Droga5 London 2025: A Transitional Year, Now Brace For Impact

This year has been a year of renewal for Droga5 in the UK as it brought in new leadership from around the world to bolster its offer and meet the expectations set by the agency brand’s rich creative history. 

In the year that its founder David Droga stepped aside as CEO of parent Accenture Song, and following leadership changes at a global level, the London offering was subsequently in transition, spearheaded by Bill Scott. 

In April, the company unveiled its new leadership structure, appointing Scott as CEO, Will Hodge as chief strategy officer, and Tara Ford, joining from Droga5 ANZ (formerly The Monkeys) and Accenture Song APAC, as chief creative officer.

“This is an exciting new chapter for Droga5 in London,” said global CEO Mark Green at the time. “The combination of Tara Ford, Bill Scott and Will Hodge will be transformative for our team and clients. They are all accomplished in their own ways and have truly world-class talents.”

And as the year progressed further senior appointments were made, including Charlotte Farrington as its new managing director. The Karmarama veteran made the step up from managing partner at Accenture Song having led on client accounts including Lidl and Plusnet. Matt Waksman - also formerly of Karmarama - joined as head of strategy to drive creative strategy across global brands, reporting to Hodge. 

“Clients need partners with next-level creativity, technology and chutzpah. Droga5, with Accenture, has the unarguable fundamentals to offer just that, but it’s the people that made this role irresistible for me. Will, Charlotte and I have a track record of creating famous and transformational work together, and Bill and Tara’s reputation for their exceptional leadership and vision is globally recognised,” explained Waxman. 

And to further strengthen the agency’s leadership, Dan Roberts was named as creative director of design with an ambition to challenge and grow the role of design across the network. 

Creative Salon spoke with Scott about the agency’s 2025.

Bill Scott, CEO of Droga5 London, on the agency's 2025

What three words would you use to describe 2025?

A new dawn.

Talk us through some of your agency’s highlights this year?

2025 was a relaunch year for Droga5 London - a new leadership line up comprising of Tara Ford, CCO; Will Hodge as CSO and Bill Scott as CEO; along with Amber Faulkner as chief growth officer, Charlotte Farrington as managing director. And new leadership hires - Matthew Waksman as head of strategy, with more to follow…

We’ve doubled down on the ambition of Droga5 London, with the merge of Song Creative agency into the Droga5 London brand - effectively doubling the size of the client roster, headcount, revenue and capabilities. We’re the strongest we’ve ever been to deliver industry leading work:

Work we’re proud of…

- Our second chapter of Amazon Books (Bring a book to life)

- Award winning topical work tapping into cultural moments with Lidl Jacket

- Important causal work for Choose Love, Sister Circle, Visible Voices

- And our ongoing category leading work for Lidl, JP Morgan Chase and Arla

What one thing are you proudest of this year?

Our talent - In a year of so much change, our talent have rallied together brilliantly…

showing generosity, collaboration and resilience as build a net new business, agency and culture.

And what’s been your biggest challenge?

Candidly? Furniture and office space. More desks and chairs needed for 2026.

What are you most looking forward to in 2026?

Making more influential work across more clients. across more platforms, across more geographies, across more cultures, across more innovation.

And what one change would you most like to see in our industry next year?

Another year of tumultuous change.

Another year of doom and gloom in an ever-tough market.

But we’re at our best when we enjoy what we love doing.

It’s time we all tried our best to enjoy it more in 2026.

It just might change the narrative.

Creative Salon on Droga5 London’s 2025

While it has had plenty of change going on behind the scenes, the agency continued to produce the goods on the creative front, with its 'Lidl Jacket' a jury favourite. Winner of the Ambient category at the Campaign Big Awards, it also picked up a Wooden Pencil in the Tactical Poster section at D&AD. 

Also on the awards front, Tara Ford served as jury president for the Brand Experience & Activation Lions in Cannes this year, while the agency designed a new identity for the 80th anniversary of Creative Circle.

Blue chip brand campaigns included work for American Express with ‘Great Ideas Travel’, celebrating how business travel drives innovation and what happens when people come together in-person. 

For Amazon Books, to promote Kindle, the global campaign, ‘Bring a Book to Life’ was developed. This showcased the unique power of reading, and the idea that books need readers to co-create the worlds that exist.

Some of the work this year focused on social issues, for example ‘This Is Not A Test’ - a digital outdoor activation created for humanitarian charity Choose Love - to coincide exactly with the UK government’s nationwide emergency alert to 60 million people.

And there was '#NotAprilFools' for women’s health charity Sister Circle that consisted of OOH executions featuring stark statistics about maternal death rates and poor outcomes for pregnant women of colour in the UK. 

Teaming up with non-profit Potential Energy Coalition, Droga5 London created a campaign for Parents for Future UK to empower the British public to demand a better future for their children. The film, titled 'Sorry', contrasted everyday apologies with the more serious apology that may be owed to future generations without remedying climate change. 

The agency also developed a brand campaign for Rustlers featuring oversized mouths hungry for burgers.

And it rounded off the year by creating a series of idents to promote PlusNet's sponsorship of the digital channel U+Dave.

Creative Salon says... With a new front line leadership team, and the collective might of Accenture Song behind it, the agency enters a new year with much to look forward to. In a period of structural change among some of its competitors, Droga5 London has an opportunity to lean on its long-term credentials. Access to the technological capabilities of Accenture - not least its growing AI strength - makes the business an increasingly alluring creative proposition.