How One Launch Video Brought 12,000 Orders in Two Days: Dollar Shave Club and 7 Tips for Yours

Key Takeaways

• Dollar Shave Club uploaded its launch video to YouTube on March 6, 2012. Wikipedia, citing The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, says it prompted 12,000 orders in a two-day span, and that the company had to fulfil them.
• The video features the CEO, Michael Dubin, speaking to camera in a deadpan, sarcastic style. The face of the business made the pitch.
• The company was acquired by Unilever on July 19, 2016, for a reported $1 billion in cash. One video did not cause that, but it started the story.
• The lessons transfer to any launch: one promise, a real person, a joke that carries the message, and a site that is ready for the spike.

What the video got right

1. A founder on camera

The video shows its CEO doing the pitch himself. In a category dominated by big-budget brand ads, a person talking plainly was the contrast. If you are the founder, you are your cheapest and most believable spokesperson.

2. One promise, said fast

The video's own description on YouTube sums up the offer in a single line: razors and grooming products for "just a few bucks". Google's research on effective YouTube ads says the same thing from the other side: start strong and get to the point quickly, because viewers can leave. See our video ad tips based on Google's ABCD framework.

3. Humour that carries the message

The tone is irreverent and the title says exactly what it is. Humour is not the goal. It is a way to make a plain value proposition easy to remember and easy to forward.

4. A clear next step

The company made it easy to act on the video by sending viewers to a site that took orders. A launch video with no destination is a trailer for nothing.

What the numbers say, and do not say

• 12,000 orders in two days. This figure appears in the Promotion and Membership sections of the Wikipedia article, which cites newspaper reports. Treat it as widely reported rather than audited.
• 27 million views as of November 2020. Also from the article, which cites the Los Angeles Times and the video's own YouTube page.
• Production cost. The article does not state one. You will see figures online, but we have not found one in a source we can cite, so we leave it out.
• The $1 billion sale. A reported figure for a deal made four years after the video. It reflects the business as a whole.

Case study: Dollar Shave Club, March 2012. A subscription razor startup published a launch video starring its CEO on March 6, 2012. According to Wikipedia's summary of newspaper coverage, orders arrived at a pace of about 12,000 in the first two days, and the company then had to fulfil them. Unilever bought the company on July 19, 2016, for a reported $1 billion in cash. The lesson is not the viral spike. It is that the company had a product, a site and a delivery process ready when attention arrived.

Seven tips for your own launch video

1. Write the promise before the script. One sentence a viewer could repeat to a friend.
2. Put a human in frame. The founder, the maker, or a real customer.
3. Open mid-action. Skip the logo animation. Google advises starting with something happening, not a slow build.
4. Say the brand early, and say it again. Do not rely on the last frame.
5. Pick one tone and keep it. Funny, warm, serious. Do not mix.
6. End with one action. One link, one button, one offer.
7. Prepare the spike. Test checkout, stock and support before you publish. The orders in this case had to be fulfilled, and a launch that cannot ship loses the moment it created.

Plan it in a day

• Hour 1: write the one-sentence promise and three headline options.
• Hour 2: write a 30-second script in six beats (hook, problem, product, proof, offer, action).
• Hour 3: sketch a six-frame storyboard. In MITPO, Sketch turns a written brief into an editable frame plan that you approve before any credits are spent.
• Hour 4: record, or generate the visuals, and cut it.
• Hour 5: ship the page, the checkout and the follow-up email.

FAQ

Do I need a big budget for a launch video?

The case study does not give a cost, so we cannot tell you what it spent. The principles (one promise, a real person, a clear action) do not depend on budget.

Should the founder be on camera?

If you are comfortable and credible, yes. If not, use a customer or a maker. What matters is a real, specific person.

How long should a launch video be?

Long enough to land one promise and one action. Many strong launch videos run about a minute or less, but there is no rule that beats testing yours.

What if my video does not go viral?

Most will not. Treat the video as an asset you can reuse on your site, in ads and in emails, and judge it on orders and sign-ups, not views.