Mark Green is headed to New York City as the new global boss of Accenture Song's flagship creative agency Droga5, with the firm set to land in the Australia market via The Monkeys at the end of this year.

Green, the co-founder and CEO of The Monkeys and current Accenture Song lead for Australia and New Zealand, will work alongside recently appointed global chief creative officer, Pelle Sjoenell, to oversee Droga5's international offices in Dublin, London, New York, São Paulo, Tokyo, and now Australia. He's due to step into the new role in October, standing as the agency's first global chief since Sarah Thompson, who exited the Accenture Song group in January 2023 after overseeing the Droga5 integration. 

The expansion of the Droga5 brand into the Australian market will see The Monkeys' Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland offices transition to the Droga5 name as of 1 December this year. It comes of the back of a successful year for the Droga5 brand, which worked alongside The Monkeys to take out the highly coveted global Tourism Australia creative and digital accounts for Accenture Song in a drawn out pitch against Publicis Groupe and Clemenger Group. Droga5's roster also includes the likes of JPMorganChase and Molson Coors. 

Droga5, founded by Accenture Song CEO David Droga in 2006, becomes the sole creative offshoot of Accenture's marketing services business. Droga sold his agency to Accenture Song in 2019, two years after the consulting group paid Green and his business partners $63 million to acquire The Monkeys. By 2022, the two were the sole survivors of a mass-culling of acquired brands to make way for the consolidated Accenture Song offering. 

Both Green and Sjoenell have been charged with leading Droga5 into a creative-tech-infused era while upholding Accenture Song’s promise to clients to drive business growth and relevance. 

Green told Mi3 the new remit was “doing the best work in the world” and that his appointment was based on the performance on Accenture Song and The Monkeys in the ANZ region, including the high profile global Tourism Australia win. 

“We’ve done it very well in Australia,” Green said. “Both for reaching high creative standards but also thinking about how creativity influences business more broadly. That would be the combination of things I would think we’re looking to build and make sure that every office that has the name delivers.

After running the broader Accenture Song unit here with CX, tech, design and creative services, Green’s move to run a renowned creative shop globally could be seen as back to the future for the advertising agency veteran. 

“I don't look at it like that,” Green said. “It's probably more a case of how have we managed to use creativity as a weapon to drive growth for our customers. That's less about just doing advertising and communications - more about ideas that influence more broadly. Droga 5 is part of Accenture Song and that's the remit - to try and use it as a beachhead to discover that sort of magic for brands and for customers.So I feel like the it's more expansive, but using the creative agency as the catalyst for that growth story.”

Green said the process had started for his replacement but Matt Michael would take charge of The Monkeys-Droga5 business in ANZ during the transition period while an official recruitment process was underway. 

Green confirmed Initiative's Mel Fein, Sam Greer and Chris Coulter started next week. Their remit will initially be APAC but Accenture Song has made some media exex appointments in London and New York and will ultimately compete for global accounts.