As the sun sets on The Monkeys, it’s time for Accenture Song to shine

As the Monkeys brand disappears and its last remaining founder departs from Accenture Song ANZ, what is next for the consultancy?

Mark Green is the outgoing chief executive of creative agency, The Monkeys, and lead of Accenture Song's Australia & New Zealand business. He will depart the role in November to become the global CEO of creative powerhouse Droga5.

The Monkeys, one of Australia’s most celebrated creative agencies, will ditch its iconic name in December and rebadge as Droga5.

The agency, which has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, is owned by Accenture and operates as one of the crown jewels in its integrated marketing services offering called Accenture Song.

Droga5 is also part of the Accenture Song offering and the move will officially merge the two agencies which share a number of similarities; they both launched in 2006, share clients including Tourism Australia and NRMA Insurance, and feature similar cultures and creative philosophies.

The Growth Agenda understands the plan was hatched during the Tourism Australia pitch this year, which saw Droga5 and The Monkeys work closely together along with the integrated Accenture Song group.

The trio were appointed in July to manage digital and creative services for the tourism body for the next five years.

The agency merger is being positioned as a global expansion for Droga5, and coincides with the appointment of a new global chief executive to run the creative powerhouse.

Mark Green, one of The Monkey’s co-founders and chief executive officer, will move to New York to take on the global role at Droga5.

Mr Green will also leave his role as boss of Accenture Song’s Australian and New Zealand operation.

His departure comes at a significant time, as his replacement will lead the relaunch of Droga5 and the launch of Accenture Song’s new media operation.

Mr Green has confirmed that The Monkeys managing director Matthew Michael will run The Monkey through the transition as it relaunches the Droga5 business in Australia. Accenture Song has not confirmed if Michael will continue on as chief executive of Droga5. Succession plans are also uncertain for Green’s replacement to lead the Accenture Song business.

As the Australian and New Zealand lead, Mr Green has been synonymous with the brand in this market and his departure leaves no clear successor in the frame. Accenture has confirmed a formal replacement process is underway, however there are no indications of whether there will be one replacement or two people for each role.

Speculation suggests the role will go to an internal candidate.

As the managing director of Accenture Song, Mr Michael is an obvious choice, as is Sunita Gloster, a senior adviser to Accenture.

Ms Gloster is hugely respected and influential within the marketing industry and across the broader business community. She serves as CEO and director at The Centre for Australia-India Relations and chair of the Diversity Council Australia, in addition to her non-executive director roles and

Yet despite Ms Gloster and Mr Michael serving as industry favourites for the role, it is not known if either are in the mix for the roles.

Mr Green’s replacements will have some pivotal work to do starting with bedding in the new Droga5 operation. Accenture Song will be keen to distance the agency from its previous unsuccessful operation, which struggled to live up to its global reputation when it launched locally in 2008 and was eventually shuttered in 2015.

The industry will be watching closely as Accenture Song rolls out its media operation after poaching media agency Initiative’s chief executive Melissa Fein, national managing director Sam Geer and chief strategy and product officer Chris Colter in May.

The move surprised the industry as the low-margin procurement-driven media buying business has been largely avoided by consulting firms.

However, it signalled Accenture Song’s commitment to its “end-to-end” service offering across customer experience, digital, design, communications and media.

Mr Green told The Growth Agenda his departure would not impact the plans for the media business.

“It doesn’t change anything in terms of our ambition there,” he said. “It’s a powerful team and they have a great canvas to build something really unique to what’s out there in the market and to drive our customer growth proposition. Matt (Michael) and Mel (Fein) will work closely together to see where we can take that integrated offer.”

“We are looking at media closely globally, but I think what we are doing here is going to be different,” Mr Green said.

“It’s different because we have such a well-rounded end-to-end proposition in ANZ, really advanced even comparatively to other accenture song capabilities around the world. Part of the beauty of ANZ is that it’s a highly sophisticated market with great talent but small enough to bring some of the challenging pieces together more seamlessly. So what we can learn from Australia is what we can take to the world, and media is another example of that,” said Mr Green.

Mr Green’s departure will also see him step down as chair of the board of directors for The Advertising Council Australia (ACA), a role he has held for seven years.

The ACA board has ample prospects on board to serve as a successor, notably one of two current deputy chair’s Publicis Australia & New Zealand chief executive Michael Rebelo and Supermassive co-founder Laura Aldington. Although industry speculation suggests Special partner Lindsey Evans may also be in the mix. The new chair will be announced in November.