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Conversation with David Droga
BY
TAXI
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TAXI Hello David. What is the biggest disadvantage of owning your own agency? And what are some of the advantages?
David Droga There are a lot of advantages, but I think the biggest disadvantage is that you can’t take anything for granted. In the last jobs I’ve had, you had a safety net around you, and all I had to worry about was just the creativity, which in your own business, everything’s personal. You care as much about the business and the culture, as about the quality of the work. I enjoy that, but it’s different because everything’s a lot more personal, which I certainly do prefer.
There are also multiple advantages to having your agency. The first thing is that you don’t inherit anything or live off a legacy. You get to choose, which is an intimidating thing but also very liberating – that you get to choose who you work with, and you get to choose what you stand for. Going back to the personal thing, it’s not about polishing someone else’s trophy, but you’re trying to forge your own path.
TAXIHaving a wealth of experience and accolades tucked under your belt, how do you stay focused and true to a vision? Was undertaking projects of an altruistic slant (i.e. Tap Project) a natural progression to challenge yourself?
David Droga When I started my company, one of the things people were cynical about but which I genuinely believed is that I wanted to work with businesses that matter, which doesn’t just mean they are socially responsible, but they have to have businesses that make a difference, one way or another. One thing we do every year is put our energy behind a brand or a client to do something which I feel is purely for good. In the first year we did this project for UNICEF, where we also get involved deep, instead of just a superficial involvement like an ad campaign, we actually worked on a sustainable idea.
Tap Project was the first project we did, and it’s 2 and a half years old right now. The first year we did Tap, and the second year we did something with the Department of Education, and this year, we worked for Obama. Every year, we work on something that engages us on a real level, beyond just an advertising level.
TAXI Is it easier now that you are more established in the creative industry, as opposed to when you were first starting out?
David Droga We’re about 80 people now in New York, and we’ve got 20 in Sydney, and business is hard, but the wind is on our back and we’re going in the right direction. We’ve got some big clients now, so we’re not a project-based agency, but instead we secure relationships and now we’ve got long-term relationships with some big clients.
We figured we can forge our relationships by creating great work, as opposed to wining and dining. If our work makes a difference for our client, then we’ve created a long term relationship.
David Droga There are a lot of advantages, but I think the biggest disadvantage is that you can’t take anything for granted. In the last jobs I’ve had, you had a safety net around you, and all I had to worry about was just the creativity, which in your own business, everything’s personal. You care as much about the business and the culture, as about the quality of the work. I enjoy that, but it’s different because everything’s a lot more personal, which I certainly do prefer.
There are also multiple advantages to having your agency. The first thing is that you don’t inherit anything or live off a legacy. You get to choose, which is an intimidating thing but also very liberating – that you get to choose who you work with, and you get to choose what you stand for. Going back to the personal thing, it’s not about polishing someone else’s trophy, but you’re trying to forge your own path.
TAXIHaving a wealth of experience and accolades tucked under your belt, how do you stay focused and true to a vision? Was undertaking projects of an altruistic slant (i.e. Tap Project) a natural progression to challenge yourself?
David Droga When I started my company, one of the things people were cynical about but which I genuinely believed is that I wanted to work with businesses that matter, which doesn’t just mean they are socially responsible, but they have to have businesses that make a difference, one way or another. One thing we do every year is put our energy behind a brand or a client to do something which I feel is purely for good. In the first year we did this project for UNICEF, where we also get involved deep, instead of just a superficial involvement like an ad campaign, we actually worked on a sustainable idea.
Tap Project was the first project we did, and it’s 2 and a half years old right now. The first year we did Tap, and the second year we did something with the Department of Education, and this year, we worked for Obama. Every year, we work on something that engages us on a real level, beyond just an advertising level.
TAXI Is it easier now that you are more established in the creative industry, as opposed to when you were first starting out?
David Droga We’re about 80 people now in New York, and we’ve got 20 in Sydney, and business is hard, but the wind is on our back and we’re going in the right direction. We’ve got some big clients now, so we’re not a project-based agency, but instead we secure relationships and now we’ve got long-term relationships with some big clients.
We figured we can forge our relationships by creating great work, as opposed to wining and dining. If our work makes a difference for our client, then we’ve created a long term relationship.
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TAXI Can you tell us a little bit about how Tap has grown since its inception?
David Droga Now most of the time an organization or agency will get in touch and indicate they want to be involved. I’ve just got back from Finland and Sweden and they are doing it now, Australia and Japan have got their own process. It’s up to each individual UNICEF unit, and hopefully with every year it becomes more global and more constant, which is the plan.
Our thinking after the first year was that, clearly this idea is far bigger than us, and it was the first time our industry actually collaborated on something. I just basically picked up the phone and called all my favorite agencies in the US, and asked if they would be interested in doing this in their own city with the autonomy to develop it as they please. They had to adhere to certain guidelines that we created for UNICEF, but the creative freedom of that was completely up to them. The result was that it was personalized and made better by every agency.
It’s rolling out in more states this year, and this being the first time the industry has collaborated on something. People are inherently good, and it’s a way for the industry to get involved, and it’s still an opportunity for them. It’s a very simple idea for them to get, and to get behind. I’m so flattered by the life that it has now, and I felt so proud to have contributed to it. As my mother says, “Finally, you did something great!” I hope that someday I will get charged for tap water when I’m on holiday in some city in the world.
I think the industry needs to show that it has a soul. There’s a lot of bright people, and a lot of people who can contribute – this is only one of the ways in which they can contribute, and lots of agencies are doing different things.
TAXI Do you think this is one of the ways in which the industry can redeem itself?
David Droga I don’t think the advertising industry has to redeem itself, because I think by and large it is a very good thing. Everyone’s got an opinion about it – people don’t like bad advertising, and people don’t like lies. I think transparency is fantastic for our industry, because it puts much more emphasis on us being smarter, cleverer, funnier, more honest, more strategic and more creative. You can’t get away with bulls*** anymore, and you can’t get away with buying attention. We have to be more interesting and relevant. That’s a good thing for agencies to be more strategic and creative, and to just go through the motions.
TAXI Do you agree that a lot of this is happening at a much more rapid pace because of digital media? Where do you think digital media would take agencies to in the future?
David Droga I think definitely a large part of it is due to digital media, where a lot more things are happening and people know more about facts because of digital media, like the Internet. Also, people are aware that the world is fragile, and are a lot more interested now. People have opinions, which they are voicing, and this is sort of hand in glove with the internet.
David Droga Now most of the time an organization or agency will get in touch and indicate they want to be involved. I’ve just got back from Finland and Sweden and they are doing it now, Australia and Japan have got their own process. It’s up to each individual UNICEF unit, and hopefully with every year it becomes more global and more constant, which is the plan.
Our thinking after the first year was that, clearly this idea is far bigger than us, and it was the first time our industry actually collaborated on something. I just basically picked up the phone and called all my favorite agencies in the US, and asked if they would be interested in doing this in their own city with the autonomy to develop it as they please. They had to adhere to certain guidelines that we created for UNICEF, but the creative freedom of that was completely up to them. The result was that it was personalized and made better by every agency.
It’s rolling out in more states this year, and this being the first time the industry has collaborated on something. People are inherently good, and it’s a way for the industry to get involved, and it’s still an opportunity for them. It’s a very simple idea for them to get, and to get behind. I’m so flattered by the life that it has now, and I felt so proud to have contributed to it. As my mother says, “Finally, you did something great!” I hope that someday I will get charged for tap water when I’m on holiday in some city in the world.
I think the industry needs to show that it has a soul. There’s a lot of bright people, and a lot of people who can contribute – this is only one of the ways in which they can contribute, and lots of agencies are doing different things.
TAXI Do you think this is one of the ways in which the industry can redeem itself?
David Droga I don’t think the advertising industry has to redeem itself, because I think by and large it is a very good thing. Everyone’s got an opinion about it – people don’t like bad advertising, and people don’t like lies. I think transparency is fantastic for our industry, because it puts much more emphasis on us being smarter, cleverer, funnier, more honest, more strategic and more creative. You can’t get away with bulls*** anymore, and you can’t get away with buying attention. We have to be more interesting and relevant. That’s a good thing for agencies to be more strategic and creative, and to just go through the motions.
TAXI Do you agree that a lot of this is happening at a much more rapid pace because of digital media? Where do you think digital media would take agencies to in the future?
David Droga I think definitely a large part of it is due to digital media, where a lot more things are happening and people know more about facts because of digital media, like the Internet. Also, people are aware that the world is fragile, and are a lot more interested now. People have opinions, which they are voicing, and this is sort of hand in glove with the internet.
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It’s not easier to get people’s attention, but you have to be honest and to create stuff. At the end of the day, we all talk about us as advertising beings as storytellers, which we are. I think the day where we just tell a story with a start and a finish is over; I think now we instigate stories which other people either contribute to, or personalize. It’s about doing something that people actually want to see, or want to engage with, as opposed to just assuming they will. It just makes it more interesting.
TAXI One of Droga5’s significant early projects was the Ecko viral marketing campaign, which sought to engage its target audience on a very intimate, guerilla level. What do you think will be the future of viral marketing, in say 2010, or 2015?
David Droga Ecko was sort of a timely thing, and the thing to remember is that you can’t create a viral – but that it is something that actually happens. Every day, there are thousands of pieces of so-called content that are put up on the web by advertisers online that want to go viral, but they don’t. These are completely designed to be interesting to a boardroom full of people, but they’re not interesting in the real world.
You can never predict what can catch people’s attention. You’re competing against the real world’s news, against some governor or plane crash, and you’re also competing against some guy who puts a cat down his pants on Youtube. It’s a bit of a weird, artificial economy out there at the moment, but I think again what captures people’s attention is something that touches a real world nerve.
Ecko was as much about who Marc Ecko was as a person, because he was not only a company, but he as himself was a young, feisty guy who was a graffiti artist. At the same time, his audience was watching TV, so we created something that was trying to puncture the nerve of the nation, where everyone was in sort of a “fear” culture with what’s happening with security. At the same time, the mass media was being very lazy and they wanted to believe anything was real.
We knew that if we created something that seemed like a breach of security, they’d get behind it. It wasn’t just like we put it out there, we merely seeded the hardcore audiences who were the ones who pushed it. They were in on the whole joke. The first people we released it to were the underground skating community, and they were the ones who debated it and discovered that they didn’t think it was real, because they knew it was Ecko, but they were the ones who pushed it to the mass media. They wanted in on seeing the mass media fall.
It was an inclusive thing, but I think if something is rewarding enough it will catch fire online, but most stuff that is sincere participation and interest in why people would want to contribute would work.
One in every twenty will do a viral successfully because it is for the right reason. If the reason is just because they want to do a viral, then it’s not good enough. If there is an audience out there who is creative, and interested in what you are going to do, then there is a way to engage them authentically. But if it’s just to do something funny that would spread around the Internet, that’s ridiculous. Give them something they can actually use – to smile, to think, that would be surprising and refreshing if they come across it, but you know they might want.
TAXI One of Droga5’s significant early projects was the Ecko viral marketing campaign, which sought to engage its target audience on a very intimate, guerilla level. What do you think will be the future of viral marketing, in say 2010, or 2015?
David Droga Ecko was sort of a timely thing, and the thing to remember is that you can’t create a viral – but that it is something that actually happens. Every day, there are thousands of pieces of so-called content that are put up on the web by advertisers online that want to go viral, but they don’t. These are completely designed to be interesting to a boardroom full of people, but they’re not interesting in the real world.
You can never predict what can catch people’s attention. You’re competing against the real world’s news, against some governor or plane crash, and you’re also competing against some guy who puts a cat down his pants on Youtube. It’s a bit of a weird, artificial economy out there at the moment, but I think again what captures people’s attention is something that touches a real world nerve.
Ecko was as much about who Marc Ecko was as a person, because he was not only a company, but he as himself was a young, feisty guy who was a graffiti artist. At the same time, his audience was watching TV, so we created something that was trying to puncture the nerve of the nation, where everyone was in sort of a “fear” culture with what’s happening with security. At the same time, the mass media was being very lazy and they wanted to believe anything was real.
We knew that if we created something that seemed like a breach of security, they’d get behind it. It wasn’t just like we put it out there, we merely seeded the hardcore audiences who were the ones who pushed it. They were in on the whole joke. The first people we released it to were the underground skating community, and they were the ones who debated it and discovered that they didn’t think it was real, because they knew it was Ecko, but they were the ones who pushed it to the mass media. They wanted in on seeing the mass media fall.
It was an inclusive thing, but I think if something is rewarding enough it will catch fire online, but most stuff that is sincere participation and interest in why people would want to contribute would work.
One in every twenty will do a viral successfully because it is for the right reason. If the reason is just because they want to do a viral, then it’s not good enough. If there is an audience out there who is creative, and interested in what you are going to do, then there is a way to engage them authentically. But if it’s just to do something funny that would spread around the Internet, that’s ridiculous. Give them something they can actually use – to smile, to think, that would be surprising and refreshing if they come across it, but you know they might want.
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TAXI As the single most awarded creative at the Cannes Lions International Award Festival with 48 Cannes Lions awards and 3 Grand Prix awards, how do you feel about naysayers arguing that the Festival has been relegated to “celebrating creativity for creativity’s sake”, without any real emphasis on effectiveness or sustainability?
David Droga There’s too many advertising shows in the world. We’re an industry that likes to celebrate ourselves – which for our ego is wonderful, but it’s just too many. Cannes is more than an award show. I think it is a benchmark, a big celebration, but it also has multiple identities. There are ten festivals going on there, and you have some people going there to socialize and network, some to be inspired, some to learn, some just to party, some to win awards, etc..
Cannes is an important thing, and also now because a lot of big clients are attending, this is very important for the industry. The more clients that go and see the difference that you can make with great work, the better. Is it any coincidence that some of the fastest growing brands are the brands doing the best work? It’s also good for clients to see how invisible bad work is.
Cannes is a celebration of what the industry is doing right, and indicates to us how to move forward in the next year. There needs to be some sort of archive and celebration of what we’re doing right. We’re in a very subjective industry, and this is one moment of self indulgence and celebration of the people who are getting it right.
There are certainly some people whose only motive is to win at Cannes at any cost, and that’s sort of cynical and not very constructive, but the majority, particularly in the bigger categories, the best work wins that’s actually real work – and that’s inspiring. There is a high percentage of award-winning work being real effective work, so it’s not just creativity for its own sake. People in every industry need something to strive for.
There is a difference between emulation and inspiration, and Cannes isn’t about trying to emulate, but instead about showing what people are inspired by. It’s a benchmark so we can move on as an industry and try to progress, it’s part of doing good, or criticize, or take apart, or debate – it’s not just about celebrating. Awards serve a purpose, but they are not the be-all and end-all. For us, it’s a fantastic recruitment tool, but we don’t sit around when we’re creating anything thinking, “We have to win an award”. Now, if we’re going to enter a show, we would want to win the award, but it’s nothing to do with anything when we start something.
TAXI How do you feel about advertising festivals, like Cannes, expanding regionally?
David Droga I think there’s something to be said about regional festivals, because the one criticism about something as big and global as Cannes, is that you lose cultural nuances, which in creativity is very important and they need to be celebrated. By and large the best work wins at Cannes, but there will be some great things that lose because the jury doesn’t have cultural nuances, which celebrate the identity and culture of the region (which is a great thing).
David Droga There’s too many advertising shows in the world. We’re an industry that likes to celebrate ourselves – which for our ego is wonderful, but it’s just too many. Cannes is more than an award show. I think it is a benchmark, a big celebration, but it also has multiple identities. There are ten festivals going on there, and you have some people going there to socialize and network, some to be inspired, some to learn, some just to party, some to win awards, etc..
Cannes is an important thing, and also now because a lot of big clients are attending, this is very important for the industry. The more clients that go and see the difference that you can make with great work, the better. Is it any coincidence that some of the fastest growing brands are the brands doing the best work? It’s also good for clients to see how invisible bad work is.
Cannes is a celebration of what the industry is doing right, and indicates to us how to move forward in the next year. There needs to be some sort of archive and celebration of what we’re doing right. We’re in a very subjective industry, and this is one moment of self indulgence and celebration of the people who are getting it right.
There are certainly some people whose only motive is to win at Cannes at any cost, and that’s sort of cynical and not very constructive, but the majority, particularly in the bigger categories, the best work wins that’s actually real work – and that’s inspiring. There is a high percentage of award-winning work being real effective work, so it’s not just creativity for its own sake. People in every industry need something to strive for.
There is a difference between emulation and inspiration, and Cannes isn’t about trying to emulate, but instead about showing what people are inspired by. It’s a benchmark so we can move on as an industry and try to progress, it’s part of doing good, or criticize, or take apart, or debate – it’s not just about celebrating. Awards serve a purpose, but they are not the be-all and end-all. For us, it’s a fantastic recruitment tool, but we don’t sit around when we’re creating anything thinking, “We have to win an award”. Now, if we’re going to enter a show, we would want to win the award, but it’s nothing to do with anything when we start something.
TAXI How do you feel about advertising festivals, like Cannes, expanding regionally?
David Droga I think there’s something to be said about regional festivals, because the one criticism about something as big and global as Cannes, is that you lose cultural nuances, which in creativity is very important and they need to be celebrated. By and large the best work wins at Cannes, but there will be some great things that lose because the jury doesn’t have cultural nuances, which celebrate the identity and culture of the region (which is a great thing).
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TAXI Speaking of cultural nuances, a lot of regional creatives don’t export their work because they’d much rather be acclaimed in their domestic market than be internationally renowned. What do you think of this?
David Droga I’d much rather be acknowledged for the best work in my market, than whether some foreign peer liked it. I think that’s the ultimate, isn’t it? There are some very well-known Thai creative directors who are held up as heroes locally, but also their work is celebrated internationally. There’ll always be certain things that can translate, and some things that are lost.
It goes two ways – there are some things that have a very English sensibility that doesn’t translate with other people, or Australian sense of humor that doesn’t translate into the American market.
TAXI Isn’t the selection process easier in Europe or the US, where things are mainly done in English, as opposed to a culturally and linguistically fragmented Asia?
David Droga There is certainly a kind of control when everything is done in English, but who knows, in 20 years the language of choice at all the shows might be Spanish or Mandarin. If you’re doing global ideas, for all the differences that we have, fundamentally we are all moved by the same motivations and desires. The core idea that can still be made can be personalized for China, as it can be for Scotland, if it comes from a genuine human emotion or desire. How it’s expressed can be made regionalized or globalised – it doesn’t matter. It connects the brand and the person, and that’s the difference between a genuinely global idea.
TAXI Having the benefit of your years and experience in the industry, what do you feel is the most common mistake that newcomers to the industry make today?
David Droga People want money and titles really quickly, and they think that just doing one thing really well is good enough. I’ve always admired consistency and restlessness, and also if you just write to win awards, it will bite you in the a**.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I don’t enjoy money – it’s just something I’ve never chased. I always knew and I’ve always believed I would be successful, but I’ve always made decisions on what I believed work-wise, and based on where I wanted to work, not who’s the highest bidder. Your motivations have to be your desire to do creative work.
A lot of people want to play the field regardless of who they work for., if it’s paying a little more. But also I think it’s amazing the people coming into the industry now, who aren’t from the traditional world, and have different points of views and backgrounds which I think is amazing and fantastic. People don’t have the patience to persevere – if they don’t strike oil within the first strike of the act, they give up.
David Droga I’d much rather be acknowledged for the best work in my market, than whether some foreign peer liked it. I think that’s the ultimate, isn’t it? There are some very well-known Thai creative directors who are held up as heroes locally, but also their work is celebrated internationally. There’ll always be certain things that can translate, and some things that are lost.
It goes two ways – there are some things that have a very English sensibility that doesn’t translate with other people, or Australian sense of humor that doesn’t translate into the American market.
TAXI Isn’t the selection process easier in Europe or the US, where things are mainly done in English, as opposed to a culturally and linguistically fragmented Asia?
David Droga There is certainly a kind of control when everything is done in English, but who knows, in 20 years the language of choice at all the shows might be Spanish or Mandarin. If you’re doing global ideas, for all the differences that we have, fundamentally we are all moved by the same motivations and desires. The core idea that can still be made can be personalized for China, as it can be for Scotland, if it comes from a genuine human emotion or desire. How it’s expressed can be made regionalized or globalised – it doesn’t matter. It connects the brand and the person, and that’s the difference between a genuinely global idea.
TAXI Having the benefit of your years and experience in the industry, what do you feel is the most common mistake that newcomers to the industry make today?
David Droga People want money and titles really quickly, and they think that just doing one thing really well is good enough. I’ve always admired consistency and restlessness, and also if you just write to win awards, it will bite you in the a**.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I don’t enjoy money – it’s just something I’ve never chased. I always knew and I’ve always believed I would be successful, but I’ve always made decisions on what I believed work-wise, and based on where I wanted to work, not who’s the highest bidder. Your motivations have to be your desire to do creative work.
A lot of people want to play the field regardless of who they work for., if it’s paying a little more. But also I think it’s amazing the people coming into the industry now, who aren’t from the traditional world, and have different points of views and backgrounds which I think is amazing and fantastic. People don’t have the patience to persevere – if they don’t strike oil within the first strike of the act, they give up.
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I think all great things come to people who persevere and work hard. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s hard – but you need to have that spirit of being actually committed to something no matter what you do. Even if it comes easy, you shouldn’t assume it would. Also, I believe you should trust your gut. It may not be completely right, but I trust it, and if something goes wrong I take responsibility for it.
TAXI How does perseverance kick in in trying to persuade clients to go with an idea?
David Droga One has to understand that clients aren’t going to buy an idea just because it’s creative or weird. They’ll buy it when it’s right, meaning it’s linked to its business and it’s strategic. Some of the most celebrated things that I’ve done were actually some of the easiest things to sell because it was more about the business and strategy factor than the creativity, which came second. If you have a great platform built on understanding, then you can be exceptionally creative. We’re in an industry where whoever compromises the least, wins. I strongly believe in the power of creativity, and that’s what me and a lot of other very talented creatives are building our businesses on.
TAXI What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the creative world for the next 10 years?
David Droga Momentum. Our work has to create positive momentum; it can’t just be disposable anymore. Creativity with a conscience – that’s what we’re doing now.
TAXI How does perseverance kick in in trying to persuade clients to go with an idea?
David Droga One has to understand that clients aren’t going to buy an idea just because it’s creative or weird. They’ll buy it when it’s right, meaning it’s linked to its business and it’s strategic. Some of the most celebrated things that I’ve done were actually some of the easiest things to sell because it was more about the business and strategy factor than the creativity, which came second. If you have a great platform built on understanding, then you can be exceptionally creative. We’re in an industry where whoever compromises the least, wins. I strongly believe in the power of creativity, and that’s what me and a lot of other very talented creatives are building our businesses on.
TAXI What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the creative world for the next 10 years?
David Droga Momentum. Our work has to create positive momentum; it can’t just be disposable anymore. Creativity with a conscience – that’s what we’re doing now.