L'Oréal "Age Perfect" Campaign

What is IMC?

Integrated Marketing Communication(IMC) is a concept of marketing communication strategy that deals with all of the firm's marketing activities.It helps the brand to communicate with its customers and build a better promotion planning.

L'Oréal is the world's largest beauty and cosmetics company. It has various cosmetic products such as hair colour, skincare, sun protection, make up, perfumes and hair care. L'Oréal has expanded their business in Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Australia, Africa and Middle East.

L'Oréal UK & Ireland recently launched a new advert for their Age Perfect cream.This campaign was a TV spot created by McCann London,starring Oscar winning actress Helen Mirren who is 69 years old.The new ad was released on YouTube and first aired on ITV on Friday 6th February.It was written by Kate Pozzi, art directed by Andy Tannock and directed by Olivier Venturini through Great Guns.

Helen Mirren for L'Oréal

      This advert focuses on women feeling invisible after a certain age.The advert begins with Helen Mirren being treated like an old lady and offered a seat at a bus stop.She is rightfully shown to be annoyed at being treated like a fragile and frail old lady.The actress then talks about a skincare routine which will make her feel like herself.Helen Mirren is playful,bold,vigorous,active and the advert shows her enthusiastic side to the audience.This ad is less about anti-aging but more about looking good and healthy whatever age you are. L'Oréal's iconic "Because I'm Worth It" slogan was also given a new twist by Helen Mirren.At the end of the advertisement she says "So are we worth it? More than ever". Helen Mirren reportedly asked L'Oréal to keep her photos untouched meaning non photoshopped.

IMC Tools for the campaign:

1. Interactive Marketing : 

This campaign first garnered attention in October 2014 when Helen Mirren was announced as the new brand ambassador for L'Oréal company.Many websites published this news with importance because Mirren is a noteworthy Oscar wining British actress.She has aged beautifully and gracefully and that caught people's attention.The social media and other websites also praised Helen Mirren's fierce and youthful attitude after the advertisement was aired. Famous fashion website Elle.com said that the ad is "pretty glorious".


A detailed video featuring Helen Mirren was also uploaded on L'Oréal's youtube channel where Helen Mirren talked about what perfect age means to her.She says that growing old is rather growing up for her.This ad was also well planned and showed the actress's views on ageing.

2. Advertising :

The advertisement was mainly created for television media because it is a skin care product.The ad showed the importance of skin care routine to look healthy after a certain age.Helen Mirren also posed for L'Oréal looking fresh and simple in a black pantsuit.Her make up was minimal in these shots and she looked radiant cementing the notion that true beauty is ageless.Many 'behind the scene' photos were uploaded on L'Oréal's website.

Helen Mirren Posing for L'Oréal

Target Market : 

This age perfect ad was created keeping the 40 or 50 plus women in mind.This advert shows that every women needs a perfect skin care product for healthy and glowing skin.They selected Helen Mirren because in many surveys conducted by L'Oréal on nearly 9,000 consumers,Mirren ranked top as a woman who appealed most to consumers.Participants repeatedly described her as genuine,intelligent and glamorous with looks that seem only to improve with the passing of time.Her career has been successful for over 40 years and is considered a national pride.

Helen Mirren for L'Oréal

Negative Attitude :

Although the advert was well received due to Helen Mirren's popularity, the company was urged to change the 'bad at maths' line from the TV spot.In the advert,the actress says that  "Age is just a number. And maths was never my thing.National Numeracy tweeted its distaste that the advertising appeared to boast about poor maths skills.In reply, L'Oréal Paris thanked the charity and pledged to change it "right away".

     L'Oréal Paris UK general manager Elen Macaskil said the comment was intended as a playful reference to ageing and was never meant to be interpreted as negative towards maths. She added: "L'Oréal is a strong advocate of women in STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] through our For Women In Science programme and as someone who did double maths A-level I fully support the manifesto for a numerate UK. We listen to our consumers and value their feedback which is why we took the decision to change our communication." L'Oréal handled the matter in a dignitive way and agreed to pull off the line from the commercials.

Recommendation: 

L'Oréal should have used more interactive marketing for connecting with greater audience.Social media could have been used largely for the campaign's profitability.The only thing they focused on was the brand ambassador who was rightly chosen.Apart from that,this marketing campaign lacked connection with the audience on many levels.Billboards,newspapers and magazines should have been used broadly for this campaign.Helen Mirren is a renowned actress and her popularity could have been used more to garner more attention towards the Age Perfect cream.

Reference:

1) http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1332976/

2) http://www.eonline.com/news/592586/helen-mirren-69-is-the-new-face-of-l-oreal-paris-see-the-stunning-photo

3) http://www.bbc.com/news/education-31658852

4) http://www.loreal-paris.co.uk/inside-l-oreal-paris/behind-the-scenes/helen-mirren-photo-gallery

5) http://www.vogue.co.uk/beauty/2014/10/27/helen-mirren-ambassador-for-loreal-paris

6) http://www.elle.com/beauty/makeup-skin-care/news/a26655/helen-mirren-new-loreal-ad-campaign/

7) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'Oréal