Mike O and Rocky to set up Droga5 New Zealand?
CB can reveal that former Saatchi ECD Mike O’Sullivan and CEO Andrew ‘Rocky’ Stone’s options continue to widen, including possibly setting up Droga5 New Zealand.
Mike O and Dave Droga (Droga5’s founder andcreative chairman – pictured above right) have been mates for years andit would be a good fit within the Droga5 family, which also includesDroga5 Australia.
CB hears the possible deal comes after other options were considered,including setting up a Fallon office with Saatchi & Saatchi’sbacking and their own O’Sullivan Stone start-up, backed by a smallerpublicly listed agency group.
Emails and txts to Dave Droga went unanswered last night. Whencontacted by CB this morning, Stone categorically denied any deal wasdone and said he and O’Sullivan were still enjoying their break,catching some good fish and distracted at the moment by the Boat Showopening in Auckland today.
However, CB bets they are indeed opening Droga5 New Zealand, starting within a month.
22 Comments
But Sugar are NZ’s Droga5 aren’t they..?
That could get confusing. I thought Sugar were the Droga 5 of NZ.
Sugar the Droga5 of New Zealand.
I thought Sugar were Droga 5. Oh, wait. You guys already said that.
For more interesting comments on this story, see the Aussie Campaign Brief blog.
I prefer this campaign brief blog. By the way, I thought Sugar were the Droga5 of NZ.
Mike O and Rocky are joining Sugar?
If they do it, I’d love to be in the room when that journalist from a well known national business paper has to ring them up all apologetically, and ask for interview.
I like to know the tone of voice, the strategy, and who would be paying the lunch bill.
The “more interesting” Aussie comments are only that if you want to be reassured how little they know about NZ market (and the global one, come to think of it). They mostly welcome an indie agency, that isn’t an indie, to challenge the multi-nationals, when it is in fact a multi-national itself. They are clearly unaware of the number of interesting (truly indie) small agencies currently in NZ. Special, BC&F, Shine, Sugar (sorry, Droga5), Republik, Josh & Jamie, to name but a few. So I wouldn’t bother.
Finally some intelligent comments on the blog.
Oh I finally got the Sugar joke.
They called themselves the Droga5 of NZ last year.
Sorry lads, bit slow on this one.
The most interesting thing about the comments on the Aussie blog article are that no-one outside NZ seems to have any sense of the circumstances surrounding Mike and Rocky’s departure of Saatchi’s NZ.
Word is Andrew Stone, Mike’O, and Richard Maddocks are making an agency
so long as they don’t wank on about digital i’m fine with it.
If Andrew, Mike and Richard got together they’d make a really ugly baby.
can’t see these guys having someone else’s name on the door.
Still. probably have to take what they can get.
Does anyone have an opinion about the McDonald’s Weight Watcher’s ad campaign on at the moment?
I’m sure it will be every bit the success that Saatchi currently is.
Now the name Droga 5’s been taken, Sugar could always call themselves Crispin Porter Bogusky. Oh that’s right. They already do.
Maybe Sugar could rebrand and call themselves Droga 6?
News just in. Sugar have recently found out there’s an agency called Mother too.
The inside running is they’re thinking of hijacking that one too and calling themselves Grandmother.
Not only spineless Anonymous but also a dick