A survey of the work that has emerged from the doors of Droga5, New York, since its 2006 founding reveals a pattern of bold, audacious moves.
The agency attempted to change the world (and did) with the Tap Project, staged a high-profile hoax for Ecko, and promoted Bing and Jay -Z by plastering the pages of the music impresario's book in the unlikeliest of places, including the floor of a Miami pool and the lining of a Gucci jacket. In 2010, it defined a whole new category of athlete -- the night owl, for Puma -- and poked a little fun at itself with a press release stating that one of its biggest competitors (McGarryBowen) swiped Droga5's own holiday-card business. All the while, it enjoyed some of the highest creative accolades in recent history. This past summer the shop set a Cannes record for Grand Prix nods in a single year (three, for Puma and Bing/Jay -Z).
Beyond the big moves and holiday high jinks, however, the agency's work in 2011 presents a surprising new dimension. As Droga5 founder and Creative Chairman David Droga himself put it: "Last year we had fewer, higher peaks. But I feel like we had bigger degrees of difficulty and we did better."
Overall the work was smart but a lot less showy, ultimately proving that even with quieter clients, Droga5 can still move the most massive mountains, which is why it deserves this year's title as Creativity Agency of the Year.
In 2010, the agency won the Prudential Financial account, piquing industry curiosity about what this once-scrappy shop could do with a very serious and grown-up piece of business. June saw the debut of "Sunrise," a gorgeous montage of shots that it turns out were scenes of the same emerging sun shot from 100 different points of view across the country. Without the right strategy behind it, the work could be viewed as creative gimmickry. Instead, it set the stage for a startlingly emotional campaign that followed.
The multiplatform "Day One" campaign featured a series of online films and spots that documented retirees' first days out of the workforce. The films leave the viewer with various emotions: assured, hopeful -- or perhaps petrified, depending on how much you've done to prepare for life after the job. But that 's the campaign's finest achievement: It makes you think, feel and really give a damn about your retirement plan, which is a lot more than you can say for the rest of the category. And that sunrise? It's quietly integrated into the films and website, percolating that sense of hope introduced in the original spot.
The Prudential campaign proves that the agency known for doing daring work for equally daring clients also flexes some serious muscle when it comes to mature brands that pose a higher degree of difficulty.
"We don't have one agency style," said Mr. Droga. "I feel like that 's where we're at our best. My ambitions for Prudential and Puma are the same, but I have to treat them all very differently and be respectful of their business needs."
Whatever the client, the agency's approach starts from the same place. Rather than looking at the brief itself, "we really like to go back and go up to the original mission of the company," said Executive Creative Director Ted Royer. "Sometimes a client will come to an agency and say, "We need a TV campaign, we need a digital campaign.' And we say, "Wait a minute, what are you trying to do before that ? ... We do like to dig back and ask tough questions and get access to the right people, because sometimes companies don't even know what their mission is , or what they want to say."
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