Case File · SOCI Studio @ DNY

Welcome to SOCI Studio.
The studio I built so brands could behave like creators.

SOCI STUDIO
Born at DNY. Built to break the feed.
A case file by Ashley Rudder, the first Chief Creator Officer in advertising. This is the studio that proves the thesis: when the org chart changes, the work changes.
01 The Thesis Why it's first of its kind

Creator Darwinism comes for the org chart.

Audiences trust people over corporations.

Platforms reward watch time, saves, and shares. They no longer reward the impression.

Creators live this in their bodies. They show up ten to twenty-five times a day, building daily cultural touchpoints that compound while a brand waits for its next launch.

Agencies were built for a different physics. Quarterly campaigns. Big reveals. Then silence.

You cannot brief your way out of an org chart that was never designed to behave like a creator.

So I built one that was. SOCI Studio is the first creator-led studio inside a legacy advertising agency.

See what happens when creators run the show.
A studio run by people who grew real audiences, wired into the platforms, producing daily. One shoot becomes dozens of platform-native stories. The brand stops advertising and starts showing up.
02 The Proof Two verticals · live data
RogueConsumer
+338%Organic site traffic, QoQ
+103%Follower growth, QoQ
+24%Non-follower engagement
75%Follower retention, up from 56%

Rogue's own channel turned scrolls into intent. A Tom Segura debut drove the brand's biggest reach since 2023.

Source — Q4 '24 / Q1 '25 Instagram analytics
CityMDHealthcare
3×The health-vertical benchmark
15%6-second view rate on TikTok
3K+New followers from paid
3×Renewed contracts

In a category that rarely goes viral, creator-style storytelling tripled the stopping power of a health brand. CityMD renewed three times.

Source — CityMD Q4 '24 / Q1 '25 test-and-learn report
$500B The size of the creator economy by 2027. The structure is built for where the money is already going.Projection — Deloitte
SOCI STUDIO
Latest Lactaid × Deutsch NY TV · CTV · Social

A brand built on restriction learned to sing about joy.

The platform was a song. “You can have your milk and smile.”

Lactaid had a perception problem with the people it needed most. Millions of women in their mid-30s to late-40s live with mild dairy sensitivity and manage it quietly. They do not call themselves lactose intolerant, and they would not reach for a product that did.

The category had spent decades optimizing for the symptomatic. The largest untapped audience wasn't looking for relief. They were looking for permission. To enjoy what they wanted, without making an announcement of it.

So we stopped speaking the language of the medicine cabinet and started speaking the language of the table. La La Lactaid turned the brand into an original musical platform, a hook that worked as both mnemonic and mood, running across TV, CTV, and social.

Role
Chief Creator Officer, Deutsch NY

Client
Lactaid · Kenvue · HP Hood

Scope
Musical brand platform
Broadcast + social relaunch

Context
Creative anchor of a 7-year
Deutsch NY partnership
Two more :15 social cutdowns, “Mabel” and “Rumble,” extend the same platform. Press play above.
$1.5M
Annual revenue retained by rebuilding an at-risk account.
3 of 4
Campaign concepts approved in testing, against a historical 1 of 4.
7 yr
Deutsch NY × Kenvue × HP Hood partnership it anchored.
1
Repeatable musical platform driving the full relaunch across TV, CTV, social.
04 The Launch June 2025 · Cannes Lions

SOCI Studio launched on the world's biggest advertising stage.

We used Cannes Lions 2025 to introduce Creator Darwinism: the idea that creators evolve faster than brands, and that trust, loyalty, and influence now follow them.

We did not go to close deals on the beach. We went to plant a flag. Real-time content shot and posted from the festival, and a creator panel that became one of the week's standout rooms.

On the Croisette · 2025
From the scroll to the C-suite, in one room.
It was truly one of the standout moments of Cannes. What resonated was how you framed this as an evolution, one where creators aren't added on at the end but built into the strategy from the very beginning. That distinction, between virality and sustained influence, was incredibly powerful.
— John Cobb, CEO, Vue Planner

The companies that win the next decade will not hire creators. They will be built like them.

The Chief Creator Officer role rewrote the job. SOCI Studio rewrote the org chart.