(Mock) Integrated Marketing Campaign: L’Oréal Paris

15 min readSep 18, 2021

In my course dedicated to Integrated Marketing Communications at George Brown College, my team and I were given the task of coming up with a new product idea for an existing company, and creating an integrated marketing campaign surrounding the launch.

My team chose to created an eco-friendly shampoo bar for L’Oréal Paris. The following is our final presentation and report for the course.

(Slides designed by Tetiana Vitiuk)

L’Oréal Paris is a French based company that has been an unwavering leader in the beauty industry for more than a century. In 1909 Eugene Schueller had discovered a hair dye formula which eventually led to what we now call the L’Oréal Paris company.(L’Oréal, 2020) Today the company is considered to be the most successful beauty manufacturer across the world, with profits of 33.4 billion dollars in sales over the course of 2020. (Ridder, 2020)

L’Oreal’s mission statement is to “offer each and every person around the world the best of beauty in terms of quality, efficacy, safety, sincerity and responsibility to satisfy all beauty needs and desires in their infinite diversity.”

L’Oréal Paris is working to reduce global plastic waste by creating eco-friendly alternatives to traditional products. This campaign will feature the new plastic-free, Smooth Intense Shampoo Bar. The purpose of the campaign is to make our audience aware of this new product through digital, social, and television advertising and motivate them to switch shampoo types. The campaign will run from September 1, 2021, to August 31, 2022.

L’Oréal Paris will be releasing a solid form shampoo bar into the Canadian Beauty and Personal Care market on October first. The bars will be competitively priced compared to existing liquid options and be widely available in grocery and drug stores.

The first significant benefit of a shampoo bar is the reduced use of plastic necessary for packaging traditional liquid shampoos. Since shampoo bars are solid, they can be packaged in biodegradable cardboard/paper sleeves, which have a more sustainable production cycle (ecoenclosed.com).

The ingredients used in shampoo bars are more concentrated, making the product’s physical size more condensed (The Yellow Bird, 2018). The bars’ more compact size and lighter weight make them more efficient to ship. L’Oréal will fit more units per standard shipping container, allowing more product to ship in less time (The Yellow Bird, 2018).

Solid form shampoo allows for different ingredient requirements. Most (if not all) ingredients can be sustainably sourced and are not harmful to the environment. Ingredients such as charcoal, coconut oil, shea butter and other natural oils are commonly found in shampoo bars. Since these ingredients are all-natural, no contaminating chemicals go down the drain, such as parabens and silicones (Zero Waste Memoirs, 2021). Regular liquid shampoos are also 70–80% water, so shampoo bars also help to conserve water by a significant amount (Zero Waste Memoirs, 2021).

With the plastic-free product, we will target Canadians who are trying to avoid purchasing products packaged in plastic (PwC Canada, 2019, pg 5). The price point will be CDN$6.99 — the same as 385ml of L’Oréal Paris liquid shampoo at Shopper’s Drugmart. This pricing reflects the belief that eco-friendly products shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg.

L’Oréal’s target consumer is a young woman between the ages of 25–34 who lives in urban or suburban areas of Canada. She is driven and career focused. She wants to make a positive impact on the world.

Our customer is someone who believes in an eco-friendly lifestyle and takes every opportunity to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Her hobbies include outdoor sports such as hiking and biking, gardening, journaling, travelling and listening to podcasts. She is active on social media and is well educated in everything she partakes in.

She is outgoing, empathetic, and believes in equality for all. For people, animals and the planet.

She is frustrated by people who don’t care for the planet, companies who test on animals, and the unnecessarily high prices of eco-friendly products and packaging.

Everyone knows L’Oréal Paris’ slogan ”Because you’re worth it.”

We have decided play on this classic tag line but modify “you’re” to ”we’re.” This subtle distinction is a reference to the planet, that we’re all in this together, and by purchasing more eco-friendly products, we can help preserve our ecosystem.

We have selected these marketing strategies because they are exceptional mediums for raising product awareness in such a large, competitive market. They also reflect the ever increasing use of digital in marketing, as digital spaces are where audiences are.

What may be more interesting though are the mediums we have chosen to avoid, such as out of home and magazines. Because we are an eco-friendly product, we believe our advertising should reflect that. Billboards and print magazine ads are seen as wasteful, and we think it would be misguided to use these mediums given we are trying to help consumers reduce waste.

TACTIC 1

Create a 30-second television spot that visually compares the wastefulness of shampoo bottles to eco-friendly shampoo bars. Television is a potent channel for communicating our message in narrative form to a mass audience. Specifically, longer-form storytelling, when compared to other mediums. Though some data suggests that traditional TV viewing is declining in our target audience, Bell Media’s research indicates that their channels still reach 88% of Canadians monthly, and 28.5 million Canadians weekly (Richter, 2020; Bell Media, n.d.). This medium will certainly raise awareness of the shampoo bar and help emphasize the benefits the consumer will receive by trying it.
Targeted stations: CTV, CTV Drama, CTV Comedy, MTV, E, CityTV, CBC. 

TACTIC 2

Recut a 15-second version of our 30 second TV spot as a YouTube video ad. 77% of 15 to 35-year-olds use YouTube, 44% of which are female (Newberry, 2021). The average visitor on the website checks out nearly 9 pages per day and consumes over 40 minutes of video.
YouTube is an optimal place for us to advertise because of the large national audience and precise targeting capabilities. For example, we can create a custom affinity audience to target people with specific behaviours and interests to reduce spillage. The metrics are much more precise as well, which makes success easier to measure. In addition, we continue to have the benefit of telling a visual and engaging story.

Our next strategy is to develop a PR campaign to promote the Smooth Intense Shampoo Bar across Canada.

TACTIC 1

Write a press release about L’Oréal’s ongoing commitment towards a sustainable future and the launch of its new product, the Smooth Intense Shampoo Bar. As L’Oréal strives to be perceived as a more sustainable brand on the market, the press release would get considerable media exposure to communicate this message. A press release could be picked up by some major news outlets, which would instill trust and confidence in our product. We are planning to post a press release on Ipsos, a prevalent platform amongst media outlets to refer to while looking for new stories.

TACTIC 2

Approach famous Canadian beauty YouTube and Instagram influencers about conducting a segment on the Smooth Intense Shampoo Bar. By letting influencers review our product, we have a chance to get significant exposure from their audience. Influencers who advocate for sustainable brands would likely draw lots of attention to the Smooth Intense Shampoo Bar.

TACTIC 3

Pitch a story to the CBC News about the L’oreal Smooth Intense Shampoo Bar. By doing so, we have a chance to arrange an interview with one of the CBC reporters and to deliver our story to so many people following this particular news outlet.

TACTIC 1

Run a Google paid search ad campaign to ensure that the L’Oréal Paris Smooth Intense Shampoo Bar is showing up on the Search Engine Results Page when our target market is looking for shampoo bars or eco-friendly hygiene products (Axinte, n.d.). Since L’Oréal Paris is launching a new product, it likely will not rank very high in the Search Engine Result Page at first. By initiating a paid search ad campaign, we can guarantee that the Smooth Intense Shampoo Bar will be included in the first 4 results when consumers enter the right keywords into the search bar (Axinte, n.d.).

We will also initiate a Shopping Ads campaign using specific keywords. Shopping ads are effective because they include both text and visuals, and similar to paid search ads, they show up right on the first page of the SERP (Patel, n.d.).

The headlines in the text ads will emphasize the zero waste packaging, reinforcing that the product is environmentally friendly. The descriptions will further explain the benefits of the shampoo, both from a health/beauty standpoint and an environmental standpoint. The ad will wrap up with the theme’s tagline: “Because We’re Worth It.”

TACTIC 2

Run a Display Ad campaign that will appear across the Google Display Network of over 2 million websites and apps, on a pay-per-click basis, (Parks, 2018). The Display Ad campaign will target the following Affinity Audiences (Google Support, 2021):

Beauty and Wellness

Lifestyle and Hobbies >> Green Living Enthusiasts

News & Politics » Avid News Readers » Women’s Media Fans

We will also target in market audiences, customer match audiences based on existing L’Oréal Paris customers, and custom audiences based a on a mix of the previously mentioned audience types (i.e. in-market Green Living Enthusiasts) (Google Support, 2021; Elesseily, 2015).

Finally, we will use demographic targeting, specifying female Canadians, aged 25–34, in urban and suburban areas (Google Support, 2021; Elesseily, 2015).

TACTIC 3

Use Facebook’s Core Audience and Custom Audience targeting features to show single image and video ads (5–15 second snippets from commercial) to female Facebook and Instagram users aged 25–34, living in urban and suburban areas of Canada. Our Custom Audience will target users who like pages about beauty and the environment, as well as the L’Oréal Paris Facebook Page.

Facebook and Instagram are both ideal platforms, as 67% of the population aged 18–29 use the app, as well as 47% of people aged 30–49 (Khoros, 2021). Videos seen Instagram also get 2x more engagement than any other platform, and 83% of users have claimed that they have found new products that they love through Instagram ads (Khoros, 2021; War Room Inc, 2021). As for Facebook, 86% of the 18–29 year olds, and 77% of 30–49 year olds use the social network daily (Khoros, 2021).

Similarly to the text ad, the benefits of the shampoo bar will be emphasized in the captions of the single image ads: “no waste, no chemicals”, “good for you, good for the environment”, however there will be less writing as the image will be the main focus of these ads.

These ads will also include a link to the landing page that can be accessed by clicking the “Shop Now” button.

Again, the tagline “Because We’re Worth It” will be included to tie our theme together.

TACTIC 1

Build awareness by sending one-month pre-launch email and 5 months post-launch to all L’Oréal Paris Canada’s email subscribers.

When it comes to L’Oréal Paris, the company emphasizes emotions rather than the product itself. The approach should be soft and inviting. The email theme, in line with the campaign theme, will be focus on the highlighting Smooth Intense Shampoo Bar regarding its eco-friendly and natural ingredients.

Email Campaign Example:

The emails will focus more on the story and intention of the product, rather than the product itself. We want to emphasize how by using Smooth Intense Shampoo Bar, people are contributing to saving the planet with plastic-free packaging.

We will gradually give them the information about the features, such as natural ingredients and the benefits for their hair later after the product is launched.

During the first 3 weeks of September, L’Oréal Paris will give a sneak peek of the new shampoo bar. One hint per week will be sent(with a total of three hints in three weeks), and customers will be expected to guess by the end of the third week.

In the last week, assuming the product has already been revealed, we will share more details about the product, emphasizing eco-friendliness, and the story behind L’Oréal Paris Smooth Intense Shampoo Bar with a call-to-action to “Remind Me” on the launch date, where subscribers can sign up to be sent a link to purchase the product.

On the Launch Date: A notification about the launch with a link to buy now via our website or at the nearest retail store will be sent to those who previously signed up for the “Remind Me” list.

Post-launch: we will send a thank you email stating how many Smooth Intense Shampoo Bars were sold in the 1st month, and make the message related to the environment (“Thank you for your contribution to saving the planet” or “You have already reduced plastic waste by using Smooth Intense Shampoo Bar”) with a visual from one of our digital/video content/ads.

The post-launch email will also contain positive reviews of our product with a call to action to “buy now” if they have not purchased already.

Lastly, more benefits about the product will be included, such as how much will they save, how their purchase saves the planet and call-to-action to “find out more” about how they can save the planet, which links to information about our next direct tactic.

TACTIC 2

Host two live events after the launch date (one in October , following the launch, and one in April to promote Earth Day) with a credible speaker to talk about the importance of an eco-friendly lifestyle.

We want to build awareness of the importance of reducing plastic and eco-friendly lifestyle in general.

For these events, we will invite speakers that have the credibility to talk about the environment or eco-friendly lifestyle during events in October and April. The events will be addressed to the public. The purpose of the event won’t be to promote our shampoo bar directly, but it will be mentioned as one of the ways to reduce plastic waste, with our shampoo bars as given away as merchandise for the lucky attendees and speakers.

We have decided to implement a Blitz strategy, that pulses as time goes on, because our intention is to build brand awareness quickly. This is reflected in how we have planned our media calendar.

VIDEO

Television will blitz for 3 months, then pulse at an interval of 3 months on and 3 months off to conserve ad spend, since it is the most expensive of all our selected channels. Since digital video and digital display on both Google and Facebook is more cost efficient, we have decided to run evenly for 8 months straight before pulsing.

EMAIL

Our proposed direct marketing strategy is slightly different. Emails promoting the Smooth Intense Shampoo Bar will be sent to existing L’Oréal email subscribers beginning a month before product launch on weekly basis, then pulse monthly for 3 months, then shift to every two months for the rest of the first year.

POST LAUNCH EVENTS

A live event in October, and April around Earth Day, held by the Smooth Intense Shampoo Bar Team; these events will promote an eco-friendly lifestyle as a general theme with a credible speaker, as well as discuss the product details as it relates to eco-friendliness.

PRESS RELEASE

Our press release and news story will happen the week before the product is released to create buzz. Once the product is available, we will implement a blitz strategy with a network of social media influencers for a period of 4 months to generate word of mouth.

PAID SEARCH AND DISPLAY ADS

Since paid search is an excellent way to reach customers who have an affinity for a certain type of product, it makes sense to use search evenly throughout the first year, to create product awareness among people who are interested in similar products.

Since we do not have access to L’Oréal’s historical spending per unit or knowledge of advertising-to-sales ratios, we have decided to use the task method in determining our campaign budget. The way we determined the amount needed per medium is as follows:

TELEVISION

We communicated with an integrated account lead at CBC. She compiled a thorough document for us with a complete breakdown of advertising costs and available slots based on our target market profile. This document provided a total television ad cost of $497,824.64 for 3 months across a range of programs (Barfoot, M. 2021). Bell Media and Rogers Media did not respond to our rate requests. Therefore, we took the total cost of CBC advertising for 3 months, multiplied it by 2 (since we plan to advertise for 6 months total on TV this year), then multiplied that by the number of stations we will be advertising with (7). This provided a total television advertising estimate of $6,969,545 (when rounded to the nearest dollar).

DIGITAL VIDEO

With YouTube advertising we are able to set a daily budget cap, so we have allotted $5000 dollars per day for 8 months. This gives us a digital ad budget of $1,216,667.

DIRECT MARKETING

Our email costs are based on Mailchimp’s premium subscription cost of $950 per month (Mailchimp, n.d.).

We have allotted $20,000 to pay for speaker fees for our online events ($10,000 per speaker).

PUBLIC RELATIONS

In terms of Public Relations, we have an opportunity to promote the product almost without any financial investment. We will only allocate costs on shipping the product sample boxes to chosen influencers. As the head office is located in Montreal, we calculated the approximate cost per 1 medium-sized box to ship from Montreal to Toronto in September. The cost per box was $33.24 CAD. Our team decided to collaborate with 200 influencers and send 200 boxes, hence 200*33,24 = $6,648

PAID SEARCH

For Paid Search/Shopping Ads, we have allotted a daily maximum bidding budget of $2000 per day for 365 days, equaling a total budget of $730,000

DISPLAY ADS

For Display ads, we will set a daily maximum bidding budget of $10,000. $5000 will be dedicated to the Facebook and Instagram targeted ads, and $5000 will be dedicated to the Google Display Network. As we will be running Display Ads for 8 months of the year, our total Display budget is $2,433,333.