L'Oreal : Looking back on the first Innovation Games final

This year, the L'Oréal Research & Innovation Talent Acquisition Team launched the Innovation Games, a business case competition aimed at giving young talents an opportunity to showcase their creativity and help them transform their ideas into innovative projects.

Because today's interns and apprentices are the leaders of tomorrow's innovations; so who better to take charge of inventing the beauty of the future?

The students were given the challenge of imagining a creative scientific innovation - from sun protection to capillary repair to personalized beauty - that will disrupt the beauty market.

Innovations from consumer insights
After two weeks of benchmarking, conceptualizing, and fine-tuning, five projects out of the fifteen presented stood out because of their creativity, daring, and relevance.

The teams pitched their projects to a jury of experts on connected objects, skin and haircare innovation, and Talent Acquisition. This created an opportunity for the students to network with the members of the jury or even to see their ideas become reality.

The final five innovations covered a large range of consumer needs, from make-up to skin-care.

Innovations comes from the convergence of skills
For this first event, the finalists outdid themselves, presenting 'really fresh ideas made possible by a mixture of their expertises,' as enthused by Frank Brezout, Head of Skincare at L'Oréal's Consumer & Market Intelligence department.

Ultimately, the jury found itself unable to decide between two first-class projects and it was only with the help of the public that the jury finally came to a decision. The public appointed the 'Freeckles' project, a cream designed to enhance freckles, as the ultimate winner for its remarkable harnessing of a mega trend.

'You all took up the challenge and gave us a 360-degree approach to your projects: from design to consumer reality, without forgetting distribution and the media' said Jérôme Combeaud, Talent Acquisition Global Director for L'Oréal Research & Innovation.

Challenges like this one are part of the grand tradition of 'L'Oréal games', like the Brandstorm Challenge, and are aimed at stimulating young talent and an entrepreneurial spirit. It was natural to create one specifically for L'Oréal Research & Innovation when we consider the array of skills in its teams while emphasizing its values of creativity and innovation.

R&I Talent Acquisition Team

Nathaniel Harling
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Feliciana Postiglione
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https://careers.loreal.com/global/en/researchinnovationcareers