David Droga is an Australian advertising executive and the founder and chairman of Droga5, an advertising agency headquartered in New York City with offices in London and Tokyo. Droga5 was acquired by Accenture in 2019 and Droga was named CEO of Accenture Interactive in August, 2021.
Growing up in an Australian ski resort, Droga couldn’t imagine anything better than touring the world as a ski instructor. Ironically, it was his imagination that eventually took him abroad, not his skis. Droga launched his career by winning top student honors at the Australian Writers and Art Directors School.
At 22, he became a Partner and Executive Creative Director of OMON Sydney. Over the next five years, OMON won Australian Agency of the Year twice and Ad of the Year four times.
In 1996, Droga moved to Singapore to become Executive Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore and Regional Creative Director of Saatchi Asia.
By 1998, Media Marketing named Saatchi Asia Regional Network of the Year and Advertising Age named the Singapore office International Agency of the Year.
At age 29, Droga was promoted to Executive Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi London.
In 2002, Saatchi & Saatchi London won Agency of the Year at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and both Advertising Age and Adweek named Saatchi Agency of the Year. In 2003, another challenge came knocking, and Droga headed to New York City as the first-ever Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of the Publicis Network. In less than two years, Publicis enjoyed a very public creative and new business renaissance around the world. However, tired of growing other people’s companies, Droga decided to start his own agency. In 2006, Droga5 was launched in New York City.
To date, Droga5 has been named Agency of the Year 11 times, most recently by Adweek and the Cannes Lions International Festival. Droga5 is also the only agency to be named in Advertising Age’s A-List over seven consecutive years. In 2013 and 2017, the agency was named one of Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies.
Along the way, Droga has also received countless personal accolades. To date, he is the single-most-awarded creative at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and the youngest person ever inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame and the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Achievement. He has been inducted into the Australian Writers and Art Directors’ Hall of Fame and awarded one of the Andy Awards inaugural annual Bravery Awards. Asian Media and Marketing, Campaign Brief Asia and AdNews have each included Droga in their Halls of Fame.
Esquire magazine has featured Droga in its annual Best and Brightest issue three times, and Creative magazine named him Australian Creative Person of the Decade. In 2012, he was named Global Australian of the Year by the Australian Advance Committee and honored by the American Australian Association and G’Day USA. Most recently, Adweek named Droga one of the top 100 most influential leaders in marketing, media and technology for the second year in a row.
Droga sits on the board of the New Museum, William Morris Endeavor Advisory Board, The NY Public Theatre and the Facebook Creative Council.
He lives in Manhattan with his wife and four children.
Beyond his family and building Droga5, Droga‘s favorite topics are the arts, the environment, all sports and anything Australian.
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