David Droga.
Droga5 founder and Advertising Hall of Fame inductee David Droga says now is the time for real creatives to step up as technology creates a higher ceiling for brilliant, stand-out work.
Speaking at The Creative Standard, An AWARD Industry Lunch, Droga said the model of the industry is being rebuilt.
“It's up to creatives to realise that there is a higher ceiling and more opportunity in more companies,” he said.
“The industry isn't over; that model of the industry is over.
“Your imagination, where you can take it, and the effect and influence it can have, is still there.
“Everyone's obviously intimidated by technology, but when everything becomes automated and more efficiencies become the gold standard, then when everything's best practices, nothing is.
“It'll come back to who the difference makers are, the people that are going to make the audacious, outrageous, emotional and empathetic.
“People are busy trying to restore the industry as it was, but why don't we build an entire new system to change behaviours and operate the model that delivers as much creativity as there is technology.”
Droga stepped down as chief executive officer of Accenture Song in 2025 to take a broader vice chair role. Founder of Droga5 NY in 2006, he became CEO in 2021, unifying more than 40 acquisitions and groups under the name Accenture Song.
Droga believes the industry is playing an arbitrage game, chasing media and discounting fees rather than focusing on brilliant creative.
“I'm bullish on creativity. I'm bullish on what technology will do and what creators will do with technology,” he said.
“And creative isn't just an ability to write or direct; creativity is the ability to see what could be and should be, not what is and will be.
“When I was a writer, creative director and a creative chairman, I would always start with 'why would the consumer or the intended audience of what we are making and creating today care about this?
“And if I couldn't answer that question, then it wasn't right.
“So I've always tried to create things in partnership with clients where I'm thinking about the end user, not just about my peers.
“My belief in creativity is not wanting to be the best creative but wanting to prove the power of creativity.
“That's why I built an agency, because I wanted to protect and build the power. I'm more scared of repetition than I am of failure.
“The worst thing for me would be to go around the carousel over and over again and see the same things.”
Droga sees AI technology as a way to do best practices, but will start to homogenise creativity if treated without consideration.
"Everyone's still caught up in the faster and cheaper aspects of it,” he said.
“But everything will start to look the same, and very soon we'll notice nothing is different. When everything is best practice, nothing is.
“If AI can do a better version of that, knock yourself out and raise the floor. But if you raise the floor, you also raise the ceiling.
“The very top slater of everything, which is what the best of our industry is going to bring; irrational, illogical, emotional and context-based creative. That's where magic happens.”
He also sees an opportunity for young creatives to get ahead of the new technology.
“Everyone's on the same path, whether you've been in the industry for 30, 40 years or you've been in the industry 18 months,” said Droga.
“Everybody's learning this new technology and what it can be at the same time. So everyone has the same opportunities to learn about it and work out how they can infuse themselves in it.
“Students shouldn't be thinking about how to break into the industry, they should be thinking about how to break the industry.
“This world is getting more automated. Things will look good at the moment, but then everything's going to start looking the same. The stuff that moves us is emotional, true and irrational.
“The power of AI is immense, profound and invading. But the worst thing that can happen in technology and AI is a bug. They're all about certainty and perfection of outcomes.
“Everything great about humans is our flaws and bugs, our misinterpretations, reinterpretations, heartbreak, loves, audacity and irreverence, that makes us who we are.
“And when you harness that as opposed to bury, then you turn that into something real with good intentions. You've got to be serious about it.”
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