There’s something that doesn’t quite add up about Droga5 and umbrella company Accenture Song.
Is the driving force still Droga5, the agency which remained a standalone brand even as Accenture’s Song division – mainly digital – claimed it turned over as much money as Publicis or Omnicom? Pretty safe to say this didn’t all emanate from Droga5.
Now Pelle Sjoenell (left), Droga5’s global CCO, is leaving the business after barely a year to be replaced by Song’s Neil Heymann, who says he wants to be bring D5 and Song closer together. Sjoenell, who is leaving with the usual fulsome tributes including David Droga, joined from gaming company Activision Blizzard, which seemed a touch left field.
Droga stepped down as CEO of Song in May last year, to be replaced by Accenture lifer Ndidi Oteh. Mark Green, from Australia’s The Monkeys, took over as boss of D5. Some of which suggests that, as chill winds blow through the marketing agency sector, some of the more fanciful ambitions for D5 and Accenture Song have been shelved. That it’s now just a department of an (admittedly huge) tech-based management consultancy.
Creative people leaving, as they also have in London, is often a sign that an agency is migrating towards something unwelcome.
