Dollar Shave Club has spent the last few years returning to its marketing roots and reasserting its irreverent brand voice. Those efforts continue with the Oct. 20 launch of “Perfectly Good Is Perfect,” a new omnichannel campaign that finds another target in its anti-B.S. advertising: the quest for perfection, in both grooming and the search for a razor.
A 30-second hero video begins with a spokesperson in an ice bath, using a Shake Weight, holding a green smoothie and wearing an infrared mask: all icons of a culture of self-optimization and the looksmaxxing trend. The spokesperson then walks through a bathroom set to show off a lineup of razors that are meant to meet individual consumer needs around shaving.
Dollar Shave Club this year has launched artificial intelligence-powered campaigns around America's 250th anniversary and in support of the company's viral Ball Spray product. The brand, which private equity firm Nexus Capital Management acquired in 2023, is looking to make “Perfectly Good Is Perfect” the platform for future creative.
“For the last six months, we've had a spattering of campaigns that haven't necessarily been connected; they've been more focused on the product themselves,” said Chief Brand and Innovation Officer Laura Higgins. “This concept… will be what ties us together across all the new product launches, and it will be omnichannel.”
The campaign was informed by insights around the rise of perfectionism, including psychological research showing how college students feel more pressure to be perfect than ever before. Dollar Shave Club connected that social phenomenon with concerns about how personal care has become exhausting and expensive — especially as economic concerns have caused some to trade down to lower-quality disposable razors.
“I don't know the last time you used a disposable razor, but man, they hurt,” Higgins said. “It's perfectly good to use a two-blade if you're looking for a comfortable, cost-effective shave; a four-blade for someone that shaves every couple days; or a six-blade for that everyday shaver. It's more about using the right number of blades for you.”
“Perfectly Good Is Perfect” will span connected TV, YouTube, Meta and TikTok, with social activations rolling out throughout the month. Stunts include a “Red-ish Carpet” effort that saw the brand give regular people celebrity-style interviews in a handful of “perfectly good” cities including Cincinnati and Knoxville, Tennessee.
Templates and tool kits for AI
The campaign was created in-house and used real people behind and in front of the camera, but is another example of how Dollar Shave Club is using artificial intelligence to supercharge its marketing. AI was used for quick visual gags, like the spokesperson holding six fingers when showing off the six-blade razor.
Higgins wrote the brief and worked through the concepts with a cast of comic talent, but the use of AI helped the brand and agency partner Humanaut shorten production time to about two and a half months.
“We didn't need [AI] for the concept, but it helped us push on different areas to start figuring out what those images could look like and how to bring it to life,” Higgins said. “We've had to become more choiceful around where we're using [AI].”
As AI continues to evolve, so does Dollar Shave Club’s principles around using the technology, even in the short time since it released an AI-powered “Danglers” campaign video in July. For example, the company is hesitant to use AI to show shaving in action as the technology still can’t get it right, visually. But the company continues to use AI to automate other tasks, and is working to step up AI use at Truly Beauty, the body care brand it acquired last month.
“We have very strict standards on templates. We have a brand book that is really solid. Every campaign we create has a tool kit with it, for every channel,” Higgins said.
Dollar Shave Club is shooting the second phase of “Perfectly Good Is Perfect” as it incorporates the women’s line into the effort and extends a “Hairbernation” social campaign that has encouraged women to shave only what shows when it's cold outside. Overall, the campaign allows the brand to advertise around value amid a downtick in consumer perception surrounding the brand’s quality.
“There's been a ton of work done over time to enhance the quality of our razors,” Higgins said. “I don't want people thinking of us as just the value brands. In this age of perfectionism, spend money where you want to, but we are perfectly good and we can do it at a good cost.”
