Quick answer: Marro and Wonderful Things are flipping traditional OOH advertising on its head with miniature billboards designed specifically for cats. The interactive installations double as scratching posts while encouraging owners to enter their pets into the Marro Meow competition.
Forget Billboards For Humans
What if a billboard wasn't designed for people?
That is the playful question behind Marro's latest OOH campaign, created in partnership with creative agency Wonderful Things.
Instead of creating advertising that simply talks to cat owners, Marro has designed the media itself for the cats.
The result is a series of miniature, cat-sized billboards appearing across London — and they are not just for looking at.
Billboards That Double As Scratching Posts
Each miniature billboard has been designed as a fully interactive scratching post.
Cats can scratch, sit beside and interact with the structures, while their owners are left to discover the advertising messages placed above the claw marks.
That creates a simple but clever interaction: the cat engages with the media, while the owner receives the message.
It turns an ordinary OOH format into something that can actually become part of a pet's behaviour.
When Cats Become The Audience
The activation completely reverses the traditional relationship between advertising and its audience.
Most pet brands create advertising for humans while using animals to capture attention.
Marro takes the idea one step further by making the cat itself the intended user of the media.
The campaign recognises a simple truth about pet owners: people often talk to their cats, photograph them and build their routines around them.
So why shouldn't advertising speak to them too?
Messages Written For The Humans
The billboards use playful messages designed to turn the cats' behaviour into a reason for their owners to take action.
Lines such as “MEOWING AT 3AM? GET PAID FOR IT” and “GO HOME AND YELL AT YOUR HUMAN” connect the physical interaction with the competition's central idea.
Owners are encouraged to enter their cats into the search for the nation's best meow using the campaign hashtag #MeowForMarro.
The humour comes from the fact that the billboard is technically speaking to the cat, while the human is the one expected to respond.
Turning OOH Into A Pet Experience
The campaign demonstrates how outdoor advertising can become more engaging when the physical medium is designed around a specific behaviour.
Rather than placing a conventional poster in front of an audience, Marro creates something that invites interaction.
The scratching posts give cats a reason to approach the media, while the unexpected sight of a miniature billboard creates a memorable moment for owners.
That combination makes the activation both interactive and inherently shareable.
London Becomes Part Of The Campaign
The cat-sized billboards are being seeded across London as part of the wider Marro Meow campaign.
The outdoor activation is supported by appearances from the competition's celebrity judge, Kimberly Wyatt, alongside celebrity pet favourite Merv the Cat.
This helps connect the unusual OOH execution with the broader competition and gives the campaign additional visibility across different media environments.
A £10,000 Prize For The Best Meow
At the centre of the campaign is Marro's search for the nation's best meow.
The winning cat will receive £10,000, with the competition combining public social voting with a judging panel that includes Kimberly Wyatt.
Entries remain open until 11:59 PM on 6th September 2026, with the winner scheduled to be announced between 14th and 18th September 2026.
That significant prize gives the playful OOH stunt a clear action behind it: get your cat involved and submit its meow.
Final Thought
Marro's cat-sized billboards show what can happen when brands stop thinking about OOH as something people simply look at.
By designing the media around cats' natural behaviour, Marro and Wonderful Things turn a traditional advertising format into an experience that can be scratched, photographed and shared.
The campaign is playful, unexpected and perfectly aligned with its audience.
Because sometimes the best way to get humans' attention is to let the cats take over the billboard.
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