Everyone has been speculating about Droga5 for months. Last week, the news that everyone had been expecting, broke. Talented and well-respected executive creative director Steve Coll left Droga5. Coll has ended up at WiTH Collective as a creative director and partner, an interesting and unexpected move. But the question is, where does that leave Droga5?
Coll spent 15 months at Droga5. At the start of his tenure, he was pitched as the saviour of the agency – which had being having a tough time. But throughout those 15 months, times got tougher. It went from being a big-name agency with a big reputation, and some of the biggest clients in the country in Woolworths and Qantas, to having a not-so-big roster to back it up.
Coll is the latest in a long list of now-former Droga talent. How many more to go? Some of the reasons are obvious. It’s an inherent aspect of the industry. An agency loses a massive account and staff are going to go. But how can the agency’s New York office – just named Cannes Lions Independent Agency of the Year – and Sydney office be such polar opposites? One is on fire, while the other seems to be going up in smoke.
David Droga and his partner David Nobay have come out swinging this week, saying that Nobay is back on the case after losing focus on the agency, but if you believe some of the whispers, that might not be the right answer.
Some suggest that Droga chose the wrong partner to launch the agency in Australia in the first place - something that Nobay’s admission that he hasn’t been 100% committed to the cause of late, backs up.
Droga and Nobay, as well as Sydney CEO Sudeep Gohil, are standing united and tall. Droga says that the faith he put in Nobay eight years ago remains the same and Nobay has taken responsibility for all that has or hasn't gone on.
He even went so far as to say that over the next six months, Droga5 will produce the work that he always wanted to. And I, for one, hope it does, but Coll made the same claim a year ago and it hasn’t transpired. Gohill told AdNews that now the agency will try to get back to acting like a startup, and have a flatter structure - something it lost when it was bigger.
“We forgot a little bit about the importance of agency culture. That’s important to the clients as well,” he said.
The whispers are in overdrive this week speculating on the future of Droga5 Sydney, but it's no small gesture to be open about the fact you've made mistakes. We're often very quick to dismiss people owning up to certain situations. Granted, they may have been backed into a corner to do it, but let’s not take away from the renewed focus and drive.
Onwards and upwards.
This editorial originally appeared in the latest issue (10 July) of AdNews magazine. You can subscribe to get it in print and on your iPad here.