Jolly Good Web Launches Dirty Jack
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The Client
Dirty Jack makes comedy-driven video ads for e-commerce and DTC brands across the UK and US. Matt, Hayden and Candela started the company filming ads with minimal equipment, and on shoestring budget. Over time they've grown the company to now working with full production crews, full set designs and location filming across the world, and working with a client list that includes AirLandline, Oddballs, Scent Reserve and Jack's Flight Club.
What They Wanted
We spoke to Dirty Jack early on regarding their brand direction and what they wanted not just for the website, but for the company. Matt told us that whilst their comedy ads stack up against agencies charging three or four times their own fees, “we are not considered a real player in the game.” It was clear this brand perception needed to change, putting the agencies’ projects at the forefront of the site, to show any potential clients they mean business and are capable to be in the mix against the larger agencies.
The old site had no visible navigation on the homepage, and their main “lead magnet” PDF pulled in 60% of their visitors but converted almost none. Every case study lived across two separate pages because nobody had gone back to tidy it up once the business had moved on. And the comedy-first tone that built the brand was starting to work against them once real budgets were on the table. It made the operation look smaller and less serious than it actually was.
Once we dug into it, the brief came down to a few clear points:
• Make Dirty Jack look like the real deal without losing what makes them funny
• Leave the paid ad funnel alone. It converts well and pays the bills, so protect it during the switch
• Give the case studies for Air Landline, Oddballs and Scent Reserve room to tell a proper story instead of just stacking videos
• Let the Dirty Jack team run the site themselves, without needing a developer for every update
• Keep the swearing. Just aim it better, at the right people, who will get it!
Matt summed up the balance they wanted on that first call: “I want it to look professional put together, but not lose some of that [chaos]... I don't want it to look too cool.”
Design
The design brief came down to making sure the site was professional enough to hold up in a boardroom whilst still being unmistakably Dirty Jack.
Their pirate logo was a brand staple, a reference to how they ran the business (“we were breaking the rules, Jack Sparrow, pirates”). After discussions, it was this that kept shaping the direction of decisions, and one we leant further into. We kept the bold, capitalised Rock Grotesque font, and fixed an accessibility problem in the old colour palette. The pink-on-yellow combination failed contrast checks badly enough that, by their own admission, it was hurting people's eyes. We tested a light direction and a dark one before settling on something bolder and more atmospheric than the old site.
The homepage is now genuinely interactive. Every case study has a hover-to-play video preview, and looping GIF teasers sit throughout the layout. There's motion running through the whole page too with constant references back to the pirate theme. The case studies themselves moved away from being a pile of videos with no context and became something closer to an actual story which was brand context first, then the thinking behind the campaign, then the work, then the results.
The copy went through a full rewrite, and kept changing right up to launch day. Generic template headlines were swapped for lines that actually sounded like Dirty Jack:
• Air Landline: “Managing business calls f*cking sucks”
• Scent Reserve: “Why do designer brands charge so much?”
• Oddballs: “Look what your mum got me for Christmas”
Development
Dirty Jack were already using Webflow, (the much-beloved platform we stand by) so there was no platform to migrate. What mattered was building the site properly this time. We built it as a set of modular, reusable components, structured so Dirty Jack's own team have the ability to add a new case study without needing a developer.
A few things stood out in the build:
• The campaign landing page. This mirrors the structure of the existing, high-converting homepage, so paid traffic could be rerouted to it without disrupting a funnel that was already converting well by their own admission (their word for it was “spectacular”). Nobody wanted to be the agency that broke something that already worked.
• The case study system. It's built with variant components, so a video shot in 4:3 five years ago and one shot in 16:9 last month can sit in the same layout without cropping anyone's head off.
• Video hosting through BunnyStream. The old site relied on silent GIFs that couldn't be paused or scrubbed. Videos on the new site play properly now, with full controls.
• A rebuilt contact flow. We kept the qualifying questions on the form, since Dirty Jack use them deliberately to filter out anyone without a real budget. Calendly is embedded directly on the site instead of sending people to a separate tab, and form submissions still land in their Slack the way they always have.
• Analytics done properly for the first time. GA4, the Meta Pixel and Google Tag Manager are all in place, with cookie compliance built in from day one.
Challenges We Overcame
The hardest problem was one of tone. Every decision, in design and in copy, had to pass the same test: does this make Dirty Jack look serious, and has it quietly made them boring in the process? Getting either question wrong risked losing the bigger clients they wanted, or the identity that got them noticed in the first place.
Five years of video assets came with five years of inconsistency. Some footage was shot in 4:3, some in 16:9, some vertically for social with no wide version ever made. We found cropped heads and stretched previews in several thumbnails which had to be fixed into something more consistent.
What Made This One Different
Every client has a personality, but few let it show up this directly in their own case study copy. Dirty Jack's did, constantly. Their Slack is full of jokes about the corner of the DTC market they've accidentally cornered. As one of them put it, “there was a period of time we just could not escape the sort of genital market.” One client testimonial name, Bart van Edfelder, gets reused as a running joke across multiple case studies, as if he's somehow the CEO of every brand they've ever worked with.
Working with a team this fast and this switched on changed how we work too. Their pace and clarity on feedback turnaround was sharp enough that it directly inspired a new internal milestone-tracking template we now use on other projects.
The Result
The site went live on the 5th August at dirtyjack.co to a very happy client.
Back in March, Dirty Jack told us they weren't considered a real player in the game. The site that launched looks like it belongs to the agency actually behind Air Landline, Oddballs and Scent Reserve. The humour and the chaos are still there; what's different is that the site now backs it up.
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