Droga5 has gained its second Accenture prezzie, the global Maserati account.
New owner Accenture Interactive was already Maserati’s global digital agency so the move is an obvious one. Passing business through to other parts of the empire is traditionally harder than it seems however but Droga5, which offers a very different service to Accenture, has the creative creds to be an obvious choice for Accenture clients looking for full-on creative.
Back in December D5 landed Kimberly-Clark, also an Accenture client. In May last year Accenture paid an eye-watering $475m for D5, which had revenues of about $170m. Maserati is owned by Fiat Chrysler.
Maserati CMO Paolo Tubito says: “Droga5 is known around the world for its exceptionally strong creativity underpinned by strategic smarts. We’re excited to tap into Droga5’s brand strategy and creative expertise and get even more value from our existing relationship with the Accenture Interactive team. We are eager to create together and look forward to the opportunities ahead.”
Quite what these opportunities will be is open to question. The worldwide car industry is taking a monumental hammering from Covid-19, especially those companies (like Britain’s JLR) dependent on sales of luxury models to China. Maserati presumably comes into that category. And Fiat Chrysler is hardly the most robust of the big global carmakers. Maserati, though, will presumably hang in there, given its heritage, whatever happens to its owner.
David Droga and other shareholders (they owned 51 per cent of the agency at the time of the sale, the remainder was owned by WME) can thank their lucky stars they made the sale when they did. Accenture has big deep pockets and will be eyeing further account gains (and possibly deals) when the Covid crisis abates.
