Dare to make unexpected moves, w/David Droga of Droga5 and Accenture Song

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When I was a kid the jungle gym was my favorite thing. We used to play Jungle Jym Tag in the morning and my nickname was Monkey because I would just swing and I could catch most anybody. When I go through the city is my favorite because When you're downtown in any city, there's just so many things to jump on, climb on, swing on. And that's all I think about is like. Could I go there?

Well could I go there? Can I get over there? That's Terry Brennan. He's a summer camp director and coach at the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts.

He also practices and teaches parkour. The sport where practitioners try to reach point A to point B. Often in urban environments. Using creative moves with their body. It's called.

Running a line. The big ones are dash. We talk about vaulting a lot.

There's muscle ups. Those pull ups. There's laches. There's Falls.

Which is where you swing around a bar. Completely extended, three hundred and sixty degrees. There's leaps, bounds, catches. 'Cause on the bars there's a lot of like leaping and catching. You know a Kong Vault, a Dash Vault.

A tunnel flip is where you're running forward. And you jump? And you rotate. Sideways.

While continuing to travel forward. Harry As a practitioner parkour. Sees the urban landscapely than your average city dweller. He doesn't just walk on a sidewalk.

He's looking. for spots to climb. Vault. And swing too. He's looking for creative.

Fun ways. To run a line. I was diving over a giant concrete Ledge. that was adjacent to the stairs. So I would run and then I'd get there, I'm like, no no.

NOOOO Because like suddenly a ten foot drop onto more concrete. Is just staring at you and you're and you're jumping. with around twenty to thirty people watching. In the afternoon sun.

Terry bounced out his nerves and imagined. What it would be like to take the jump. and safely land. And so a lot of that day was managing my own fear about it, because there wasn't a mat at the bottom, and I knew I'd be fine, but there's the chance that I wouldn't be.

Then Carry made the job. So I jumped feet first. And then I'm landed. And I did what we call a slap out.

Which means that I land You bend your knees because you have a ton of downward force, and then you put your hands down to pad the landing. But I did land, touch the ground, pop up, and like Run off. Even though people definitely saw it and they're like, Whoa.

They were like that guy jumped over that railing and he's gone. So I'm sure that it was quite the spectacle to witness. But in some cases it really is about being like can I? And then doing it and being like Yes.

Yeah! Parkour isn't just about looking cool. But finding another way. To use the environment. And getting from point A.

In business, we often need to push ourselves in a new or even unusual direction to reach a goal. We not only need a long list of moves, To reach that goal. But also the courage to make those moves.

You need to jump. Roll, pull up. Hop. Vault and leap your way. into new scale opportunities.

That's why I believe you should swing through the jungle gym rather than climb the ladder. Instead of just climbing up towards scaling opportunities, you should jump in unexpected directions. You gotta have incredible talent at every position. Like this huge push. There are fires burning when you're going out. Can you believe it? Such an idiot. And then you go back to this is totally gonna be amazing. There are so many easy ways. So I have no idea what to do. Sorry, we made a mistake. But you have to time it right. Oops. Working out of a three bedroom apartment. We haven't made it. Just how you do it.

This is masters of scale. I'm Reed Hoffman. Co founder of LinkedIn. Partner Grey Locke.

And your host. And I believe You should swing through the jungle gym. Rather than climb the ladder. Instead of just climbing up

Toward scaling opportunities, you should jump in unexpected directions. It's an old saying that you must climb the ladder to succeed. You move upwards, one step at a time. By building on what you achieved and making Incremental progress.

Each rung takes you higher. It's a tried and true, repeatable process, one step. After another. On the career path. And the road to growing company.

But actually A single trajectory approach. Is rarely enough. To propel you to scale. Instead.

You need to jump from the ladder at key moments and move. Like you're on a jungle gym. You need to swing, leap, stretch. Korean. And hop.

In all directions. When everyone is zigging. U Zag. Jungle Gym climbers use networks. And adjust to competition, markets, and the evolvs of their trade.

They make unusual. But successful alignments. While a latter Only goes up. Or down.

A jungle gym. offers multiple directions. And possibilities. A jungle gym. Also give us climber.

A sense of play. And the more room for creativity within your business, the better. Ask any kid. What's more fun? A ladder?

Or a jungle gym. What you need to keep in mind though When you leave the ladder. You need to be intentional. With your leaps throughout the jungle, Jim.

The more direction and purpose, the better. I wanted to talk. to David Droga about this. Because as founder of the creative advertising firm. Droga five.

And now As CO and Creative Chairman. of Accenture Song. The world's largest. Digital marketing agency.

with sixteen billion in annual revenue. David has made Multiple. Jungle Jim moves. To scale.

In two thousand six. David found it. Droga five After building a distinctive reputation for creativity at advertising icons like Satchi and Satchi. If you haven't heard of Drogo5,

you have likely seen their creations. Super Bowl commercials, campaigns with big names, such as rapper Jay Z. And president. Barack Obama. In two thousand nineteen.

Accenture acquired Droga five. Where it kept its name. and continue to grow with offices around the world. Worldwide. Drogo 5, one agency of the year.

More than twenty five times. And in twenty twenty. was named Ad Weeks. Agency of the decade. David built Droga Five.

On strategic. Jungle Gym moves, aligning narrative storytelling and creativity. With the business world. And taking. That alignment to scale.

David's knack for creativity. Didn't come out of some program or special training. Or even. From the big Creators filled city.

Rather. It came from the environment. He grew up in. I grew up about as far away from here where I am now in New York. from a geography point of view and also from an industry point of view, she could.

David Grubb Inside Australia's go. National Park. It was one of the tiny parts of Australia that has mountains with snow. Everyone thinks of Australia with beaches and sharks and crocodiles. Well there's also a tiny part with snow and wombats and koalas called the snowy mountains. One of the great things about was also the contradiction of this mountains was in winter it was a ski resort.

So we were Kings of the hill as such. and s would spend our days skiing and out and about. And then in summer it would transfer into sort of this Moonscape where there was only two families who lived there. It sounds horrendous and desolate, but it was actually magical.

In his childhood landscape. David found magic. And ways to power his imagination. While David's business minded father Ran the ski resort.

His mother was an artist and a poet. And surrounded David and his six siblings with books. And art. I had a built in group of friends as such and playmates. And it was so remote that

You know, apart from being outside all the time. You kind of had to use your imagination very much. As a toy chest. Of accepting his circumstances, he leapt. into what such a place did give him.

Through play. The outdoors. And the books and art. He cultivated. His own source of entertainment.

He developed. A set of skills and mindset that would prepare him. Jungle Jim moves. I didn't know that I was

growing up to have a creative career, but I found that relying on my imagination and playing with the world a around me. That sort of opened up a whole new category of opportunity for me. At first

David thought he might become a writer or a journalist. Those. Or what he knew for creative careers. Advertising wasn't even something I registered particularly as that time that I was growing up in the mountains, because I didn't really watch TV either. But advertising connected the business experience of his father and the creative influence of his mother.

Once David was introduced to advertising. He leapt at it. It was very much, Oh, here you get paid to solve people's problems and you get to write things all the time as a creative. And you get a new challenge every day or every week or every month. And I thought Well that sounds

Fun. to be able to try and make something creative with a business angle to it. Then I sort of bit the bullet and thought, I applied for a job in the mailroom of an advertising agency. For many. The ladder of going to college is a great choice.

But for David. The mailroom offered a peak. Into the Jungle Gym World. Of advertising. As part of his job.

David could pop in the meetings all over the agency. He saw other creatives work. And had informal chats. He was absorbing knowledge. An experience of the inner workings of an ad agency.

At a higher concentration. Than they would have had at an institution. The mailroom job itself. Wasn't a jungle gym. but it's how David approached the job.

David's Mailroom Acrobatics. Paid off. After securing top honors. At a night school.

For the advertising industry. He landed a job as a junior writer at a local agency. He had a clear Career ladder ahead of him. But soon.

He felt the call. A new agency started in Australia. But that was run by some young, successful people, you know, they were mid twenties. And they asked me to be their first employee. And now this is a time where

They didn't have any clients. They didn't even have any furniture in the office. They didn't really seem to have a business plan. They actually offered me like half of my salary of what I was earning as a junior writer anyway, which was next to nothing. And I figured I'm just making enough to get by.

having less than that doesn't make a difference anyway, you know. And I still remember going to s saying to my father, And he just couldn't figure it out. It's like why would you leave a job for less money, less certainty, All the thing. It's about I want to believe in something and they have a mission and I believe in the quality of the work and they want to make

And so I did that. And it was one of the best decisions I've ever made because that had such a massive influence for my the speed of my career and the learning and who I surrounded with David saw something. In the new opportunity. Oman

The new startup. aligned with David's aspirations and desires what he wanted to make. So He hopped off the ladder. This move.

What set the tone? For David's entire career. He flourished. and began to make his name. As a writer.

For advertising. After Almon. David made more dashing jumps. He took a job in Singapore. to lead the local agency of Sachi and Satchi.

Later. At the age of twenty nine. He became executive creative director. At Satchi and Satchi in London. In two thousand.

Such and such. was bought by a French company called Publicis. David was soon offered the position at Publicis worldwide. Chief Creative Officer. The position.

Took'em to New York City. As David settled into the role, however. He began to feel like a collected trophy. What he wanted to be. An active athlete.

Instead of being at the top of the ladder. He wanted to be out there. Playing. Repetition is something that scares me. I'm more scared of repetition than I am of failure. So I felt like

From when I was in Asia or when I was in the UK. That if I could see no matter how much success we'd had. If I could see that I was gonna be having the same conversations next year. And then I'm not growing as a person, I'm not contributing and I'm not challenging myself. So that's why I'd always put myself in a situation to try

And up the ante on myself. I'm gonna quit the job that no one's would quit. You know, I had the global job. You know, that big salary, corner office, all the perks and accoutrements that people aspire, think they want. And I'm like, that doesn't make me happy. The thing about people

Who climb a jungle gym. is that they tend to get bored. If they stay in one spot for too long. They need to reach. For new sections.

Test themselves. And welcome unusual climbing challenges. For David. He was ready. To take the next leap.

The only way to really do the work that I genuinely believe needs to happen in our industry is to do it from the start where you're not inheriting that I can build something and build it with the people I want, with the clients I want, with the work I want. I know what I'm really good at, which is I think that I'm really good at it. Is creative from a business perspective, from a marketing, advertising, building brand. So that's why I said I'm gonna start this agency called Drover Five.

David took the entrepreneurial leap. and started his own company. He did this in part. Because he missed the joy.

Sitting across the table. And solving a problem. To get back to the jungle gym. And off the ladder in his corner office. He realized he was already in the advertising capital of the world.

New York City. Droga five Functioned as a way. To get back. Into the jungle gym.

But first He needed to create his own Rope course. To reach the clients and opportunities. He needed to get started.

He was stepping. Into a completely different environment. The first real space that we rented was down On Broadway by Canal Street. And it was a really long skinny

Top floor With Complete slanted floor. So any furniture, if you had a chair with wheels on it, You would literally roll. Down.

So you always had to sort of hold your desk a little bit. when you're writing or working or hook your leg around it. Everything was pinned up on the walls. It was Make shift, but spectacular. And clients probably felt uncomfortable getting up in a lift that was the size of a coffin. It was just wonderful. As I said, it was a collection of

Odd balls and odd furniture. Despite their office situation. David felt at home and felt that this was the type of place. Where he could build his company. The furniture and scrappiness of the place.

match the culture David wanted to build. Everything felt like sort of run and gunned it. They had a choice to go to some very big corporate Headquarters. in Madison Avenue, literally, where

You know, good furniture doesn't make for good work or g uh good culture. And they would come down not that it was dangerous down where we were, but it definitely felt like it was out of their comfort zone. I look back at those officers and as crappy as they were, they're some of the fondest memories I have because Every single thing about it was distinctive and important because it was ours.

And there was just an energy in that floor from the slanted floors, from the furniture that nothing matching. But there was a bravado and a conference. Think about Well, we have to pay this big lease and pay for big furniture. We're like, we're just gonna present what we've got. We're gonna present what we believe. And I think clients like that.

It was one client. Fashion designer and graffiti artist Mark Echo. And the campaign. Droga Five created for his brand. Echo Unlimited.

That would impress every advertiser. Who had dared. To get on the jungle gym. It would become A cultural phenomena.

Because Mark was a graffiti artist and part of his brand. was being creative and gritty. David and his team. Thought of an ultimate location. to leave a graffiti tag.

What? If we could tag. One of most famous planes. In the world. We drove past

Andrews Air Force Base. With cameras hanging out. windows to get real security people. I mean it's so ridiculous. And people were saying to me, You're insane to do this and if you do this you could be breaking the Patriot Acts. And I was like, I don't care.

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With David Droga. of Droga five and Accenture Song. On swinging through the jungle gym. Rather than climbing the ladder. If you're enjoying this episode, tell your friends to listen too.

Just tap the share button. On your podcast app. and to hear my complete interview with David. Become a Masters Scale member at masterscale dot com. Slash membership.

Or You can join. through the Masters Scale Courses app. Found in the app store of your choice. There are so many moments we didn't have time for in this episode.

More on David's Leadership style. And nurturing creatives. And You'll hear about the funny origin.

Droga five came from. Plus. Hear how David created an ad campaign. for President Barack Obama.

You won't want to miss it. Before the break. David told us why. After you'd had a successful advertising career He decided to start his own independent agency.

Droga five For one of their early clients. Mark Echo. David got an idea. They required getting footage.

of where Air Force One is stationed. We drove past Andrews Air Force Base. With cameras hanging out. windows to get real security people. I mean it's so

ridiculous. And people were saying to me, You're insane to do this and if you do this you could be breaking the Patriot Acts. And I was like, I don't care. What led David. might break the Patriot Act.

It was rooted in the vision of what David wanted Drogo Five to be as an advertising agency. Part of my MO what I wanted to build was I wanted to do the work where I thought, okay It's not gonna rely on just bombarding people in a submission where we spend money or interrupt them. I want to create work that has a gravitational pull to whatever the intended audience is. We create stuff that's memorable.

That's effective. Yeah. touches people or connects with people and lots of different categories and they all do it in different ways. For Droga Five's first major campaign. They would put these theories to the test.

For Mark Echo, you know, he was a fashion. based out of New York City and it was very streetwear type of clothing. His backstory and background had started as a graffiti artist. So I just read some books about graffiti and trying to understand the culture and dynamics of it. Every so often there's beautiful graffiti where you'll see

under bridges or murals or things that are like really hard to get. And they're called heavenly sights. And I thought wouldn't it be interesting? to create the ultimate heavenly site for him. What if I could create something that I knew the news channels would use to try and get viewers to their channel? David didn't want to make

An add. He wanted to create attention. And curiosity. Which in this case.

Heavenly sight. He wanted that piece of creativity. Specific audience. That meant

He needed to make An intentional choice. Before he jumped across the jungle gym. He wanted a pink graffiti. On Air Force One.

Although not the real one. They needed a plane. To look like Air Force One. Emanated the video. Look like

It was really at Andrews Air Force Base. We rent a seven four seven, which is not an easy task. We painted it. Along with a set that included a rented and painted seven forty seven. David and his team drove past Andrews Air Force Base.

They got shots of the highway sign at night, the real fence perimeter. Later. The next real footage with our stage footage. We did this whole video. We made it. Little long winded because that's what someone would have done if they'd actually filmed it.

Droga 5 Hired an actor. To hop a fence. And stage a tagging. Spray painting Echo's brand of the

Not real. Air Force One. They edited the video to make it look like a group of graffiti artists. Film the stunt. Then

Droga 5, release the video online and the news agencies. The final product. Look nothing like A formulaic. Traditional promotion.

It just struck at the right time and when we put it out we just launched it very stealth wise. On Some news channels and some graffiti sites. And it just boomed. It just went so big so quickly.

'Cause everyone wanted to believe it's real, and even friends were sending me notes about it. thinking that it was real, saying, Have you seen this video? And that's when I think, This is really interesting, exciting, dangerous but exciting. And then when the Pentagon had to come out on CNN three times and deny it. I'm like okay, we're on to something. The video, of course.

Was a hoax. It was also A different kind of advertisement and strategic branding. Than anyone had seen before. It just struck a nerve where everyone was it showed that advertising could be very cultural. It could be irreverence.

Lots of other brands came to me afterwards saying Can you do that? I'm like, no. Because that's a different audience, a different culture, a different moment in time. We'll do something appropriate for you, but It's not gonna be a viral stunt where it has to be a hoax. Trogo five

Was not gonna pump out assembly lines. of hoax videos, even. with the Air Force One success. David wasn't gonna follow. The typical formula.

Or ladder progression. Of a branding and advertising strategy. Every client would get something. that was appropriate for them. And their audience.

Some of Drogo Five's other clients. But include. Microsoft? Craft foods. And President Barack Obama.

Of course. A jungle gym approach. Doesn't mean you succeed. Every time you leap for a new area. Soon after the Mark Echo project.

and the establishment of Drogo five as a force to reckon with. David tried to create a novel platform. Honey shed. I thought that I was gonna rewire the entire ad industry, which was a thing called honey shed. which we called at the time was QVC meets MTV and the idea was

We create an online show where What is now influences basically sell products to you and they don't hide the fact it's advertising. You have experts telling you about so you have sneakerheads telling you about sneakers. You have Girls of all different shapes and sizes telling you what Jeans fit.

You have gamers talking about gaming. We've had a studio in LA and I got backing for it and all this sort of stuff. And I still to this day it's was one of the best ideas I ever had, but it was also one of the most flawed executions of anything I did because I built a terrible platform. So I realised I'd sort of started something that wasn't gonna work.

When playing in a jungle gym, you sometimes fall. When you take a sideways leap. It hurts. With lost revenue. Time

And resources. For David. Honey shed was an experiment. That ended in a fall. The trick is when you fall from an experimental move.

To learn from it. Dust yourself off and get back to traversing. In general. Creativity is about taking risks. Being willing.

To leave the ladder. Most high impact creations depend on this willingness to To test a new idea. Or break the formula. For one example.

Can unlock opportunity. We talked with educator, writer, and designer. Gail Anderson. She was asked.

To help design a special US postal stamp. Commemorating The Emancipation Proclamation by one of the postal art directors. The first thing

He said was You can't use words. How to stay up. Oh. Okay, what do I do? I'm not an illustrator, I'm a designer and I design I like to design with words.

And You know, here I am being offered the chance to design. Like stamp that's commemorating the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation. Proclamation.

And this is a big deal. And All I can think of Words. That that would be

That's the way to go. And I needed to get that out of my system. With the directive. Two Not use words. On the stamp.

Gail quickly did a stamp with words. With little hope. the committee would change their minds. The one that I was really excited about was with The words henceforward shall be free.

And Even though You know. The directive was not to use words. That's the one they went for instantly.

And so I was glad I got it out of my system. And I went down to Nashville and We use Big old wood type. that I hope is powerful. And that feels like

A tiny poster and it's got the year. eighteen sixty three and Abraham Lincoln. Henceforward. Shall be free. So it's

Bold and simple and free is the important word. Despite breaking the rules. The stamp would sell out the forty million first run. Then another ten million more. Which was rare for a limited edition printed stamp.

sort of a dream come true that was just wonderful and is still Sure if the biggest and smallest thing I've ever done. Gail followed her instinct. And left the ladder.

Of what she was supposed to do. And made her own jungle gym decision. It's a lesson. Not only artists and creators can learn. But also companies.

When it came to working with clients, Drogo Five. was at home in their jungle gym. They leapt, swung, and vaulted high and above the competition. Towering over the playground. Drogo Five's work.

Collected the agency of the year ward. Multiple times. And later when Ad Weeks. Agency of the decade. Nearly every year.

Drogo 5 increased their revenue and staff. And more importantly The influence. Not only the advertising industry. But also

Many cultural moments. Wasn't a one note agency. And I used to always say every client walked in the door because of our work, because of our creative work. But they hired us because of our strategic thinking. Take the strategy with hip hop legend, Jay-Z.

for the launch of his autobiography. Instead of just promoting his book with traditional ads. They made a jungle gym move. Drogo 5 Paste words from the book.

In locations linked. And inspired by the text. From the pool bottom at a Miami hotel. To the hood. Of a Cadillac.

Drogo Five posts the pages across cities around the world. Define these. You'd search for these locations. And a type of scavenger hunt. Using the Bing search engine.

Which also engaged. Another one of Droga Five's clients. Microsoft. We thought. What's the ultimate way?

Jay Z way to launch a book, which is actually I'm gonna give you all the content anyway, and you're still gonna buy the book. Besides hip hop moguls, Drogo5 also worked with institutions during inflection points. In the market. And culture. At a time.

when its journalism was under fire. And given the label. Fake news. The New York Times hired Drogo Five to help resist this label. David also wanted to convince consumers that news

was worth paying for. Especially when there was free content. Elsewhere online. We just wanted people to understand and really appreciate what goes into real news. It wasn't just for the New York Times, it was for real journalism as well. Our thing was the truth is worth it was the sort of the banner that we sort of built this entire campaign around.

the journalists out there and photographers and all that that are really risking their lives and limbs and all that to get to the truth and understand the story of that. You know, people were starting to end up buying T shirts with our manifestos we've written on their behalf, which is you know, that's when you you realize it's more than just about selling newspapers, it's sort of standing up for something. It wasn't just his approach to clients. where David practiced leaving the ladder.

For the Jungle Gym. David took the same approach. when it came to Droga Five's business. He wanted to do something different. than most agencies.

Whose aspiration. was to become part of one of the mega holding companies that dominated the ad industry. I had no interest in us selling to a holding company like Since almost day one, all the holding companies had tried to buy us. And I was like, I have no interest because all you want to do is collect us, roll us up, and just, you know, mitigate anything interesting about us. Then Ari Emanuel.

Hollywood Power Player and Co C of William Morris Endeavor. WME One of the entertainment's world leading talent agencies asked David to dinner. To see about a potential deal. Droga five.

And I remember thinking, I had no interest in doing a deal. I didn't even know what he was going to propose. Droga five represented clients like Coca-Cola. Prudential. And Spotify. W M E

represented talent like Lady Gaga. And Oprah Winfrey. Ari. was interested in combining the resources. Between the advertising

An entertainment world. He's so transparently ambitious and bullish that I found that actually really refreshing. Right from the gate, he's like We need to buy you, da da I was like, I don't know if a sale, I don't wanna sell, da da da.

But just the idea of potentially doing a collaboration or a partnership I thought was really interesting because Hollywood does touch or that we sort of rub up against or pretend to touch, but don't really. Television, theatre, books, liter music, all that sort of stuff. And the more I thought about it, I thought actually We could blow our whole industry up and change the dimension of it and we could change the face of what advertising is.

Instead of making a conventional move of selling to a larger holding company. David made the jungle gym move. And partnered. With an agency. That had similar creative goals.

WME or similar. Jungle gymnasts. And David thought. They could conquer the playground. Better together.

In two thousand thirteen. David sold minority shares to William Morris Endeavor. And started a collaboration of content deals. Between the two businesses. But freaked our industry out because they were like, Drog of Five is prepared to make alliances that we would never consider.

And it suddenly opened up the potentials of what could happen because I still really believe in creativity being inserted in different places. And why w should we sit in a shrinking iceberg when we can make camps other places? As David says, you don't know when markets or environments My shrink. Or shift. You have to be willing.

To jump sideways. Or vault. Into the unknown. This is not just for career changes. But is also

For companies. Looking for partnerships, mergers. Or acquisitions. For David and Ari, this partnership paid off. I know for a fact we're one of the best deals he's ever done.

You know, I'd get that once a week rolling phone call that he does and I'd been always like, Nope, don't need anything from you, don't need a talk. They're a phenomenal company and do phenomenal things. You know, I made him hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, so um you know, he should definitely uh Send me a Hanukkah card. A few years into the partnership.

After WME became endeavor. Rina is co CO. Patrick Whitesell. Tried to buy the rest of Droga five.

David Wasn't certain. This was the right direction. It was a strong partnership and you know, we both brought our superpowers to the table. We just sort of did different things. And I think that they were looking to go public and they had even though they had a minority stake in us. they had an option to buy the rest of us if they went public in a certain amount of time, which they didn't do.

But I guess I realised as a partnership went on that There is more divide between our industries than we work at different paces and different speeds. Not a better or worse, and I felt like there was too much short term Which is the nature of entertainment a lot. And I think a lot of our clients want a little bit more long term strategy. Around the same time.

Droga five experienced its first round of layoffs. Relatively small setback. After constant Steady growth. Throughout the agency's history.

But It was a gut check for David. David also wanted to create something more secure as he thought about Droga five's next phase of growth. And that's why we've probably started looking at different partnerships and collaborations. Nari's made and Patrick have made some great acquisitions, but it w you know it wasn't as consistent and there wasn't as much clarity for us how we fit in there. I could understand on paper and academically the role we would play.

But I didn't feel that we would have The agency as such. to be pushing and leading where we would go. And you know And I say this half in just and half isn't serious. It's like, you know, Ari could have turned around tomorrow and said, You know, we're gonna invest in buying a casino and I needed a little bit more alignment for us.

Despite the enormous success with WME. Now endeavor. And opening up the possibilities of the industry. David knew that there were limits. He needed a hop.

to a new part of the jungle gym. Or Create his own. To do that. He looked towards a partnership.

That started a few years prior. Accenture asked if we would pitch with them. Central interactive. And I had to be schooled on what Excentre Interactive was and what they did and all that sort of stuff. No sort of digital

marketing, consumer company. And we decided to do a joint pitch together for the census. And again, no interest in this is gonna lead to a deal. We were just gonna pitch for this five hundred million dollar account together. And I remember being actually blown away'cause it suddenly made me realise like they could actually roll things out.

And they could capture things and amplify things from a technology point of view, from a systems thing, and then from a data perspective that I had never seen before. And then they proposed buying us. And again, I was like, No, that's great. I love working with you, but we're fiercely independent. And it took like two or three years. for us to do the deal because I you know, we weren't in a rush to do it, they weren't in a rush to do it, which makes for a great partnership because there isn't a vulnerable partner. in the thing. And I again I just thought

It's where the industry is going. Every company is a digital company now. They have absolute as I said, the deepest, most robust digital Capabilities of anybody. In Accenture.

David saw something he couldn't resist. A company. that could amplify Drogo5's capabilities. From a technology and data perspective. This was David.

Finding an entirely new More robust. and complex jungle gym. David sold Droga Five to Accenture in twenty nineteen. They kept their name and independence.

Under Accenture Interactive. David stayed on as Drogo Five's creative chairman. David made a strategic move. To reposition his agency. For a new environment.

He saw a future coming. And with Accenture. A potential partner. that had a foundation for growth for years to come. It became a way for Drogo Five to evolve into that future.

Remember. Jungle Jim moves. Are often ways of adapting. Changing environments in markets. Technology.

and tools. So we'd moved a lot of people up. into highers within Droga Five. Some had moved into Accenture as well. So I felt like I was sort of laying this marriage together very well. And I'd convinced myself That I was gonna retire.

To be honest. I thought that I ticked every single box that I Wanted to tick. in the industry that I was in. So that in my head I'd sort of felt like I'd been honorable to all parties in this one. To the people at Droga Five, to Accenture the Deal.

Thinking he would end his jungle gym days and retire. David then went to lunch. with Accenture CEO Julie Sweet. So when I went to lunch with Julie, she's a force. I mean she's intense Super intelligent. I've never I've never met anyone who worked harder than George.

And all I was thinking was, Oh, maybe they're worried that my burn out is over and all this sort of stuff. That they're gonna try and lock me down. And my I remember leaving my wife's like Don't you agree to anything? I'm like, no, it's just gonna be a lovely lunch. You know, I like Julian, we're gonna have some great chat and I'll sort of give us some honest point of view about what I think's going. And it was that classic thing. Two minutes of genuine small talk and then She cut straight to the chase. Again, I like people who cut to the chase. And she just said, Look, I really want you to be the CEO of what was called Accenture Interactive. And I was like, What?

What? Instead of David's retiring Accenture. wanted to bring David into a higher leadership role. as CEO of Excentra Interactive.

Which oversaw multiple ad agencies and marketing firms. Thousands of employees. Had billions of dollars of revenue and worked in countries. Across the globe. And I honestly was sort of taken aback.

So I spent maybe two minutes around a talk out of that. Because I kept on thinking, does she really know what it means to put a creative person In that chair. kept on saying like I'm not the operations person that you think I am. I'm not that linear thinker. I'm not

But I was thinking, well, you know what, she's right though, that creative person has to occupy that chair. It is weird to sort of Suddenly you know I I climbed the corporate ladder or jungle gym. Escape that to open my own playgrounds. Which you know, achieved

More than I deserve. And then I threw myself back into even more corporate things. It's just kind of a strange funny thing. Despite it feeling strange for David. The eccentric job. was a place where he could oversee

More playgrounds. Yet more slides. Ropes. Allies, bars, and poles. To swing from.

Than he ever had before. This was the ultimate jungle gym. And he was in the ultimate position.

To help build something new. I think I really wanted to flee the corporate world as a creative when I was growing up because creatives never had the influence or power that I thought they deserved within the industry. Yeah, they were sort of collected like mascots or You know, wrapping paper. They were never making decisions that would actually affect the business. They were sort of brought in

as to be a celebrated star and told to do great things, but they could never actually influence and architect the business. So This was a chance I think where I was like, Okay Hm. There's some delicious irony in actually as a creative person being it's sort of right to the top.

David of course knew He was one CO inside of a massive public company. With many COs. But this Was his chance.

He uses creative mindset and experience to build something original. Soon. He would rename this massive jungle gym. In twenty twenty one. He rebranded Accenture Interactive to Accenture Song.

So instead of drogavy being a tail that wagged a dog Why not walk the whole dog? You know what I mean? I should definitely try it. Taking a leap.

Isn't just its own reward. Although it can be a rush. That puts a smile on your face. Rather. By jumping through the jungle gym.

You can unlock new roots to scale. And discover the unexpected opportunities that are closer to your grasp than you imagine. I'm Reed Hoffman. Thanks for listening. Humans will never be more intelligent than AI.

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