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Accenture Song is in for change, as its leader and creative power, David Droga, steps upstairs to the parent company Accenture’s corner office as vice chair. Droga, considered by many to be one of the last of a generation of creative agency leaders, is being replaced by Ndidi Oteh, who’s been running Accenture Song’s Americas unit for the last 17 months but is a longtime Accenture vet.
The immediate question is how will Droga’s absence from Song affect that company’s creative chops? For one, Nick Law, a creative exec who joined Song a little over three years after a career at R/GA, Publicis and Apple, becomes creative strategy and experience lead following his stint as creative chairperson.
Droga told the Wall Street Journal he’s “happy to catch my breath, because I’ve been sprinting since I was 18.” He was not made available for comment, nor was Oteh.
Some thoughts on what his ascendancy means:
Yes, creative is still important — just not as much
In some ways, the skillset and rolodex Droga brought to the job isn’t as necessary in today’s Accenture Song, which has evolved its focus from the creative elements of marketing to a more CRM and customer-data focus. Which makes sense for a company that’s primarily a consultancy.
As Giacomo Lee, editor in chief of ERP Today, wrote back in December about the company, “Accenture Interactive’s rebranding to Accenture Song in 2022 is more than just a rebrand job, and a clear pointer to Accenture’s ambitions in CRM and customer data.” He cited the acquisitions of Unlimited (a customer engagement agency), Mindcurv, (a German digital experience and data analytics company) and The Lumery, an Australian martech consultancy), among others.
Creative misses (and wins) of late
Although Droga could hardly be blamed for it, one need not look much farther than the marketing fail that was Jaguar’s rebrand, which not only never showed the car it was trying to markets, but was also deemed out of touch with its garish colors and androgynous figures. The resulting fallout led the luxury auto brand to begin looking for a new creative agency. If anything, it falls on Law’s shoulders — but he just got a promotion, so the buck didn’t stop with him either. Accenture Song remains the owner of Droga5 and a host of other creative shops, including some that fall under Unlimited’s wing. To balance the possible loss of Jaguar, Accenture Song did pick up creative duties for British window maker Velux Group. Not exacly the same cachet client – but maybe that’s not a priority for Accenture.
“The big question to be asked is what value Accenture places on creativity… and wasn’t that always the question?” posed Chris Mele, who leads creative and design shop Siberia. “It’s one thing to keep it going when you have an undisputed legend waving that flag, but what will it look like three years from his exit, and will clients that value creative excellence give them a look?”
The money is still flowing
All the press coverage Droga’s move got cited revenue growth from $12.5 billion in 2021 to $19 billion last year, which is an uptick any agency holding company would envy. And Ndidi Oteh gets to oversee that, given her 13 years of experience at Accenture.
She may not be a household name in the agency community today, but she most likely will be. For now, her reputation is said to be collaborative, according to that same press coverage. And besides hiccups like the Jaguar disaster, by most measures, Accenture Song is still chugging along in a competitive world.
“I do think Accenture has done a really great job integrating companies that do exceptional, creative and design work – for us seeing Work & Co acquired was eye opening,” said Siberia’s Mele.
But another agency CEO who declined to speak for attribution, described Droga as the Chuck Norris of the agency world — and that without him, Accenture Song is in danger of becoming “a rudderless environment.”
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