Dollar Shave Club entered 2024 newly independent after exiting Unilever, with upgraded razors but a quieter brand presence. In a category drowning in inflated claims and rising prices, the brand risked blending into the very corporate noise it was built to disrupt.
The challenge was to relaunch Dollar Shave Club’s core products—the Classic Four Blade and Signature Six Blade—both meaningfully improved through extensive research (sharper blades, smoother lubrication) while holding price steady. But the bigger challenge wasn’t performance. It was voice. Dollar Shave Club needed to remind people why they loved the brand in the first place: sharp humor, radical honesty, and zero tolerance for corporate BS.
The objective was to reintroduce these razors in a way that felt unmistakably Dollar Shave Club: bold, real, and memorable. Rather than announce improvements through traditional advertising, the goal was to reignite awareness and consideration by turning community participation into the launch itself—making real members part of the message and rebuilding real trust with the people the brand was built for.
The strategy began with a clear understanding of the audience. Young Fun Value Seekers research deeply, share recommendations freely, and reject advertising that feels inflated or patronizing. They admire Dollar Shave Club for its plain speaking, irreverent humor, and refusal to dress up value as luxury theater.
Product improvements created a real opportunity.
Dollar Shave Club invested heavily in improving its core razors, delivering better shave performance without increasing price. Louder claims wouldn’t win. Credibility would. In a category full of corporate sameness, Dollar Shave Club needed to reclaim its BS-free identity.
Together, this pointed to a simple strategy: stand out by being believable. The brand needed to build excitement around real product improvement, restore its challenger voice, and invite customers into the story instead of speaking at them. Community participation and visible proof that the brand listens became the proof points behind the relaunch.
The resulting strategy centered on turning customers into advocates by creating authentic opportunities for interaction, content creation, and shared ownership, allowing the relaunch to feel earned rather than announced.
That insight led to a radical move: hand the campaign to the people who know the brand best. The big idea became Order of the Blade, a first-of-its-kind customer-run pop-up ad agency where real members created the national campaign from the inside out.
Instead of producing advertising about real people, the brand invited them to become the voice itself. Through an open call to the community, 23 members were selected and brought together for an intensive 72 hour creative sprint. They stepped into every role traditionally held by an agency, shaping strategy, writing copy, debating jokes, and performing on camera.
Order of the Blade came to life through a three day immersive experience designed to function as both event and engine. Dollar Shave Club issued an open call to members through email and social channels, inviting applications via personal videos. From hundreds of submissions, twenty three members were selected and flown to Chattanooga, TN.
A 40,000-square-foot historic Spanish-style building was transformed into The Blade House, filled with more than 200 custom art pieces designed to spark creativity.Over 72 hours, members tested the upgraded razors, brainstormed in breakout rooms, wrote lines using tactile tools like magnetic billboards, and shaped decisions through oversized voting paddles.
Live production remained flexible by design. A professional actor stood ready on set to take direction directly from members, allowing them to craft scenes and dialogue in real time. Between sessions, shared meals, games, and downtime built rapport and sustained energy.
The output fueled a fully integrated campaign spanning streaming video, social, digital, email, and out of home, supported by a dedicated Order of the Blade site documenting the process.
Order of the Blade proved that the sharpest way to relaunch a BS-free brand is to remove the filter entirely and let the people who use the product write the story.
Seventy-two hours inside The Blade House launched a national omni channel campaign across video, social, digital, and out of home. Headlines written by members appeared on billboards and digital placements nationwide, while video content carried their voices directly to market.
Beyond paid media, the story of Order of the Blade became part of the campaign’s impact. Coverage and organic social conversation around a customer-run ad agency amplified the launch and reinforced Dollar Shave Club’s challenger positioning during the razor relaunch.
Equally important, the activation sparked unusually deep advocacy and community connection. Participants maintained an active group chat long after the event, credited the experience with meaningful personal connection, and continued sharing their involvement organically. Several members permanently marked the experience through tattoos and ongoing brand storytelling.
"It was an amazing weekend... What amazed me the most is how we brought 23 random people from across the country with all kinds of different backgrounds, ages and culturally diverse, and we all just gelled. We had way more in common than I realized. We had a group chat that started that weekend that has continued on. It's amazing how I feel like I have all these new friends from this crazy experience... and that's been really special." – David Lee Carpenter
Together, these outcomes reestablished the brand’s voice and created a rare opportunity for a genuine emotional connection with the consumer, demonstrating that community-led creation can cut through the noise and build real loyalty that lasts.
