William Morris Endeavour is reportedly finalizing agreements to acquire a 49 percent stake in Droga5, an independent advertising agency founded in 2006. The deal, estimated between $150-225 million, is expected to close next week between advertising agency’s David Droga and Sarah Thompson and W.M.E.’s Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell.
Executives estimate the partnership will incorporate brand-supported content between the two companies.
Droga5’s clients include Spotify, Coca-Cola, American Express, Google-owned Motorola, and Prudential. W.M.E.’s Nashville acts include Blake Shelton, Brad Paisley, Chris Young, Darius Rucker, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Hank Williams Jr. Josh Turner, Kix Brooks, Lee Ann Womack, Luke Bryan, Pistol Annies, Rascal Flatts, Reba, Taylor Swift, Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill, Wynonna and many more.
“Advertisers and brands want to get closer to our content,” Whitesell told the NY Times’ Tanzina Vega, saying that the partnership would offer advertisers an “A to Z solution” for their campaigns instead of having to hire multiple agencies. “There’s a need for it on our end, for our clients to have a more sophisticated bridge to this.”
Emanuel’s attention was brought to Droga5 during the promotional campaign between Jay-Z’s autobiography and Microsoft’s search engine Bing. “That’s an integrated approach that not a lot of people are doing,” said Emanuel to the paper. “We have clients, whether it be on the non-scripted side, the scripted side in television, music clients, creatives that create content for different screens, all of that is going to be on the table.”
Last year Droga sought private investment from a group led by Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman and Apollo Global Management’s Henry Silverman.