Moon Rabbit’s Breakout Year and Future Plans
PM360 spoke with Moon Rabbit Managing Partners John Tenaglia and James Tinker about the success of their integrated marketing agency, which operates out of New York City and London. The agency closed out 2024 with several major milestones, including 12 high-profile client wins—such as Astellas’ IZERVAY, Indivior’s Opvee, and Tarsus’ Xdemvy— along with significant growth, key senior hires, and more than two dozen industry award nominations. In this interview, they reflect on the agency’s evolution, highlight current clients and projects, and share what’s ahead for 2025.
PM360: The name “Moon Rabbit” comes from a legend about boldness and risk-taking. Can you share an example of a time boldness paid off—creatively or strategically—for a client? Feel free to also share more about the name.
John Tenaglia: It references an ancient story of a rabbit on the moon, using a mortar and pestle to search for the elixir of life—a symbol of bravery and risk-taking. We never wanted to just put our initials on the door; we wanted something meaningful and bigger than ourselves that we could all rally behind and believe in.
In healthcare, it’s easy to give people the expected. But that’s not what drives real change. People tell us we’re the only agency that looks at things through a truly different lens. That boldness is something we consciously maintain. One client, in a space that had never used media, trusted us when we pitched what sounded like a crazy idea. It was our first media project, and it led to a strong script lift and clear ROI. Leadership was surprised—“We’re doing what in this space?”—but they saw the results. That leap of faith became our first media case study and opened a whole new area of growth for us.
You’ve told us 2025 is poised to be your best year yet. What specific goals or changes are you most excited about?
James Tinker: We think 2025 will be our biggest year for growth. We’re finalizing contracts and seeing strong organic momentum. We’ve set clear goals around revenue and profit—and we’re not only holding ourselves accountable, but encouraging the team to do the same.
We’re also focusing on the experience of working at Moon Rabbit. We just earned a “Great Place to Work” certification, and we’re making progress on sustainability, learning, and development. We want people to grow here, so we’ve invested a lot into building the right resources and pathways. It matters to us that our team is aligned, engaged, and truly believes in what we’re doing.
John Tenaglia: We have some leadership voids we’re filling, and the key is bringing in people who embody our vision and mentality. Hiring is one of the hardest things to get right, but we are seeing more and more great talent exploring opportunities in the industry. With the rise of more and more platforms, and in an age of consolidations, people seem to be looking for an actual agency.
Our goal this year and beyond is to protect our mission and make this a destination for people who want to do their best work, with an energy you won’t find elsewhere. Everyone who comes here feels like they’re building something. Unlike more executional, transactional jobs, every member of our team—regardless of their role—is placing a block. That inspires us to find people who value their craft and want to keep pushing their work.
Best Friends Animal Society campaign
How are you ensuring that your culture and values scale with the agency’s rapid growth?
James Tinker: It’s about being able to communicate clearly on expectations and visions, and leading with humility. John and I [try to] know what’s going on with our team. Not only do we have regular town halls to share expectations, but we’re also having personal meetings.
It’s a lot of ‘walking the walk.’ I don’t know how anyone learns on Zoom calls; Offices play an important role. So we’ve been investing in offices and getting people together. Most importantly, John and I spend a lot of time with people making sure we’re communicating with them and understanding them. [We’re also] super open to input and guidance, and we surround ourselves with the right people to give us advice honestly.
John Tenaglia: James and I always aim to appropriately communicate to the executive team, the leadership team, and the staff what’s happening and what we’re seeing. Our core group that has been with us from day one really helps bring that stability to the offices and our culture. They carry as much as we do and take it upon themselves to help make Moon Rabbit a destination and a great place to be.
We also understand that we can’t let things linger, and as we’ve grown as an agency, we’ve become less afraid to make tough decisions and changes that often need to be made quickly.
Xdemvy “Might over Mites” campaign
Can you share a recent campaign where that integrative, collaborative model paid off?
James Tinker: We always collaborate—as leaders, we’re never pointing from the sidelines. That’s what gives us our energy. Without that, the last year would’ve been a massive struggle. Instead of waiting for analytics meetings to make recommendations based on what we’re seeing, we communicate actively and make changes in real time. We can go back to clients the same or next day and say, ‘We’ve seen this, this, and this. The media team told us about this.’ This is how intimacy and data go hand in hand. We know when to tweak things, when to turn things down or up.
John Tenaglia: We include people in brainstorms when we do things, so everyone feeds into decisions and gets heard. No one group can do their job at 100% without others feeding into it, and when you do that, you get a marriage of all these different ideas and angles.
Also, everyone is allowed to make mistakes. I make plenty of them and quite often they are on display for the team. There needs to be a space people are comfortable in to think and share ideas, regardless if they are the right fit for that moment.
James Tinker: The success of the agency requires everyone working together. We’re not just the media or creative team—we’re all working towards the same goals. We’re all pushing in the same direction. It’s about integration and leaving ego at the door.
What do you think traditional agencies still get wrong in regards to media strategy, specifically in healthcare?
James Tinker: From pitch feedback, we know we approach everything with enough care to get intimate with our businesses and customers. We provide real solutions and actionable plans, and we respond in real time—these are things we do differently than other agencies.
John Tenaglia: From a media standpoint, we’re not afraid to bring something different forward. We monitor everything daily and we can pivot quickly—sometimes within the first two weeks we are making adjustments based on what we are seeing. Many larger agencies avoid this because of the effort involved and the avoidance of piloting things. But we make the case to review sooner—whether in a week, a month, or a quarter—if it better aligns with business goals and client needs.
For us, it’s about staying timely and ready. And for our clients, it’s about that intimacy James mentioned—after all, nothing is more intimate than someone’s health.
