See the Spots: Dollar Shave Moves Into Skincare With Seven Videos

Dollar Shave Club is moving into men's skincare with a new brand, Big Cloud, backed by seven online videos created in-house that point out the humorous foibles of using, or not using, existing skincare products. "As we talked to members, what we found is that guys didn't use any skin protection products because they didn't know they were supposed to or what they were supposed to use," said Alec Brownstein, Dollar Shave's creative director, who led an eight-person internal team on the campaign. "Or they didn't like skin protection products because they were too greasy or shiny or had a residue. That led us to the insight that essentially you're damned if you do and damned if you don't." That led to spots, using the same applicant for a job interview, alternately suffering the woes of having hands that were too dry or too greasy when he shakes hands with his interviewer. Or another man doing a presentation that's marred either by the stripy sunburn he gets from venetian blinds in his office or by the glare of a shiny sunscreen. "Skincare is an interesting category for us because it's one a decent number of men aren't even using today," said Dollar Shave CMO Adam Weber. "It allows us to do what we've done in some other categories, like butt wipes, by thinking about what men are doing and how we can change behavior." Men's skincare has been a big but largely unfulfilled dream for many marketers in the U.S., where it's a $263 million category growing about 3% annually, according to Euromonitor. Globally, the category is $3.5 billion and growing more than twice as fast. The Big Cloud campaign will start online, particularly aimed at Dollar Shave's existing 3 million members, mainly buying razors and blades, but some also buying the aforementioned One Wipe Charlies, Dr. Carver's shave prep and Boogie's hair styling aids. The spots are clearly broadcast quality, directed by the Spielbergs -- Teddy Blanks and Alex Karpovsky -- but not initially destined for TV. That's not ruled out forever. "If the work is having a positive business impact, we will take it to the right consumer audience wherever we can find it," Mr. Weber said. "We don't hold back the good stuff for TV," Mr. Brownstein said. "We treat every piece of creative as if it could be on TV or online."

See the Spots: Dollar Shave Moves Into Skincare With Seven Videos

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