David Droga (born 1968) in an Australian advertising executive and founder of the advertising agency Droga5. Droga5 was acquired by Accenture Interactive in 2019 and Droga was named Chief Executive Officer in August, 2021.[1][2][3] (Droga renamed Accenture Interactive to Accenture Song in 2022).[4]
Early life and education
Droga grew up in Perisher Valley, a remote ski resort in Kosciuszko National Park, New South Wales, Australia, the fifth of six children.[5][6] His mother was a Danish artist, poet and environmentalist, while his father was an Australian businessman of Polish descent.[7] Droga attended early primary school at Jindabyne Central School (1973–1977) and then the Tudor House School (1978–1980). He went to high school at The King's School in Paramatta, Sydney.[8] He launched his advertising career as a copywriter at the Australian Writers and Art Directors School in 1987.[9][10]
Career
Early Career
Six months after being hired by FCB as a copywriter, Droga left the company and joined startup OMON in Sydney.[7] His first project for radio station MMM was voted Australian Commercial of the Year, and won him a Cannes Lion.[11] Droga became a Partner and Executive Creative Director of OMON.[12][13]
In 1996, he moved to Singapore to become Executive Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore and Regional Creative Director of Saatchi Asia. [14] Droga was promoted to Executive Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi London in 1999. In 2002, Advertising Age awarded Droga the World's Top Creative Director.[15][16] Saatchi & Saatchi London won Global Agency of the Year at the Cannes International Advertising Festival and both Advertising Age and Adweek named Saatchi Agency of the Year.[17] In 2000, Publicis Groupe acquired Saatchi[18] and in 2004, Droga was promoted to Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of the Publicis Network, which took him to New York City in 2005.[19]
Droga5
Droga founded his own agency, Droga5, in New York City in 2006. The name Droga5 comes from the number-coded laundry tag his mother sewed on his clothes to help differentiate his clothes from his brothers at boarding school.[20]
In 2013, Droga sold a minority stake in Droga5 to William Morris Endeavor.[21]
In 2019, he sold Droga5 to Accenture Interactive.[22]
Accenture Song
Accenture appointed Droga as Accenture Song's new CEO and creative chairman, effective September 1, 2021.[23][24]
^ ab"PROFILE: Dave Droga". Campaign Live. 31 March 2003. Retrieved 18 December 2022. David Bjorn Droga, the product of a mad hippie Danish mother and a Jewish businessman father, greets me at the door of his three-storey house in London's fashionable Notting Hill.