Tongue in cheek films by Dirty Jack creative studio.
Air Landline™, the challenger telecommunications brand, has launched a new weekly spoof podcast series, ‘Diary of a Local Entrepreneur’. A parody of ‘Diary of a CEO’, the video podcasts feature hapless, flawed business founder, Paul, interviewing other local entrepreneurs while unwittingly revealing his own struggles.
Dirty Jack, a creative agency that creates attention-grabbing video ads, developed and shot the series, having first introduced the character Paul in online videos for Air Landline™ in 2021. The character quickly gained a following and propelled the brand to 15,000 followers across Facebook and Instagram, with some videos clocking up over 1,600,000 engagements across Meta platforms.
‘I wanted to take what is a quite complex, and frankly, rather dry topic and make it fun and easy to understand,’ said Ash Miri, Air Landline™ founder. ‘I initially came to Dirty Jack with some rough ideas, and they really took them and ran with it. They made Paul what he is today, casting Alex Heath-Clark and creating a wonderfully flawed and relatable character.’
Air Landline™ provides professional landline phone numbers to businesses and individuals, using local codes. No app or desk phones are needed, as it diverts incoming calls to your mobile number. This also ensures high quality calls as users don’t rely on internet/4G/5G connection, and features such as call recording also come at no extra cost.
The new parody series is a take on Steven Bartlett’s flagship podcast and features Air Landline’s Paul as the hilarious, messy, and outrageous business founder who shares his struggles with Air Landline’s audience while also providing valuable insights around Air Landline™ offerings and features. A “pilot” episode that debuted in November saw 168,000 views.
Paul’s slapstick comedy and boundary-pushing jokes have garnered him a sizeable following. In an extension of the creative concept, a spoof website from Paul – https://hothunkyginger4u.co.uk – has gone live, featuring an Air Landline™ number for Paul’s services ranging from “home move” to “stripper”. If contacted, users hear a pre-recorded celebrity impersonator. The site also texts back a link to the Air Landline™ YouTube channel, further showcasing some of Air Landline’s features including welcome messages, hold music and voicemails.
Hayden Brown, Agency Owner and Videographer at Dirty Jack added, ‘80% of entrepreneur culture is simply not reflective of what running a business is really like. It’s hard and messy, and there’s a lot of comedy to be had in that. The comedic stories we tell in our ads are so different to what other agencies create, it really helps with ‘ad fatigue’, common across social media platforms like Facebook’.
The new podcast series sees Paul interview local business owners (played by actors) such as a property manager, salon owner, plumber and ecommerce manager, offering a comedic and insightful look into the world of entrepreneurship from a local perspective. Listeners can expect to be entertained while also learning a thing or two from the experiences shared. The videos will be released weekly on the website, via YouTube and as audio through podcast channels [such as iTunes].
Miri continued, ‘The feedback we received from viewers on the video content served as a major impetus for embarking on this project. The consistent and positive engagement from our audience was a significant motivator in creating a new format for Paul, and expanding our outreach even further. We are excited to showcase this new content to our audience and beyond.’
‘We’ve built a wonderful relationship with Ash over the years’, Brown adds. ‘His open-minded approach has really allowed us to be experimental and that has garnered great results.’
Air Landline™ was founded in 2019 by Ash Miri. Dirty Jack was founded in 2020 and began its collaboration with Air Landline in the following year. The agency makes videos for “brave entrepreneurs to connect with their people”.
To see the latest ‘Diary of a Local Entrepreneur’ episode, visit www.airlandline.co.uk/podcasts
