Droga5: Has the reality finally caught up with the hype?
With the departure of Droga5’s key creative after just a year, Mumbrella’s Tim Burrowes asks whether reality has caught up with one of Australia’s most talked about agencies.
I’ll say this for Droga5.
Over the last seven years, no agency has built such a big reputation on so little sustained success.
Based on the well deserved global reputation of the US-based Aussie David Droga, the agency’s Sydney operation launched in 2008.
” a big ad featuring a cast of quirky eccentrics…”
optus just did that with josh thomas and 100’s of quirky types.
maybe the new idea will be a small ad with an ensemble of conservative traditionalists?
Tim, you’re having an off day.
Where’s the snark? Dial up the spite, man!
Campaign Brief (Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy).
You can’t post nary a critical point of view let alone a criticism and get a comment published. Everyone knows it. Hardly news.
Coll is a canny and charismatic operator.
With can do no wrong it seems with their driven leadership duo.
Best of luck to them all. Make the rest of the traditional ad mobs quake in their boots.
Relevant and sadly perhaps correct.
When people lie about things, they lose an awful lot of respect. I’m not suggesting D5 have lied here specifically, but they have ‘managed’ this story very craftily, which will win them no respect from potential clients or employees.
Somehow I detect a Churchillian resolve emanating from the Yurong Street bunker, namely, ‘KBO’ – Keep Buggering On
You mention the years at Saatchi’s – back then what ‘big’ work did they do? I remember a lot of awards for ambient pieces telling us about strong teeth for dogs or anti-gun ads. Does anyone rememeber any of their beer ads or big brand stuff? Compare than with Clems Melbourne at the time.
A quick observation on both the VB and the Woolworths TVCs:
Both ads are trying to be reflective of the market they want to appeal to. So… umm… what’s the point of holding up a mirror to a market segment without showing them any kind of benefit of buying/using the product?
The ads are saying “Hey, we are confident that THIS is our market! Yeah we’re talking to you shazza, bazza types… and we’re not ashamed. We’re proud.”
Too bad about Henry, Tenille, Omar, John and everyone else in the country that may have considered buying VB or going to Woolworths.
[Edited by Mumbrella].
And lets not forget their arrogant boast (in the early days of D5 Sydney at least) that they never pitched for business. I’m sure that’s certainly not the case now.
Hey Tim,
Once again congrats on your quality journalism. A well-written opinion piece that shows your deep knowledge of the industry. Reporting again without fear or favour.
Much appreciated.
Hi Oswald.Hope you are enjoying your first year in the industry after coming an honourable 8th in your marketing course at UTS in 2014.
Let’s not forget the twitter spam that won a gold lion for virgin
Yes, 4320LA for Virgin that also picked up a D&AD Yellow Pencil. Whether you like the campaign or not, it wasn’t scam, was hard won and got solid results for the client.
Advice for Droga 5
No1: For 3 months, stop obsessing over so-called “ideas”. Stop pressuring–and rewarding your creatives for them. Stop telling your clients you’re going to present them. Ban the word “idea” from your meetings and presentations. Purge the place of of the idea culture. Melt down your award metal into an anchor or something that’s usefull. Lose the agency’s “self” untill you see what a load it was.
No2: Sack –or retrain– every copywriter in the agency who can’t wrote an episode of Modern Family. And every suit that can’t recount in detail an existing one.
No3: Don’t hire hypsters.
Advice for Droga 5. Keep your hypsters on accounts that have hypster target markets.
They just don’t get real people.
4320LA was great and not scam at all. Credit where credit is due that was good creative work.
Peter Rush , slow day at the office ?
Find it amazing the Droga bashing here from a lot of the above comments .
Sad indictment on this industry !!
I don’t work for Droga { Tim , check the IP address if you so desire } , but have collaborated with them over the years , and its been a great experience with great results
And Pete Rush , I am not a hipster
Like them or hate them, these guys are employing local creatives, suits and planners. They may even be training a number of them.
Loathe award winning agencies or love them, without independent agencies in our country all advertising will be the same old. There won’t be difference or diversity.
In short, there won’t be an industry.
It’s easy to pull people down, especially when they drop their drawers and invite you to kick them. But we must also remember these companies employ the people who make up our industry, an industry that has shrunk to nearly half its size from ten years ago. We should be finding the reasons to spare them rather than slaughter them, if we all want jobs in the future.
4320LA ? Er, who actually followed those tweets? Please do not rewrite history.
I was working at Droga5 at the time of that ad.
“a hard earned thirst’ hadn’t appeared on any VB work for a couple of years.
The work that pre-dates it was the Shane Warne cartoon promotion and CUB had moved towards using ‘The Best Cold Beer’ in coasters in pubs.
Apparently, so we were told, A Hard Earned Thirst ‘doesn’t resonate with the younger generations’.
That beer, when D5 got was in decline at over 10% year on year. It wasn’t in pretty shape. I think they got it to flat – I’m not sure, I left.
But I do agree removing that line was foolish – I just am not sure if they are actually the ones to blame for it.
as an ex droga employee, creative and not suit, this article reaps the height of ignorance that feeds the sensationalism this website requires to get the hits you seem to require