Sir Martin Sorrell told Telstra CMO Brent Smart that David Droga was wasted at Accenture Song and Adam Ferrier, national chief thinker at Thinkerbell, that if he (S4 Capital) were to buy Thinkerbell he would put David Droga in as CEO.
In a wide-ranging interview with one of advertising’s most storied leaders for their Black T-Shirts podcast, Ferrier and Smart swung from blank cheques to world politics as they attempted to elicit as many pearls of wisdom from Sorrell’s 50 years of advertising experience. B&T’s editor-in-chief David Hovenden was lucky enough to be invited along to watch the proceedings.
In a little over an hour and half, Smart and Ferrier managed to pull off one of the better interviews I have seen with Sorrell. It was also very jovial.
“There are not economies of scale in creativity . . . so big does not necessarily mean best. It might in media, but it doesn’t in creativity,” was the discussion point Sorrell was embarking on when he concluded that Droga was indeed not making the most of his considerable skills.
Sorrell said that while Droga’s appointment was a smart move for Accenture, he argued that being bogged down in the weeds of the consulting firm’s aggressive acquisition strategy rather than focusing on the “big ideas”.
Sorrell was also full of praise for Smart’s +61 agency model comparing it to General Motors’ approach, which had four independent agencies having the big ideas for each of its four big brands – Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac and Buick. Sorrell said that his business, Monks then wrapped a system to produce content, buy digital media, and collect and analyse data at scale. Bear Meets Eagle on Fire has the big ideas for Telstra (+61) while TBWA does the grunt work.
Check out these juicy clips from the whole podcast below. The entire Black T-Shirts episode will be available to watch and listen to from next month.
