Droga5 New York founding partner and joint ECD Duncan Marshall joins Droga5 Australia as ECD

EXCLUSIVE (WITH THE AUSTRALIAN): One of the world’s most celebrated creative directors, Duncan Marshall is joining Droga5’s Sydney office as executive creative director, where he will work alongside creative chairman David Nobay – effective 1 June.

As a founding partner and joint-executive creative director at Droga5 New York, Marshall has overseen many of Droga5’s most acclaimed campaigns including Marc Ecko ‘Still Free’, UNICEF ‘Tap Project’ and ‘Million’ for the New York Department of Education, which won three Titanium Lions for three consecutive years at Cannes. He also helped create the multi-awarded ‘The Great Schlep’ for the Jewish Council for Education and Research. He’s also won many other shiny things, including two extremely rare D&AD Black Pencils at Droga5 (for Million and The Great Schlep), and plenty of Yellows as well as Gold Lions while working as a key figure at Saatchi & Saatchi London and ECD of Publicis NY.

“Duncan is without doubt one of our industry’s absolute best – not justas a thinker but as a person. Droga5 Sydney are damn lucky to get him.Saying that, Duncan is damn lucky to get a job this good, in an agencyso strong and filled with such opportunity,” says David Droga, founderand creative chairman at Droga5 in New York.

Marshall first met Droga at Saatchi & Saatchi London when Droga stepped in as ECD in 2002. That year the agency was named Agency of the Year at Cannes. When Droga became worldwide chief creative officer of the Publicis Network in 2003, Marshall moved to New York as ECD of Publicis New York. That first year saw the agency become New York’s most awarded agency at Cannes.

Now, after spending seven years in New York, four of those at Droga5, Marshall’s turning his attention to the Sydney office, freeing Nobay up to concentrate on the chairman’s role.

“We’ve never really seen it as a different office, we like to see it as one company with two locations and we may grow beyond that, we like to think so,” Marshall told CB. “Nobby’s been doing an incredible job doing both the creative and the chairman’s job but we are now at a size where we need different people for different tasks. We felt I knew what made Droga 5 great and we were successful in New York so we thought it was a natural fit for me to come and look after the place here.

“I’m coming here to continue growing the Droga5 business model withNobby and the Sydney partners in a market that’s full of energy andoptimism. Droga5 has always been a global company even when we just hadthe New York office, because we’ve always had clients from all over theworld. I feel I’m continuing to be part of the greater Droga5 company,just in a more beautiful part of the world. With better coffee,” saysMarshall, pictured above left with David Nobay, creative chairman at D5 Sydney.

Droga5’s Sydney office has grown from three founding partners to 45staff in just over two years thanks to significant new business growthover the past 12 months.

“I took on launching Droga5 here because I craved a change from what Iwas doing, so the idea of bringing in an ECD was always the plan. Wejust haven’t been big enough up to now to warrant the kind ofinvestment that securing someone as senior as Duncan takes. He’s a goodmate, a fellow Partner in the NY agency and the only choice for thejob,” says Nobay.

Marshall joins after several big wins at Droga5 Sydney, which wonCREATIVE magazine’s Advertising Hotshop of the Year Award in April, and B&T’sAgency of the Year and Best Ad of the Year last November. In March2010, Nobay was one of only three Australians to make Creativity’s list of’50 most influential and inspiring people of 2009′ alongside DavidDroga.

“What Nobby, Sudeep, Marianne and the team have achieved in such ashort timeframe is amazing. And the only thing that eclipses myjealousy is my pride. But really, I never think about our agency beingin New York or Sydney. I always think of us as just one place with twomailing addresses,” says Droga.

Marshall spent six weeks in the Droga5 Sydney office in October last year working with the agency’s clients, mainly on Telstra, setting up some of the things they are going to be doing over the next year.

As well as being attracted to the lifestyle Sydney offers with surf and good coffee, he said some of the best creative in the world is coming from Australia, something that stood out while he was judging at the Clio Awards this month.

“Beyond just advertising – arts and film and music and all these other cultural things – it seems such a booming time over here, the economy is great, we are on the right side of the world,” says Marshall. “It just seems like if there was ever the perfect time to get into Australia and learn about the Australian market, and grow with that market, it was now.  There’s no other company I would consider working for. I’m obviously a partner in Droga5, but I love the way the whole company is set-up, the way people work, how collaborative it is, and I love how creativity goes to the core of everything we do.”