Testimonial: L’Oréal’s Virtual Gaming Learning Expedition

We talk to Bérengère de Laporte, Digital Transformation at L’Oréal, about the longstanding partnership between L’Oréal and WDHB, and especially about “L’OréalCon”, a Learning Expedition like none we’ve done before. This week-long adventure for L’Oréal’s global community of brand presidents took place in a wide variety of virtual worlds, immersing the participants in the world of gaming and getting to the heart of what this mammoth ecosystem is all about.

Transcript

Hi, thank you so much for doing this! I quickly wanted to have a conversation about our collaboration and the Video Gaming Learning Expedition we worked on together – the impact it had, and where it all started. I mean, this was just like one part of the bigger puzzle piece, it all started six years ago. We have done many other programs together with different populations within L’oreal, it’s really a long-term partnership. 

I remember, I think it was two years ago or three years ago when we first had this discussion, when we were like, “Okay, we want to do something for our brand presidents”. But we had many different discussions on different topics, and finally, we ended up in this crazy world of gaming. The intended outcomes were really to crack and to understand gaming beyond entertainment. The second objective was really to explore and to live this paradigm shift – the best way to do it is really to experience it. 

We have indeed been very imaginative with experiencing virtual reality with Oculus on a daily basis, like putting in place a competition with Minecraft and attending a Twitch session, so we had a lot of different experiences. Finally, I would say the third objective is really to make sure our brands can, at some point, really engage with this audience to move forward in this new ecosystem.

Absolutely, I mean you mentioned the gaming session, you mentioned VR experiences on the Oculus Quest, and you just add engaging conversations with psychologists, with game developers, with gamers, with CEOs of the gaming industry, and you get this interesting cocktail. But what was the general feedback after the program and during the program? 

Actually, everyone struggled through the journey because it’s not easy to enter a world you don’t know, you don’t have the codes. Minecraft is not easy – if you don’t know how to do it, you need to learn. So, clearly, in terms of a learning curve, it’s been massive, a big shift in terms of mindset. What’s changed is that now it’s part of the conversation. It is properly embedded in the strategy and it’s part of the discussion. 

What do you like the most when you do projects with WDHB, with our teams? What I like the most is you don’t have any limits, so we can all be super ambitious. I really appreciated the vision and the craziness you all have but it’s combined with this super down-to-earth and pragmatic delivery mindset at the end. I know we had really crazy ideas, but finally, we did it. You know how to bring inspiration, and still, you know how to bring impact because you are super action-driven. 

I was super impressed with your ability and capacity to really empower the participants and make them really rise to the next level, the discussion level. It’s super important to have that impact and to make sure we have a good ROI at the end. So beyond bringing inspiration, and really, you are very good at that, it’s about making sure as people, that we are achieving our goals and we reach our KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).

Top 3 Points Made

From the transcript, the top three points discussed are:

1. Long-Term Partnership and Evolution of the Collaboration: The conversation begins with a reflection on the six-year-long partnership between the speakers’ organizations. They discuss the evolution of their collaborative projects, highlighting the various programs they have implemented for different groups within the organization. The focus is on the growth and development of this partnership over time, leading to innovative and diverse projects.

2. Impact of the Video Gaming Learning Expedition: The speakers detail a specific project focused on the world of gaming, with objectives like understanding gaming beyond entertainment, experiencing a paradigm shift, and engaging with new audiences. They mention immersive experiences like using virtual reality with Oculus, participating in a Minecraft competition, and attending a Twitch session, emphasizing the varied and creative approaches they took to explore and understand the gaming ecosystem.

3. Feedback, Learning Curve, and Strategy Integration: They discuss the feedback and learning experiences during the program, acknowledging the challenges and the significant shift in mindset among participants. The program’s impact is noted in terms of its integration into strategic discussions and embedding of gaming into a broader conversation and strategy. Additionally, the speakers appreciate the ambition, creativity, and pragmatic approach of their collaboration, emphasizing the importance of inspiration, action-driven initiatives, and achieving tangible results and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).