Speaking at last month’s MAD//Fest, L'Oréals Chief Digital + Marketing Office, Laetitia Raoust, told the MAD//Fest audience that the industry is “at a new digital intersection where technology, consumers, and brands are colliding!” She added that this intersection is “allowing us to really rethink marketing right now”

Whether we like it or not, we are all connected - from cities to right to individuals, and it is those individuals, by adopting new technologies and creative platforms very quickly who are changing the game for marketers and marketing. Raoust said that, “we say, Instagram made us all influencers. Tiktok made us all entertainers. Midjourney made us all artists. So we are in this very new environment for our consumers and brands are responding with really unbounded creativity.”

So how is this influencing how L’Oréal is engaging with its customers? Raoust was keen to stress that despite being 115 years old, L’Oréal is embracing the change and using technology to shape the future of beauty. In fact, she said that the founder instilled this in L’Oreal’s DNA with a boldness and appetite for innovation. 

It starts with people

Raoust believes that everything starts at the top. Culture of boldness comes from the top and that comes from people and not technology. “Our first chief digital officer was hired over 10 years ago… And with her, she led a very impressive digital transformation. We created a lot of new teams and upskilled people to made sure that no one was left behind in the company… People are really at the core of this digital transformation.” 

 Augmented Marketing + Gen AI 

“We believe marketing is transforming, and we call it  augmented marketing.” For Raoust and L’Oreal it’s all about beauty experiences that are both physical and digital, augmented by data across all touch points and all business drivers. And of course, “it’s augmented right now by Gen AI.”

“We’re moving all things, (products, devices, apps), to an AI assistant and we’re fully embracing what Gen AI can bring to our content, to the creation and the creativity.”

This is part of an impressive integration of Gen AI into L’Oreal. Earlier this year a new Gen AI studio was developed at L’Oreal to allow them to experiment with Gen AI in a safe environment to see how copywriters, creators, and marketers can create together with Gen AI. 

L’Oreal’s feedback from working with Gen AI

Raoust stressed that creativity and a good creative direction is still needed. “The best visuals are created in collaboration with our creative directors… The art of prompting is vitally important.”

She then said that the scale at which you can create with new technology is a “very key application” for them. They are now able to create images of high quality, very quickly which is now required for all their touchpoints. 

Thirdly, they have the ability to train the models on their brand’s data sets. “The more we do this the more we are able to create really good relevant content.”

Watch all of Laetitia’s great session here and find out about:

  • How L’Oreal is working with creators or skinfulencers, as it calls them, and technology to claim around 30% of influence globally in this space
  • Her top tips on working with tech to supercharge your marketing
  • Why L’Oreal’s appetite for innovation will never die.  

All the MAD//Fest 2024 sessions are now on our YouTube channel. Great to watch whilst you’re on the beach, on the train, or at work!  Over the course of the summer and next few months, we'll be summarising and highlighting several of the standout keynotes (like Laetitia's), so you can have a weekly dose of marketing inspiration!