David Droga: This is not the 'doomsday' of advertising

David Droga has said that the sale of his agency to Accenture Interactive two months ago will help Droga5 stay relevant as brands focus on the entire consumer relationship.

During a session at Cannes Lions 2019 Tuesday, alongside Brian Whipple, global chief executive of Accenture Interactive, Droga explained that it is not only advertising but the whole consumer experience that matters to brands.

"If I create desire for a brand and then the consumer goes into the retail environment or online and it goes to shit, there’s nothing I can do to [change that] and it has to be seamless," he told a packed conference room.

"This is the way to save creativity – to make sure that it is effective all the way through. This is a bit dismissive – but I don’t want to be the best interior decorator in the business if the house is going to fall down. It all has to work."

At a press conference after the session, Droga added: "We can’t just try and solve a client issue with two different colours and miss the other 17 colours; there has to be repertoire, there has to be options. I don’t want to be the best storyteller and ideas person; it has to affect all sides of their business."

He was quick to add, though, that this isn’t the "doomsday" of adland, but that advertising is "broader" today than it used to be.

"You can either whinge about it, complain about it, fight against it, or fight for it and get on the front foot," he said. "And I’m a front foot type of person with the same ambitions, mentality and belief system, but now I hope to be doing it at a much greater scale."

When asked why he chose to sell to Accenture Interactive, Droga pointed to the "skillset and how they touch every part of the consumer relationship".

Droga added: "They can build things that we can’t build, they understand things we don’t understand, they have relationships I don’t have, and if I can inject my creativity into that it just makes my canvas five times bigger.

"Creativity can affect every fabric of our lives. Brands need it, too – this isn’t something I am trying to force-fit into the industry and on to clients. If I’m not able to influence more parts of [client] business, then as a creative agency I’m less relevant to them, so that’s our job."