The founders of KK & Jay first met while working together in high-end retail, where they discovered they had a common problem: their shirts would become loose or untucked if they reached for high shelves, forcing them to constantly adjust their shirts throughout the day. Improving upon the design of the little-known military shirt stay, they launched their first product in an effort to rid everyone of their tucking problems.
KK & Jay built a devoted following in the 4 years since their debut, but success isn’t without its downsides: demand for their product ushered in a host of imitators, and bad experiences with cheap knock-offs would turn away potential customers before the brand even had a chance to engage them. To distinguish themselves in a suddenly crowded space, KK & Jay turned to the team at Kworq to revamp their digital presence, so that their message can be heard above the noise.
The brand looked to solve two problems with its soft rebrand: many people were not aware why a properly-tucked shirt is desirable, and some wrote the product off as embarrassing at first glance. To tackle these problems, Kworq proposed a variety of educational content to present the effectiveness of the product, as well as a brand voice that leans into the offbeat nature of the proposition.
Kworq developed a strategy to cover the brand’s main verticals: fashionable men and women, wedding-goers, office workers, students, and service members. To best represent the versatility of the product, we proposed utilizing the most versatile word in the English language, fully committing on making “tucking” the core component of the brand voice.
A new online store was designed and developed to replace the brand’s basic squarespace site, introducing a more engaging user experience along with a plethora of educational content. More emphasis was placed on communicating the brand’s mission and story, while accommodating users visiting the site from a variety of different funnels.
One of the difficulties in demonstrating the product’s use cases was that the product itself is invisible during actual use. To mitigate this, the redesigned KK & Jay homepage utilized sprites with a “x-ray” cross-section, achieved by shooting high-speed bursts of the models performing the same actions with and without pants. By showing everyone in their underwear, we also convey the light-hearted confidence the brand embodies.
Bursts were also used to shoot a series of how-to gifs, meant to tutorialize the products. The comprehensive tutorials on the old site proved counterproductive because they gave the impression that the products were difficult to use. By using motion to do some of the explaining, we were able to dramatically reduce the amount of copy in the redesigned site.
The brand refresh included a revamped social media presence, and the beginning of an organized posting strategy for the brand. We applied the effortless confidence and inclusiveness of the new brand direction, along with visual devices such as cross-sections and “tucking” jokes. Moreover, the iterative nature of social media provided insight on what content types were most engaging to the brand’s audience, informing future content.
High-performing social media posts were further utilized for native and banner ads, and rigorous A/B-testing with detailed demographics formed the first comprehensive advertising strategy for the brand. We also created eye-catching vertical video ads for each product category to leverage the increased engagement of Instagram Stories.
Prior to the refresh, KK & Jay’s founders kept a low profile, relying on influencers to advocate for their products. But surprisingly, content featuring the co-founders consistently outperformed, and this realization convinced them to be the focus of future campaigns.
After all, they were their own best brand ambassadors: knowledgeable, accessible, reliable, and always well-tucked
