BigPicture2018 : ESCP Business School and Institut Français de la Mode students conjure up personalisation solutions for L’Oréal

Published on June 5, 2018

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A fascinating week-long workshop to challenge traditional beauty industry business models with disruptive innovation.

On Monday 23 April, Dr Marie Taillard (L’Oréal Professor of Creativity Marketing, Co-Director of the MSc in Marketing and Creativity, and Director of the Creativity Marketing Centre @ ESCP Business School) and Brad Fujimoto (Head of the MSc in International Luxury Management at IFM) were delighted to welcome Maud Jullien, AVP Make-Up Innovation and Product Development at L’Oréal USA, to launch the 2018 Big Picture Challenge.

Maud Jullien, AVP Make-Up Innovation and Product Development at L’Oréal USA

For this 8th Big Picture edition, the challenge was to put together a vision for what L’Oréal personalized luxury makeup experience might be in the next two to five years, presenting this vision in a one-minute original video and 3-slide PowerPoint.

As they had done in previous years, by combining creative and analytical methodologies, students from both schools gained both a powerful learning experience and rich business exposure.
“Soft and technical skills are key to success. But also working under pressure, efficiently prioritizing tasks amongst team members with various different profiles and cultures (some of whom they have never met before). It is also a great intercultural journey!” Marie Taillard and Brad Fujimoto agreed.

In mixed teams of 5 to 6 students from both schools, students benefited from coaching sessions by L’Oréal executives, recruitment managers and L’Oréal MSc in Marketing and Creativity alumni, Margot Khelifi and Cyriaque Houdoux, as well as faculty members from ESCP Business School and IFM.

The pressure was on to deliver by Friday afternoon!

Making up the Friday afternoon jury panel were senior industry executives including Jacques Challes, Chief Innovation officer, L’Oréal; Maud Jullien, AVP Make up Innovation and Product Development, L’Oréal USA; Sandrine Gadol, Chief Innovation officer, L’Oréal USA; Guive Balooch, Global VP, L’Oréal Tech Incubator; Emma Shuttleworth, Talent Acquisition Director, L’Oréal France; Laurent François, Executive Creative Strategist, RE-UP agency; Benjamin Simmenauer, Associate Professor, IFM and Marie Taillard, MSc Marketing and Creativity Co-Director, L’Oréal Professor of Creativity Marketing.

The selection process focused specifically on the micro-insight driving each team’s proposed business model and its sustainability, as well as on the quality of the analysis and presentation, and the creativity of the solution and video. In his closing remarks, Jacques Challes commented that “the more you work on a sharp, micro-insight, the better you deliver.”

The first prize was awarded to the multinational team of Elodie Breton (IFM, from France), Melodie Caumes (ESCP Business School, from France), Cecilia Jamil (IFM, from Brazil), Mathias Hupin (ESCP Business School, from Belgium) and Vaiju Ravi (ESCP Business School, from New Zealand), for their “Gift to L’Oréal” concept.

Watch the video of the winning team:

Watch Vaiju Ravi (ESCP Business School MMK student) explanations about what a powerful learning experience and rich business exposure BigPicture was for her: