The Ask
Create a campaign that gets the industry’s attention to our work and talents as ad students.
The Problem
In a world of big agencies and bigger media budgets, it’s more difficult than ever for ad students to get noticed by the industry.
The Insight
If everything is big, going super small might be the best way to stand out.
The Solution
We launched the first advertising agency that targets rats and we placed tiny billboards all over NYC. We even had 5 people apply to work for us.
The tiny billboards ended up getting some big attention
USA Today, Ad Age - Editor's Pick, Breaking + Entering, 1010Wins Radio
Standing out in NYC’s ad landscape is harder than ever.
In 2025, global advertising and marketing spend is projected to surpass $2 trillion, up from $1.5 trillion in 2024. With the average person encountering over 5,000 ads daily, the battle for attention is fiercer than ever.
We needed a campaign that would get the industry’s attention, without the resources big agencies have.
By creating an advertising agency that targeted rats, we could flip expectations and prove that sometimes ideas don’t need big budgets, just bold thinking.
NYC rats became the perfect vessels for our message.
By using them as a vehicle, we could take a very familiar format and disrupt it. In the process, we treated rats as an actual target audience for brands, which helped us craft the campaign:
There Are 3 Million Rats in NYC, a 50% Increase Since 2010.
With this growth rate, rats are expected to outnumber the human population in NYC by 2063.
They are extremely trackable.
We adapted everything from messaging to visuals to make it look as aligned to the brands as possible. Staples rubber bands became an exercise tool, Band-aid became a sleeping mask, Calvin Klein underwear, boat sails.
Each billboard showed how an existing brand could be repurposed for rats
Instead of looking up at giant billboards, New Yorkers were looking down at the tiny ads at their feet, stopping to take a closer look or snap a photo.
We mapped out key locations across the city, like in front of the Calvin Klein billboard on Houston Street or the Samsung ad outside an Apple Store. Each spot was strategically chosen to match the reimagined brands. These placements helped make our campaign impossible to ignore.
Humans and rodents alike took notice
Our content strategy was simple: treat Ads for Rats like a real brand. We created a website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok, each with content tailored to its audience.
On LinkedIn, we spoke to marketers in a corporate tone, making the case for why brands should target rats.
On Instagram and TikTok, we showed the billboards in action, posting videos of them popping up across NYC. Soon, people weren’t just reacting to the campaign, they were participating in it.
To reach as many people as possible, we extended the campaign to social media, treating it like a brand launch.
At the end, our tiny-budget campaign scored some pretty big numbers
2.4
Million Impressions
45
Creative & Strategy Directors Engaged
23
Countries
21
Agency Recruiters Engaged
$100,000
Approximate Earned Media Generated
11
Brand Collaboration Requests
100+
Agencies & Brands Engaged
5
People Asked To Work For Us
This video explains everything
Collaborators
art director Alex Ward
copywriter Henry Coffey
copywriter Callum Leitenberg
copywriter Boyan Zlatarski