L'Oreal Professionel premium haircare products and colorants are marketed exclusively through 5,000 salons, 70 of which have been identified as the L'Oreal Professionel Portfolio - the top salons/chains at the leading edge of the industry. This was our target market.To increase sales we needed to increase L'Oreal's share of the professional haircare market. We therefore needed to add value to L'Oreal's relationship with hairdressers in general and convince Portfolio salons, in particular, that L'Oreal Professionel has 'cutting edge' products, persuading them to buy more and consider replacing competitive brands.We also wanted to develop an initiative for L'Oreal Professionel that could be leveraged to increase its effect. Most hair products are sold purely on efficacy (e.g. 'brighter colour'). We wanted to differentiate by building in fashion. Hair could be part of the 'total look' borrowing values from the fashion industry.To deliver our objectives, we created a relationship with Central Saint Martins. The definitive fashion college, responsible for talents including John Galliano, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney.We briefed Central Saint Martins students to develop a 'Colour Collection' for L'Oreal Professionel, based on forthcoming hair trends. 120 students prouced 500 fashion designs. These were whittled down to 20 outfits for the BA graduation show.a) The eventThe partnership centred on sponsoring the highpoint of the college year, the BA Graduation Show in June.Importantly, as part of the deal, our primary target audience (Portfolio hairdressers) were invited to colour and style the catwalk show - the chance of a lifetime.b) Take Central Saint Martins on the roadThe collection was also put on the catwalk to open L'Oreal Professionel's Colour Trophy Awards (formally Hairdresser of the Year) in May ...... and the 'Curvaceous' fashion exhibition at the V&A Museum in April.c) PR coverageThe event achieved PR coverage in glossy magazines such as ID Magazine and national newspapers. The PR was estimated to be worth in excess of £200,000.d) Leveraging our relationshipWe demonstrated to hairdressers that we were talking to their customers by developing the 'Beautiful Believable Colour booklet', which was cover-wrapped with Glamour magazine (we sent each Portfolio salon copies of Glamour to put in their reception).We also sent salons copies of a subsequent issue of Glamour magazine with a 16-page feature covering the Colour Trophy event. This was totally free coverage - it made good reading for Glamour's readers.A Young Designer's supplement appeared in The Fashion magazine, highlighting up and coming talent. The L'Oreal Professionel/Central Saint Martins intiative was 100% conceived, developed and implemented by Optimedia and our sponsorship partner Connexus. The initiative is entirely event, advertorial and PR based so there was no requirement to involve a creative agency partner. A unique communication programme created by Optimedia that achieved differentiation and literally engaged all elements of the target market.We entirely avoided the clutter of competitive advertising within the hairdresser's trade magazines. Instead we created an event that we could actually invite our key target audience (top hairdressers) to. But more importantly we provided our key target audience with the opportunity to style the catwalk models at a top fashion show - for them, the chance of a lifetime.We were also able to leverage this event substantially, we took the catwalk show on the road and generated an exceptional level of PR and advertorial coverage.L'Oreal have seen orders increase by as much as 20% from Portfolio salons.

The L'Oreal Professionel/Central Saint Martins intiative was 100% conceived, developed and implemented by Optimedia and our sponsorship partner Connexus. The initiative is entirely event, advertorial and PR based so there was no requirement to involve a creative agency partner.