Case Study
L'Oréal
Beauty and Cosmetics
Eye Toward the Future
With more than 80,000 team members globally and 36 brands under its umbrella, L’Oréal is not just the No. 1 beauty company worldwide — it’s also a massive employer.
“We wanted something that would allow us to do live broadcasts to a high standard but without a professional crew and professional cameras every time.”
Michael Lake, Recruitment Manager for Global Campus Activation at L'Oréal
The Challenge
Michael Lake, L’Oréal’s recruitment manager for Global Campus Activation, could tell that the old ways of recruitment weren’t working.
“The way you attract candidates is changing, and the way you approach recruiting from colleges and universities is changing,” he says. “The traditional way of doing a corporate presentation and talking about how great the company is — or going to a career fair and talking to people who are already interested in you (because otherwise they wouldn’t have stopped by) — is a little bit old-fashioned. It doesn’t allow us to capture what we really want, which is really a very diverse candidate pool.”
Lake, who’s based in London, decided to try using live video in L’Oréal’s recruitment efforts. He wanted to take advantage of their existing reach on social media. So his team hired a professional film crew to stream a live talk on a college campus, and, though successful, it was unsustainable financially. When L’Oréal tried to recreate the talk in another country, they found the film crew costs prohibitive and ended up broadcasting the talk live using a basic streaming app on a single device, producing lackluster results.
Lake began seeking an alternative. “We wanted something that would allow us to do live broadcasts to a high standard but without a professional crew and professional cameras every time,” he says. They needed:
- An affordable tool that could be managed entirely in-house
- The ability to use cameras/devices they already owned
- An integration with their existing Facebook page and audience
- The ability to add the polish and visual interest expected from the top beauty brand
- A way to provide true value to viewers in the form of worthwhile content
A Google search led them to Switcher.
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The Opportunity
"We’re democratizing that value by broadcasting that live. Anyone can watch one of our talks any time forever now."
Michael Lake, Recruitment Manager for Global Campus Activation at L'Oréal
The Results
Anyone, indeed. The first campus talk that L’Oréal streamed on Facebook Live with Switcher Studio reached half a million people within its first week. That’s a 3,000% increase in reach compared to the 150 students in the room for the talk — and evidence that their educational approach is resonating with audiences.
“The traditional way gets us in front of 150 people in a room or a few hundred people at a career fair if we’re lucky,” says Lake. “But with this, we can, in theory, talk to anybody. And we can do that in a way that’s interesting, that’s value-added, that’s universally appealing, and also really authentic.”
The ability to make their content available worldwide is beneficial not just in terms of numbers but also in terms of diversity. L’Oréal strives to attract a workforce that reflects the audience they serve — one of different genders, ethnicities, and social backgrounds — which makes livestreaming to Facebook a natural fit. And livestreaming also lets L’Oréal communicate with their viewers in real time, providing valuable educational content while building relationships and their employer brand.
In light of L’Oréal’s success, Lake recommends Switcher Studio to others with an eye toward the future of recruitment and content creation. “They understand that not everyone is super techy,” he says. “They have a kind of foolproof guide for anything you want to do, and they’ll even do one-on-one conversations with you before an event. They are just super supportive, helpful, and friendly.”
He’s committed to continuing to use Switcher and Facebook Live for his recruitment and marketing efforts. “[We] will continue to use live video with Switcher Studio in recruiting and anything else where a two-way conversation is valuable,” he says. “It has made such a difference with accessibility.”
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"But with this, we can, in theory, talk to anybody. And we can do that in a way that’s interesting, that’s value-added, that’s universally appealing, and also really authentic."
Michael Lake, Recruitment Manager for Global Campus Activation at L'Oréal