San Diego’s Raindrop Agency just dropped a campaign for Grand Tongo mosquito repellent that feels more like a comedy sketch than a product launch. And that’s exactly the point.
The agency behind YouTube’s most-watched ad of all time (that Dr. Squatch phenomenon with 170+ million views) is now applying their signature absurdist humor to the decidedly unglamorous world of bug spray. Two new spots for Grand Tongo—launching just as the brand hits Target shelves—turn pest control into entertainment.
“Lost City of Tongo” plays like an Indiana Jones parody, complete with a bumbling child sidekick named Porky who mistakes mosquitoes for hamsters.
The second spot features a forlorn man in a mosquito costume begging viewers not to buy the product. It’s ridiculous. It’s self-aware. It works.
The Raindrop Way: Marketing People Actually Want to Watch
This Grand Tongo campaign is classic Raindrop—the kind of work that’s made them San Diego’s unlikely creative powerhouse. Since Jacques Spitzer founded the agency in 2010 (yes, it started in his bedroom when he was 25), they’ve built a reputation for creating what they call “Marketing People Love.”
It’s not just a tagline. It’s a philosophy that’s earned them four Emmy Awards, two Super Bowl spots, and helped turn Dr. Squatch from a $3 million soap startup into a $100+ million phenomenon that Unilever couldn’t resist acquiring.
“We wanted to create a vehicle that showcases Grand Tongo, not just as another bug spray but as the holy grail of bug protection,” says Spitzer, Raindrop’s CEO and CCO. “It’s the only product that offers 12 hours of non-oily, deet-free protection and actually smells amazing. It’s worth seeking out at Target.”
From Real Estate Agents to P&G: A 15-Year Journey
Here’s something Spitzer recently admitted: “I didn’t even know that we were an indie agency until someone said I should connect with indie agency folks. I’m like, Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, we’re not owned by anybody else.”
That’s the thing about Raindrop. They’ve been so focused on making great work that they missed the memo about what category they fit into. In 15 years, they’ve gone from helping local real estate agents to launching Spruce, an outdoor weed killer for Procter & Gamble, with a regional Super Bowl commercial.
“As an independent agency who doesn’t come from a big background, going from helping real estate agents to working with Procter and Gamble on a regional Super Bowl commercial, has been a 15 year journey,” Spitzer says. “How do you fill in the gap in between there?”
The answer: by focusing on what he calls “naivety dynamically applied.” It’s about finding insights that drive purchase, not just attention.
The Science Behind the Silliness
What makes Raindrop tick isn’t just their willingness to put a grown man in a mosquito costume. It’s their understanding that every purchase is “a reflection of who we believe we are, or who we believe we’re trying to become.”
“Everyone has their own why as a customer,” Spitzer explains. “Now consumers are the center of their own universe. They always have been, but they really are now. So we have to understand their why as a consumer, and then create advertising that connects with their why.”
This philosophy has helped them build an impressive roster: Native, Spruce, Grüns, Dude Wipes, Hello Panda. They’ve even incubated brands from scratch, like Grüns (now in Target and Walmart) and Laundry Sauce.
As Cody Johnson, Grand Tongo’s founder, puts it: “The campaign comes at an inflection point in our brand journey—launching into Target, stepping onto a bigger stage. We needed creative that stopped thumbs, sparked interest and offered consumers an emotional connection.”
A Different Kind of Agency Culture
Walk into Raindrop’s 20,000-square-foot San Diego facility—complete with five studio spaces—and you’ll find nearly 100 “Raindroppers.” That’s what they call themselves, and it says something about the place.
“All of our CDs and ACDs don’t come from big agency background,” Spitzer notes. “Our CD has been with us for eight, nine years. He started as an associate brand manager. All of our ACDs come from other backgrounds—they were full time comedians, they were show writers, they were podcast hosts.”
It’s a motley crew that understands “attention and people and the pulse of people in a way that most people have never lived.”
Named one of San Diego Business Journal’s 2022 Best Places to Work, they’ve built something that feels genuinely different. The agency describes itself as “a team of relationship builders, growth hackers, culture fanatics, and creative minds that love what we do.” Sure, every agency says something like that. But Raindrop’s track record—doubling in size eight years running, purely through organic growth—suggests they mean it.
The Numbers Tell a Story, But Not the Whole Story
Here’s what Raindrop has accomplished: over a billion views, more than a billion dollars in campaign sales, the #1 YouTube TrueView ad of all time, and four Emmy Awards. They’ve grown brands like Dr. Squatch by 30X and created content so engaging that people actually search for the commercials.
But as Spitzer points out, there’s a freedom in being independent that goes beyond metrics. “We’re not trying to hit some sort of arbitrary margin or profit margin. I would imagine we probably have 20 to 25% more brain power and people in a campaign than you could do if you were trying to just manage dollars and cents.”
The Grand Tongo spots showcase this perfectly. One features an adventure-seeking duo discovering the “legendary elixir known to ward off nature’s most vile pests.” The other stars a mosquito mascot actively discouraging purchases: “Grand Tongo Really Bugs…Bugs.”
Why San Diego? Why Independence? Why Now?
Spitzer, recently named one of the “most influential people in San Diego” by the San Diego Business Journal, caught the attention of the Los Angeles Times too. They called him one of “California’s most visionary CEOs,” adding that “Raindrop’s creative success and results have put San Diego on the map for creative work across the country.”
But he’s refreshingly honest about the journey. “There are the things we know we don’t know, the things we know, and then there’s the things we don’t even know that we don’t know. I’m in a season of learning about the things that I didn’t even know that we didn’t know.”
That includes discovering the value of awards beyond just sales. “Do we grow sales by 10% or 20%? Okay, both of those are great, and I want 20. But if you win a Cannes too, that helps. People respect the work.”
The Lesson Here (And a Call for Squirt)
Raindrop’s consistent success across wildly different categories suggests something worth noting: Maybe the best way to sell anything is to stop trying so hard to sell it.
Their podcast “Marketing People Love” features conversations with CMOs from The North Face, ClickUp, and Manscaped—all exploring what makes creative work actually connect with humans.
And speaking of connections, Spitzer has a message for any CMOs reading this: “Canada Dry, Squirt, and El Pollo Loco… We have ideas. If someone can get me in touch with Squirt, I will give them the freshest ideas that they’ve seen in centuries.”
The Bottom Line
Whether it’s convincing men they deserve better soap, making mosquito repellent somehow entertaining, or turning laundry detergent into a lifestyle brand, Raindrop keeps proving the same point: Great creative can make anything interesting.
Their Grand Tongo campaign launched on Meta, Google, and YouTube to support the brand’s summer push and Target debut. It’s make-or-break time for a DTC brand, and instead of playing it safe, they went with a mosquito costume.
Johnson gets it: “The flagship spot positions Grand Tongo as the holy grail of protection, and a clever social campaign turns a mosquito into our loudest and funniest critic.”
In a world drowning in forgettable content, Raindrop creates commercials people share at parties. They’re not weirdos, exactly. More like misfits and underdogs who’ve figured out that making people laugh might be the smartest strategy of all.
Even for bug spray.
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Doug Zanger is the founder and editor-in-chief of Indie Agency News. He is also the founder of the Creative Bohemian consultancy, lives in the Pacific Northwest and is insufferable about it.
