A family whitening salon, scaled to a £4m+ DTC brand.
Smirk started as a family teeth-whitening salon. We ran growth from inside the business: UGC-led creative, Meta ads across the UK and US and two product launches that turned it into a £4m+ a year direct-to-consumer brand.
Starting state.
Smirk began in 2014 as a family teeth-whitening business. A great product, a real founder story and loyal customers, but no engine for selling direct at scale.
We joined to build that engine from the inside, running growth as the brand's CMO.
What we did.
Customer content came first. Before and after results, real customers filming their own routines and product content made the promise believable in a category where every brand claims whiter teeth. That creative fed paid social on Meta, tested and refreshed constantly.
Growth was never just ads. Budgets were set against stock levels and backend revenue, so spend went up when the business could fulfil it. We launched new products into the audience the creative had already warmed, including a whitening powder and an ultrasonic tooth cleaner, and took the brand from the UK into the US.
- Growth leadership from inside the business as CMO
- UGC and before and after creative production
- Meta ads across the UK and US
- Product launches: whitening powder and ultrasonic tooth cleaner
- Budget planning against stock and backend revenue
“In whitening, every brand claims results. Real customers showing theirs is what people believed.”
Joseph B. Kent
Outcome.
The first year brought in £1.5m. From there we grew Smirk to a £4m+ annual run rate across the UK and US, and £15m in total while we ran growth. New year demand drove the biggest months, with £380k in January and February, and Meta ad spend passed £1.28m in 2023 alone.
What we took from it: brands scale when creative, product and stock are run as one system, by a team close enough to the business to see all three.
- £15mgenerated while we ran growth
- £4m+annual run rate across the UK and US
- £380kpeak months, January and February