Dive Brief:

• David Droga is stepping down as CEO of Accenture Song at the end of the company’s current fiscal year, per a press release. The storied advertising executive will shift into the role of vice chair of the larger Accenture organization. 
• Droga, who has served as CEO since 2021, is credited with unifying the dozens of agencies Accenture acquired over the years and establishing the Song brand and operating model. Across his four-year tenure, Song grew annual revenue from $12.5 billion to $19 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31.
• Ndidi Oteh, currently Song’s lead in the Americas and a longtime Accenture veteran, will become CEO of the marketing services unit beginning Sept. 1 while joining the consultant’s Global Management Committee (GMC). Nick Law is being elevated to strategy and experience lead and will also join the GMC.  

Dive Insight:

When Accenture acquired Droga’s namesake agency, Droga5, for $475 million in 2019, it signaled a major bet on creativity as a differentiator. The executive’s stepping away from day-to-day leadership of Song comes as creative agencies have rarely been more challenged, with threats stemming from the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), fragmented media, consumer advertising aversion and shrinking client budgets.

Consulting firms at the turn of the decade were eating into the market share of established ad-holding groups, but were more sophisticated in technology integration and digital transformation than generating outside-the-box ideas that could catch consumer attention. Names like Droga5 were a way to level up know-how in creative and go toe-to-toe with traditional agency networks, which, in turn, adopted more consultative business models to stay competitive.   

Droga was promoted to CEO of what was then known as Accenture Interactive in 2021, with the task of uniting over 40 agencies Accenture had acquired over the years in its race to establish a stronger foothold in advertising. In 2022, he rebranded Interactive to Song, with a structure aimed at unifying multiple aspects of marketing, including creativity, design and AI under one roof. Song now bills itself as the world’s “largest tech-powered creative company,” generating $19 billion in revenue in its last fiscal year.

Droga5 in the meantime has seen an exodus of many longtime executives while falling under pressures that have dogged the larger agency sector and creative businesses, in particular. Last fall, Droga5 laid off 4% of its New York staff, Adweek reported. The shop has continued to work with cutting-edge brands — Song and Droga5 were behind OpenAI’s first Super Bowl ad for ChatGPT in February — but is vying to recapture its mojo.  

The narrative is not unique. A number of once-darling creative agencies and trailblazing executives have seen their luster dim as marketers prioritize areas like performance marketing and quick-hit social media content over anthemic brand-building campaigns. More ad-holding groups are combining or deprecating once-iconic creative brands to meet a demand for simplicity. 

For Droga himself, taking on the vice chair role at Accenture grants a remit that extends beyond marketing services, but also potentially offers a more relaxing job. 

“After 30 plus years of leaping, I am ready to catch my breath. And being vice chair will allow me to do that, but also to contribute in new ways,” Droga said in a press statement. “I am also excited to spend more time suffixing: Thinking, daydreaming, advising, investing, giving, mentoring, exploring, learning, playing, appreciating, family-ing, sleeping-in-ing.”