David Droga: Keeping Droga5 is not personal

Last week Accenture rebranded its advertising and marketing services business, formerly known as 'Accenture Interactive' into 'Accenture Song', and with that move merged all of its agency subsidiaries with the exception of flagship creative shop Droga5.

Droga5 founder David Droga, who stepped up to be CEO of Accenture Interactive last year, has now becomes CEO and creative chairman of Accenture Song.

Campaign asked Droga and Accenture Song president of growth markets, Flaviano Faleiro, who also leads the Asia-Pacific business, to expand on the reasoning behind the change and explain what it means for this region. 

Campaign: Why ‘Song’? Is it meant to symbolise a new harmony?  How did you arrive at that word for the brand?

Droga:  Accenture Song continues our focus on the future, enabling change, inspiring ideas, and unleashing the imagination of our people. 

Song conveys an enduring and universal form of human craft, connection, inspiration, and experience. It’s the most enduring and relevant form of communication and connection globally. A song can be inspiring to one person or anthemic to millions. It’s an evergreen and optimistic word. 

As a name, Accenture Song reflects the many dimensions and layers of who we are, and what we can accomplish for our clients. Accenture Song starts a new chapter for us, where we can all feel part of one community and culture. I want to run an entity that people feel they can bring themselves to. It’s an opportunity to come even closer together, while maintaining the integrity of the unique attributes we all offer. 

Campaign: Under one brand, is there an aim to have more integrated operations? Or will the units still operate as local centres of excellence?

Droga: We’ve always operated in an integrated way. Each of these brands represents powerful talent, culture, and client relationships. That does not diminish. As the evolved entity takes shape and gains momentum, the refreshed positioning and simplification of our public brands with one distinct new name allows us to better meet the opportunity in the market and represent our singular value proposition.

Some pretty iconic names will be retired: The Monkeys, Karmarama, Fjord, etc. Will there be a wake for them? Can these shops still keep some of their unique culture?

Droga: The best way to honour these brands is to give their people, beliefs and cultures the best possible opportunities to be successful and relevant today and tomorrow. The past is lovely but the future is more pressing and in need. 

Culture is built by the connections we build as a community and our experiences as individuals: the integrity and respect we have for each other, our communication and teamwork, and most certainly the work we put into the world. Our collective commitment to top quality work will be stronger than ever. One benefit of becoming Accenture Song is that we are all creating this destination together. This means we will shape the culture of Accenture Song to fit our needs, ambitions, and vision as a cohesive team. Creativity – be it in data, technology, strategy, media, etc. – will be the centre of gravity for Accenture Song. This new destination is about further connecting and leveraging our collective powers to bring to life the unlimited potential of creativity, tech and data. Within that, people will still have their own voice. 

To be responsible, some brands will take slightly longer to make the journey. We grow into the future together, or we shrink into the past individually.

Why is Droga5 the only agency to keep its brand? As CEO are you addressing the optics on this to all employees? 

Droga: The stark reality is that in the advertising space, client conflicts exist – unlike in design, technology, operations, commerce, and so on. So we either create another global agency brand to stand alongside Song, or we retain our only global agency brand that also happens to be one of the most celebrated and recognisable agency brands on the planet. Keeping Droga5 is not personal, it’s an obvious decision for our business. But if and when it’s right for our business, people and clients – we’ll consider migrating Droga5 into Accenture Song as well.

Any particular effect you expect this move to have on Asia-Pacific operations?

Faleiro: Our clients know us for what we deliver: meaningful, customer-relevant work that drives business growth. That is still the mission for Accenture Song. The day-to-day client experience will not fundamentally change. Clients will continue to partner with the people they know and trust, with leaders who will now ultimately be more connected into, and encouraged to unleash the potential of Accenture Song and Accenture to provide new solutions for them.

Going to market with one name simplifies and maximises the proposition we take to clients, to better align what we offer to what they need in order to drive growth and stay relevant in this complex environment of change. The tremendous talent across our teams in APAC, when working together, offers clients even more powerful solutions and outcomes.

(This article first appeared on CampaignAsia.com)