The Art of Rejection

About a month ago I praised the Boston-based agency Modernista! as “what the future of advertising agencies will be.” While I don’t want to retract that statement, I’d like to add one more to the mix.


Opened last year in New York by the über-successful creative (I hate that term but can think of none better) David Droga, Droga5 just captured Creativity Magazine’s Agency of The Year Award.

First, a shortened, abridged resume on the man himself.

Brace yourself:

-As a copywriter, won top student honors at the Australian Writers and Art Director’s School at age 18
-Executive Creative Director at OMON Sydney at age 22
-ECD of Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore/Regional CD of Saatchi Asia at 26
-ECD of Saatchi & Saatchi London at age 29
-Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of the Publicis Network
-Single most awarded creative at Cannes (48 Lions & 3 Grand Prix)
-American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement
-Boards Magazine “Lifetime Achievement Award”
-Named “World’s Best Creative Director” by AdAge
-Named Creativity Magazine’s “Australian Creative of the Decade”
-Founded Droga5 at age 36
-On Adcenter's Board of Directors
-Has fathered three children
-Is one hell of a nice guy


Whew.

Anyway, Droga 5 has done an incredible array of things other than advertising. In the past two years, they have made sure the industry knows that the future of this business will, without a doubt, be more than just ads.

Riding the success of the (Cannes Cyber Grand Prix-winning) Marc Ecko viral video “Still Free,” they created the Tap Project, a charitable initiative for UNICEF and World Water Day. On that day, it asked patrons at hundreds of NYC restaurants to give $1 for tap water, and ended up raising $100,000 in a matter of less than 24 hours. The project will roll out to hundreds of cities by 2009.



They introduced a new marketing venture, Million—an incredibly bold initiative that aims to solve some of the New York school system's educational problems by giving New York City’s one million public school students free, specially-branded phones that function as “pure education machines.” The project was approved by the City in November and should go into effect sometime in 2008.

Another massive undertaking they introduced last month that has garnered a truckload of publicity is Honeyshed, a “branded content-meets-shopping channel,” that features product and category-specific mini shows acting as entertainment that is obviously, purposefully and shamelessly (whoa that’s a lot of adjectives) a selling platform.

I once heard it referred to as the “bastard child” of QVC and MTV.

They were also cast as the pro bono agency charged with promoting the recently-launched non-profit New Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown New York City.

Along with a print and outdoor-heavy campaign (crafted using the distinctive silhouette of its new building), they breached the divide between advertising and editorial when they distributed 10,000 special promotional copies of New York Magazine, utilizing part of the magazine’s logo.


While they did an amazing job with the promotion, I read that The New Museum rejected countless marketing ideas and suggestions from Droga5 and their branding firm, Wolf Olins.

According to an article on Conde Nast’s Portolio.com, “art and advertising don’t always mix,” as despite the museum’s reputation for focusing on being new, edgy and contemporary, it turned out to be fairly conservative with a lot of its branding choices.

Here are five ideas that were cut:

*IDEA (Wolff Olins): Have a small speaker playing a recording that announces the names of lead donors.
REASON REJECTED: Could be mistaken for a sound-art installation.

*IDEA (Wolff Olins): Staffers would sport bright sashes with the museum’s logo to identify themselves.
REASON REJECTED: Too “retail.”


*IDEA (Wolff Olins): Drop Museum of Contemporary Art from official name to focus on the term New.
REASON REJECTED: Too confusing (though the institution has adopted New Museum as an official nickname).

*IDEA (Droga5): Cut a silhouette of the building, which looks like an uneven stack of tofu, out of a billboard to let the sky show through.
REASON REJECTED: Too expensive.

*IDEA (Droga5): Commission artists to sculpt refrigerators in the shape of the building as an homage to the neighborhood’s history as a restaurant-supply district.
REASON REJECTED: Not worth the trouble.

Even in this day-in-age, with all of the combined accolades between the two companies, some clients refuse seemingly great ideas.

In any event, this won’t keep me from visiting the museum this week before my triumphant return to Richmond.

dubs. out.