Droga5 to close Sydney office; agency to focus international efforts on European + Asian markets
CB Exclusive – Advertising agency Droga5, which is headquartered in New York, has announced today that it would be closing its Sydney office. Although the Sydney office – which was founded by David Droga, David ‘Nobby’ Nobay, Sudeep Gohil and Marianne Bess in January, 2008 – enjoyed an exceptionally strong start, it struggled to maintain that momentum in recent years.
The news comes just two months after Nobay returned full-time to the agency to fully oversee the agency’s creative product, following the decision of executive creative director, Steve Coll, to resign from the agency, just over a year since joining from Havas Australia.
Says David Droga (near left, with Nobay), creative chairman and founder of Droga5 told CB: “This was obviously a very difficult decision, both professionally and personally, and as a proud Australian, it was a bitter pill to swallow. However, we see little value in continuing to operate in this market with an office that, sadly, no longer consistently represents the Droga5 brand.
“Despite world-class local management and many talented individuals working hard, the Sydney office has floundered over the past few years. Some of it was self-inflicted, some of it bad luck and some of it just the befuddling local advertising market. Regardless, we aren’t a company that measures its success by the number of its offices, but rather by the creative output, positive influence and culture of each office.”
The Sydney office will officially close its doors before the end of the year.
This year, Droga5 New York enjoyed its ninth consecutive year of over-40-percent growth and was recently named the North American Effies’ Independent Agency of the Year, One Show Global Agency of the Year and Cannes Lions Independent Agency of the Year.
Says Sarah Thompson, Droga5’s global CEO: “We continue to realize strong growth in the U.S., and are focusing on creating a world- class leadership team in Europe while simultaneously exploring potential models of offerings in China as our two key priorities outside the U.S.”
Droga5 recently announced the hire of a new CEO, Bill Scott, for its London office. Scott joins from Grey London. Additional key creative hires are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
41 Comments
Very sad news to hear.
Droga5 Sydney was a wonderful place to work
Full of talented, creative and inspirational people all under the fine guidance of Nobby Duncan, Wayne and Sudeep.
Won’t forget the wonderful memories.
Heavy.
Sad and no joy in that news. But no surprise. It was a mercy kill from NY.
Dear Droga 5 people,
A tough day for sure guys – and I wish you all well, this is a bloody tough industry at times.
At the risk of sounding opportunistic (if it helps good people find good jobs then I’ll cop the accusation), I am looking for excellent candidates across:
– Account Management
– Planning
– Creative
– Digital Strategy
– Project Management
– Content & Community Management
– Social Strategy
– Analyst
– Content
– Media Planning
– Design
– Developer
– Tech Lead
We have won a number of significant accounts in the past few weeks and could need 25+ new people.
If you are interested please send your CV to me at noel.magnus@reborn.co
Australia isn’t for the faint hearted at the moment.
I’m sorry for the people still there. I’m sorry for what could have been.
A true reflection of the dour state Australian advertising is in. Sad to hear.
Never nice to see people loose their jobs, but the Australian marketing pie isn’t getting any bigger. Some agencies grow at the expense of others unfortunately.
this is sad news indeed but not altogether unsurprising… I sincerely hope the all of the team find a way through to the other side
I would even say that it is a true reflection of the dour state this country is in. Driven by fear. Ruled by committee. Increasing restrictions instead of freedom. Busy protecting the status quo instead of facing the future. What happened Australian?
Really sad to hear. I loved working there, really loved it.
A shame for the local industry.
Say what you will about the place, I can’t think of a nicer bunch of human beings I’ve ever worked with. From management right down to support staff, all wonderful people with genuine heart.
It’s sad to see a place like this go and I hope newer, greater things come of this.
Droga was an amazing place to work and I am sad to see it go. Good luck all.
“Despite world-class local management”- If we’re honest the management of Droga5 Sydney clearly isn’t if they oversaw such a sustained period of bad business performance.
Agencies like the Monkeys and Leo’s are doing very well by remaining relevant through lateral thinking and the pursuit of commercial ventures that transcend advertising.
The Droga5 brand from NYC is magical and it will continue to shine bright but the only positive is that the local arm won’t be a beacon for criticism from our industry anymore.
Wishing the actual staff all the best in their next ventures.
I’ve been in this business a long time, and was having lunch with another equally tenured individual the other week. We’re both amongst the few of our generation still working.
I don’t want to pour fire on the pyre but we both predicted this was going to happen, the only question was when.
Obviously there were and are some very talented people at Droga Sydney. But you cannot do cool stuff unless your clients have bought in, or you can bring them along. And you have to believe it yourself.
Drogas won heaps of big clients, but created nothing really interesting for any of them. I have no doubt they showed them lots of cool stuff, and I hear there were piles of rejected ideas in the various CDs offices, but I also have no doubt that what they showed to win the business was specifically designed to demonstrate that they were ‘sensible’ and non-threatening.
So the clients thought they were being a bit naughty, but still felt safe.
Then when they are actually shown funky work, they freak. And make the agency compromise.
Maybe Droga’s were hoping to operate on the BMP/CDP theory from the Eighties, where 90% of the work is crap but a couple of glory accounts make up for it. That requires a glory client.
It’s a crying shame Droga has gone. Not, of course, for what they did, but for what they promised.
Australian advertising is the worst I’ve seen it.
We appear to punch above our weight at Cannes, but only by doing tiny techy case-history dependent social cause one-offs that veer too close for my liking to the endemic scams from South America and Asia of years gone by.
But we no longer do big ideas that also win awards. We no longer do big campaigns that also win awards. We no longer do work that the general public sees, talks about and loves, that also wins awards.
I hoped Droga might change that, but they too ended up doing bland crap for their paying clients then nibbling around the edges with proactive in the hope of scoring gongs.
It’s terribly sad that in many ways the most innovative and certainly most successful agency in Australia at the moment is Big Red.
Very sad day for Australian advertising. It’s indicative to what we have all let the industry become.
No longer do clients want great work or even original work, let alone pay for it.
Agency’s have for far too long allowed clients to nickel and dime them and Agency’s have played ball with that, helping them to create half baked ideas for ridiculously low budgets on terrible deadlines as if they are pandering to a spoilt child.
We have allowed clients to turn us from companies who originate ideas and craft them to companies who are simply dictated to with clients standing over our shoulder micro managing them.
Is it the fault of the Agency’s in Australia, yes, because they have allowed their clients to dictate to them, what they have done is to relinquished any kind of value to what they produce. We have failed to put a worth next to great creative ideas.
We need to get craft back into the industry. Original ideas crafted beautifully will always show value and set a brand apart especially now, but can you find a client in Australia who would buy such work or a client who is prepared to pay for quality? maybe one or two, most of them seam happy with having their Agency’s troll the internet looking for ideas to re appropriate for their ads for next to no money.
Sad day indeed, but there is a lot of exceptional talent over at D5 Sydney and I’m sure you will all land butter side up.
Yeah! You tell em!
Hey, while you’re at it I think I saw a stray dog you can kick on the footpath outside. You’re bound to get even more jollies then.
There has been plenty of great work for real clients in the past five years. Work that has picked up a tonne of metal. Work that uses this thing called ‘the internetz’.
You either adapt or perish.
A poor carpenter blames his tools, a broke one blames his client.
This should be singularly depressing to anyone working in Australian ad agencies.
The above comments all nail it – if Droga can’t do it here, who can?
F#ck this pissant, conservative reactionary little country… time to head overseas. Sudeep, Nobby – see you stateside!
Incredibly proud and grateful to have been part of the Droga5 Sydney journey. Such an awesome bunch of talented people, so much promise and so much potential. This is just awful news all over, and a sad reflection of the local industry.
Sad.
So many opportunities missed.
This is indeed sad news and horrible for those now out of a job.
But if the business is losing cash, then it’s over red rover.
Appearing on 60 minutes was the last ditch effort by the looks of it.
When Droga opened its doors, I, like many others, were nervous. We all wondered about how many clients and highly talented staffers they would lure. (Visions of moths flocking to the bright flame of promise.)
But despite this fear, mostly, I was happy.
I hoped they would lead the charge and inspire a new era of bravery in clients across the board.
Shame it didn’t pan out.
A shame for them. And, a shame for the industry.
The problem is simple. droga5 ny has real leadership at the helm and Sydney didn’t.
sydney was never a droga office but just an agency that had a similar name that expected it could trade off the reputation of NY. I have a mate who just came back from a gig at d5 ny and he said it was amazing. High energy, incredible belief in the work and absolute creative leadership and vision. Weiden waited nearly 15 years before they opened another office and after a few failed attempts found the right leadership. All the absolute best agencies in the world suffer the same fate. They are built around one person or a team of stars with a mission and it works. When you try and rush to replicate it, it fails because everyone expects too much, too soon. Nobby is pretty good but being a star at a multi national is easy and different than building a defining agency. You only have to be better than the other 80 shitty offices in your network. Win a few awards for one or two clients and people roll out the red carpet. It was Saatchi strategy for years and now it’s places like LB and Grey. I really wanted them to do well here. A rising tide …… Lots of talented people are out of a job and as of today, even more accountants are calling the shots. Hopefully their next office is planned better and not just with big names but people strong enough to lead it.
When Droga opened its doors, I, like many others, were nervous. We all wondered about how many clients and highly talented staffers they would lure. (Visions of moths flocking to the bright flame of promise.)
But despite this fear, mostly, I was happy.
I hoped they would lead the charge and inspire a new era of bravery in clients across the board.
Shame it didn’t pan out.
A shame for them. And, a shame for the industry.
Sydney. An advertising agency competing with advertising agencies.
New York. A trans-disciplinary environment where architecture, experience, digital, social and advertising add up to a big vision – with big budgets.
It’s sad for Australia that they couldn’t replicate the same business model…It’s genuinely the best way to future-proof what we do.
Sydney never managed to create another Ecko.
I’ve lived through an agency shrivelling around me, despite the passion, despite the talent, despite the struggle. I feel for those who’ll grieve the passing of what they loved. But, doors will open…they always do.
Chin up.
Good on you.
Get out of Aus.
i’m sorry but these guys had more opportunities than any other agency to hit it out of the park and repeatedly fell short. that simple. theres no excuse when you win then lose that many solid clients. clients that other agencies have done great work on. and besides what clients today aren’t tough? they had booze, telcos, chocolate, cars, airlines and more yet failed to make any real impact on a global or even local scale. sad day but come on guys…
It’s a shame they couldn’t wait until Nobby / Suds had announced their next venture. This is a massive pasting.
Wonder what happened behind the scenes?
Sydney clients are mind bogglingly conservative and want to play safe, preferring ads with happy shiny people driving, eating, walking on or sleeping in their products with big white tooth smiles.
If you want to do anything different here, you have to come to a ‘I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine’ arrangement. We’ll execute your business-as-usual work faithfully and professionally – as long as you give us a jewel in the crown, awardable project now and again. The agency might even have to put their own money into it.
Most awarded work coming out of Oz or NZ is spec/scam. It’s just the way it is these days.
I think its called having shareholders
If Australian clients and the industry is to blame for the droga demise then how do you explain other agencies like Clem’s, burnetts, monkeys, tbwa, etc consistently producing quality work during that time?
I posted something about the fact Droga5 Sydney wasn’t always a great place to work and you edited the crap out of to. It wasn’t offensive in any way but just presented a different opinion, which is well known, about the culture there. Sorry but it’s true. Shame on you for not presenting a differing opinion and not wanting to offend Nobby.
I honestly think that Nobby should have been left to run Nobby’s agency. He built a killer team, did great work on Virgin (vanilla ice & the LA tweet Thingy) and a huge ad for VB. They were off to a great start and were doing really well. Duncan was a huge mistake. Really he was. It was clear that he did not impress local clients, despite being an insanely talented guy. And that’s the truth.
Sad DD didn’t back Nobby all the way. If Dave’s not happy, if Dave’s sad, then Dave should accept responsibility for what has happened. Sad news indeed.
I wish all the staff well. I hope a few of you start thinking about starting your own thing.
Five years ago a story like this would have garnered hundreds of comments. Poor show, Australian ad industry. Poor show.
@NeoCon
I even offered to pay out of my own pocket to have a campaign produced recently.
They still said “no”.
Dog ate my homework. said:
When you compare the quality and diversity of work on agency sites in Melbourne and even more in NZ, you’ll realise Sydney is a market with more dull poorly executed work in comparison.
An observation – not meant to provoke or offend.
The most massively awarded Aussie work in recent times has been produced by TBWA Melbourne. Clem’s Melbourne. Patts Melbourne. McCann Melbourne. Cummins Brisbane.
Melbourne agencies seem to have very Australian-centric management teams to back up very Australian creative departments.
I’m not suggesting you need to be Aussie to be good, far from it – there are super talented people from overseas in Sydney and we’re very lucky to have them here.
But Sydney is a very international city. Many clients, suits and creatives come from diverse and interesting backgrounds. For many English is a second language which creates barriers in tone, sense of humour and cultural relevance.
That just makes it harder. NZ import a lot of English to good effect, but there is a tone and style to New Zealand advertising that makes it brilliant, and the clients ‘get it’. Similarly Melbourne has a certain ‘tone’, mainly developed by one brilliant ECD.
Sydney has issues. Try telling your French account director to get on the phone to your German client with your English ECD and explain why ordinary Australians might view a British celebrity with disdain.
It’s tough, but not impossible; and it only makes the ones who do great work in Sydney even better for it.
Just my 2 cents on why Sydney is a tougher market than Melbourne or NZ, having worked in all three.