For all the talk about Moon Rabbit’s creative flair and client-whisperer bona fides — and its super-cool company merch — one fundamental question about the agency has gone unanswered: What’s up with that name?
Is it just a workaround to allow the company to slap the image of its mascot — a space-helmeted bunny — on the aforementioned merch? Nope. In fact, it’s a play on the agency’s original moniker, Elixir. For many, many years, East Asian and indigenous American cultures have “seen” a rabbit in the full moon, posed in a manner suggesting that it is using a mortar and pestle to create medicine or food.
“We were a diverse team from all over the world, and we wanted to create something we could all identify with,” explains John Tenaglia, one of three Moon Rabbit managing partners. “Here was a story told across cultures across the planet. It was something we could all share.”
The 7-year-old agency grew revenue by 3% in 2023, to $18.3 million from $17.8 million the year prior. The growth was spurred by new engagements with Tarsus (the media assignment for Demodex blepharitis drug Xdemvy), Jazz Pharmaceuticals (on AML drug Vyxeos), Grunenthal (on neuropathic pain treatment Qutenza) and Verrica Pharmaceuticals (on molluscum drug Ycanth).
Managing partner James Tinker points to Moon Rabbit’s work on For the Fighters, a campaign for Acorda Therapeutics’ Inbrija based on feedback from people with Parkinson’s disease, as a highlight of the year.
“We took over the account from a large agency doing cookie-cutter work,” Tinker says. “We challenged the brand to listen to patients and to show up at patient conferences. We pushed a different sort of communication.”
And it worked, to the extent that the Muhammad Ali Center reached out looking to collaborate. “To have goal clients reach out to you feels different,” Tinker explains.
Tenaglia agrees, adding Moon Rabbit is “obsessed” with work that is “profoundly human.”
“Our industry makes ads that can be a bit cold,” he explains. “They might hit a KPI for a moment, but can they bend a curve? We believe that a commitment to understanding the people you’re speaking with is what delivers results.”
Both Tenaglia and Tinker attribute Moon Rabbit’s growth in large part to its proud independence. However, Tenaglia admits that “every loss we’ve had has been to a network agency. It’s like what they used to say about IBM: People think, ‘Well, nobody gets fired for hiring a network agency.’ The tradeoff here is that you get creative and strategy that’s not overly potent.”
The founders believe that, at around 100 full-timers, Moon Rabbit has reached its staff-size sweet spot. “We’re big enough to have scale,” Tenaglia explains. “When we win business, we don’t have to figure it out. We have the infrastructure and the team in place, but we’re not big enough to be bad.”
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Work we wish we did
The You’ve Got This spot for Quaker Quick Oats is the first expression of the brand’s new global platform — and it’s beautiful. It has the courage to focus on the importance of ritual and consistency, rather than on the cholesterol-busting power of oats or the importance of breakfast as a meal. In a category that too often argues benefits, it relies on resonance rather than relevance — the feels instead of the facts — to win you over. — Steve Walls, head of brand strategy
