

 

Accenture Song is in for change, as its leader and creative power, David Droga, steps upstairs to the parent company Accenture’s corner office as vice chair. Droga, considered by many to be one of the last of a generation of creative agency leaders, is being replaced by Ndidi Oteh, who’s been running Accenture Song’s Americas unit for the last 17 months but is a longtime Accenture vet. 

 

The immediate question is how will Droga’s absence from Song affect that company’s creative chops? For one, Nick Law, a creative exec who joined Song a little over three years after a career at R/GA, Publicis and Apple, becomes creative strategy and experience lead following his stint as creative chairperson.

 

Droga told the Wall Street Journal he’s “happy to catch my breath, because I’ve been sprinting since I was 18.” He was not made available for comment, nor was Oteh. 

Some thoughts on what his ascendancy means: 

 

Yes, creative is still important — just not as much

 

In some ways, the skillset and rolodex Droga brought to the job isn’t as necessary in today’s Accenture Song, which has evolved its focus from the creative elements of marketing to a more CRM and customer-data focus. Which makes sense for a company that’s primarily a consultancy. 

 

As Giacomo Lee, editor in chief of ERP Today, wrote back in December about the company, “Accenture Interactive’s rebranding to Accenture Song in 2022 is more than just a rebrand job, and a clear pointer to Accenture’s ambitions in CRM and customer data.” He cited the acquisitions of Unlimited (a customer engagement agency), Mindcurv, (a German digital experience and data analytics company) and The Lumery, an Australian martech consultancy), among others.

 

Creative misses (and wins) of late

 

Although Droga could hardly be blamed for it, one need not look much farther than the marketing fail that was Jaguar’s rebrand, which not only never showed the car it was trying to markets, but was also deemed out of touch with its garish colors and androgynous figures. The resulting fallout led the luxury auto brand to begin looking for a new creative agency. If anything, it falls on Law’s shoulders — but he just got a promotion, so the buck didn’t stop with him either. Accenture Song remains the owner of Droga5 and a host of other creative shops, including some that fall under Unlimited’s wing. To balance the possible loss of Jaguar, Accenture Song did pick up creative duties for British window maker Velux Group. Not exactly the same cachet client — but maybe that’s not a priority for Accenture.

 

“The big question to be asked is what value Accenture places on creativity… and wasn’t that always the question?” posed Chris Mele, who leads creative and design shop Siberia. “It’s one thing to keep it going when you have an undisputed legend waving that flag, but what will it look like three years from his exit, and will clients that value creative excellence give them a look?”

 

The money is still flowing

 

All the press coverage Droga’s move got cited revenue growth from $12.5 billion in 2021 to $19 billion last year, which is an uptick any agency holding company would envy. And Ndidi Oteh gets to oversee that, given her 13 years of experience at Accenture. 

 

She may not be a household name in the agency community today, but she most likely will be. For now, her reputation is said to be collaborative, according to that same press coverage. And besides hiccups like the Jaguar disaster, by most measures, Accenture Song is still chugging along in a competitive world. 

 

“I do think Accenture has done a really great job integrating companies that do exceptional, creative and design work — for us seeing Work & Co acquired was eye opening,” said Siberia’s Mele.

 

But another agency CEO who declined to speak for attribution, described Droga as the Chuck Norris of the agency world — and that without him, Accenture Song is in danger of becoming “a rudderless environment.”

15522: David Droga Adds Australian Accent To Accenture.

 

Advertising Age reported David Droga is abandoning his own White advertising agency to assume the lead role at Accenture Interactive. Droga succeeds another White man, which poses questions about Accenture’s alleged commitment to inclusion and diversity. Hell, Accenture likely mirrors the Droga5 patronizing promotion of equality. Meanwhile, former Droga5 drone Ted Royer is probably polishing his digital chops for freelance opportunities.

 

Why David Droga Jumped To Accenture—And How The Industry Is Responding

 

Droga5 founder leaps to head $10 billion company just behind WPP, Omnicom and Publicis

 

By Judann Pollack

 

With his ascension to CEO of Accenture Interactive, David Droga will run the world’s fourth-largest agency company behind WPP, Omnicom Group and Publicis Groupe.

 

That vaults Droga from operating an agency with estimated revenue of $200 million before it was purchased by Accenture two years ago to helming a global behemoth with revenue of $10.6 billion, sharing the same rarefied air as Mark Read, John Wren and Arthur Sadoun.

 

“He’s moved from running a mid-range agency to running one with billions in revenue,” said one agency consultant. “That’s a big jump even for a guy as smart as David Droga.”

 

Industry reactions

 

Industry reactions ranged from “puzzling” and “curious” to “surprising.”

 

“Dave Droga’s appointment shows that Accenture is trying to show the outside world, their internal staff, and potential acquisitions that they ‘get’ creative,” says Simon Francis, CEO at Flock Associates. “But Droga, wonderful though he may be, is just one person. I’m personally quite interested in why he would do the role, surely it’s a very different challenge than he has tackled before, in a very different environment and culture.”

 

“I am certainly surprised. I didn’t see him as a big company kind of dude,” says Sarah Hofstetter, former CEO of 360i and current president of e-commerce analytics firm Profitero. “When you’re a founder and when you have the name on the door there is a certain amount of permission and power that may not translate to a bigger company.”

 

Accenture declined to make Droga, who begins his new post Sept. 1, available for an interview.

 

While Droga’s creative chops are unquestioned, running an operation such as Accenture Interactive requires a different skillset, said a second consultant. “To run a [consulting] company is different than running creative insights and creative inspiration. The industry is filled with people who are fabulous at the craft and they get promoted into a role where they don’t have all the skillsets. So you become a CEO. Do you know how to run a P&L?”

 

Yet those who have worked with Australian-born Droga say his abundant charisma and dynamism will go a long way when it comes to competing with holding companies and attracting clients. “Would you rather work with Mark Read or Arthur Sadoun?” says a former Droga exec. “Most of those companies are run by bankers and stiff suits without a creative person in front.”

 

There is a huge challenge in taking a global behemoth the size of Accenture Interactive with its myriad units and pulling them into a cohesive whole, said Avi Dan, who runs search consultancy Avidan Strategies. That said, he adds: “I wouldn’t sell David Droga short.”

 

“People asked if Accenture would change Droga5,” David Droga has said. “I said we would change them.”

 

Wither Whipple?

 

Droga is succeeding Brian Whipple, a former Rapp and Hill Holliday executive, who the company said is retiring after 10 years of running Accenture’s agency business. At press time, Accenture had not responded to a request for Whipple’s age.

 

“I would like to thank and recognize Brian Whipple for his foundational role in building Accenture Interactive’s strong business, driving its rapid growth and for pioneering a disruptive business model that will continue redefining the industry,” said Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture in the announcement of Droga’s appointment.

 

Much of Accenture Interactive’s creative firepower seems to have stemmed from Droga5, Ad Age’s 2021 Agency of the Year, which has been generating a steady stream of wins and work for clients including Petco, Kimberly-Clark, Luluemon, Allstate and more. The other 30-plus agencies within AI’s marketing services network include Karmarama and Fjord, both in London; Shackleton in Madrid; Matter in San Francisco; Reactive Media in Australia and Rothco in Dublin.

 

That last agency recently lost a notable global creative account—White Claw—two years after the shop first landed it. The loss of the top-selling hard seltzer brand came less than six months after Rotcho created White Claw’s first big global campaign, “Let’s White Claw,” which leaned into the brand’s carefree image. But as beer trade pub Beer Marketer’s Insights notes, the campaign has “not led to improved trends,” with White Claw’s U.S. sales in stores down 12% for the 12 weeks ending Aug. 8, according to data from Evercore ISI cited by the publication.

 

New path for consultancies

 

Some people believe the appointment ups the ante for Accenture’s competitors—which have long taken a knock for not being very creative—to put their own creative leaders at the helm. “It’s a positive move to see a creative practitioner take the lead at a consultancy,” said Greg Paull, co-founder and principal at R3. “David will bring a totally different perspective to past management and with his global experience, he will also be the best candidate to connect up some of the other Accenture Interactive acquisitions in the UK, Germany, Japan and Australia. This move signifies Accenture’s ambition to become a truly creative-led consultancy where innovation and ideas have just as an important seat at the table as effectiveness and efficiency.”

 

But following that path won’t be easy, he says. “Deloitte has been hampered with some false starts and PwC and KPMG have only a few pockets of excellence in this space. They have a lot more ground to make up.”

 

“I’m not sure that the appointment of Dave Droga to Accenture Interactive leader signifies any seismic shift in the industry one way or the other. In the same way any agency creating a consultancy department or role doesn’t directly threaten Accenture or Boston Consulting Group, this move by Accenture does not imply any increased threat to agencies,” said Flock.

 

Plans for Droga5

 

With the agency’s namesake stepping into his new role, Droga5 has not announced whether anyone will move into the creative chairman post, though Droga5 watchers believe that is highly unlikely. The agency’s founder has long asserted how his company’s strength comes not just from him, but from the deep bench of talents it has assembled and nurtured over the years. Following the departures of longtime execs of Neil Heymann, former global chief creative officer, and Jonny Bauer, former global chief strategy officer, the agency did not fill those posts directly but turned to existing leaders, including New York Chief Creative Officers Tim Gordon and Felix Richter, London Chief Creative Officer Dave Kolbusz and Chief Brand Strategy Officer Harry Román-Torres to continue to run the show.

 

“One of the remits from the very start, even when we were a small organization was—whoever was in leadership roles—your primary task is to lead the department to make a quality grade. But your secondary task was to build a team so that you have people below you that can take over for you,” Droga told Ad Age earlier this year. “I say it to my creative leads, and I’ve said it for a long time—if you are not planning to overthrow me, you’re not the creatives I thought you were.”

 

Contributing: E.J. Schultz, Brian Bonilla, Bradley Johnson, Ann-Christine Diaz

14191: Cannes Cons III.

Campaign reported on David Droga opening the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity with navel-gazing that showed his cultural cluelessness exceeds his creativity. Droga shared a personal story about being subjected to cursing by an advertising agency executive while serving as a mailroom attendant. The scenario apparently provided a leadership lesson that Droga summed up as follows: “How you carry yourself and lead is how you treat people who are junior than you.” Heaven forbid Droga might also consider, “How you carry yourself and lead is how you treat people who are different than you.” Additionally, Droga touched on the expulsion of CCO Ted Royer by remarking, “For the first time, our culture has been challenged. I’ve had to look at who we are. I used to say that great work covers the cracks… but it doesn’t cover all of them.” Ironically, Royer likely got himself canned for the way he covered the cracks. But was Droga essentially saying that great work justified overlooking great misdeeds against staffers? It’s hard to believe Droga was unaware of Royer’s bad behavior. According to Campaign, Droga “cautioned creatives to not become too obsessed with their own hype.” Hey, Droga needs to become more obsessed with the factual reality of his agency and its culture versus hiding behind the hype.

David Droga: Great creative work doesn’t ‘cover the cracks’

By Brittaney Kiefer

Droga5 founder David Droga opened the Cannes Lions festival by warning creatives to not become obsessed with their own hype.

David Droga, the founder and chairman of Droga5, is one of the most celebrated creative leaders in advertising. But a few decades ago, he was just a mailroom boy being shouted at by an agency boss.

The executive cursed at the young Droga after finding out he had accepted a job as a junior copywriter at another agency. Droga says that experience taught him a valuable lesson about leadership:

“How you carry yourself and lead is how you treat people who are junior than you,” he said.

Droga, who opened the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity today, was reflecting on his career after a year when the industry has gone through its own reckoning, with issues such as diversity and the #MeToo movement taking the spotlight.

Droga’s agency has not been exempt from that; in the US, creative chief Ted Royer left after an internal investigation, and executive creative director Rick Dodds exited the London office.

“For the first time, our culture has been challenged. I’ve had to look at who we are,” Droga said. “I used to say that great work covers the cracks… but it doesn’t cover all of them.”

Droga’s words were a timely reminder at the world’s biggest advertising awards show. As the trophies get handed out this week, he cautioned creatives to not become too obsessed with their own hype.

“You can enjoy it, but don’t believe the hype,” he said.

Much of Droga’s career has been a story of never resting on his laurels, of taking risks as soon as things got comfortable. He left his first job at FCB after three months to join a start-up, explaining: “Choosing mentors over safety and security was important to me.”

When that shop merged with Omnicom, he gave up his financial stake in the company to take a job in Singapore, where he had never been. His career then took him to London and New York. Years later, he traded his prestigious role as the first-ever worldwide chief creative officer of the Publicis Network to start his own agency.

“As a creative person, you can’t bullshit yourself that you’re happy… no matter the perks,” Droga said. “If you’re not having an impact on the work, it’s not worth it.”

Droga chased his dream and his agency became one of the most successful in the world. The key, he said, was staying true to their ideals: “Every time we’ve tried to be someone we’re not, it hasn’t worked.”

Since his days in the mailroom, the advertising industry has changed enormously. But Droga said that the “purity” of what agencies do—creating ideas—has not.

As Droga arrived in Cannes this weekend, he said he was reminded by a large, ugly billboard of why people hate advertising: “It serves no purpose, it’s selfish and interrupting.”

Advertising isn’t going away, but the “shitty” kind is, he said. His final words were a rallying cry to a festival that, despite so much upheaval, still claims to cherish creativity.

“The best advertising is visceral,” he said. “Our job is to move people and do extraordinary things.”