STANDING IN SOLIDARITY

L’Oréal Professionnel Paris has launched the French Balayage – Go to Your Hair Pro campaign to support hairdressing. HJ speaks to L’Oréal Professionnel Paris General Manager UK & Ireland, Freddie Banks to find out more

What is the French Balayage – Go to Your Hair Pro Campaign?

L’Oréal Professionnel Paris has launched French Balayage – Go to Your Hair Pro to celebrate and stand shoulder to shoulder with the industry. The campaign is highlighting the importance of the industry to consumers by offering clients £10 cash back, fully funded by L’Oréal Professionnel Paris, when they spend £70 or more on any in-salon service (it must include one colour service) before 15 September 2021*.

The aim is to show consumers that a bespoke professional colour service can only be achieved in-salon. “In July and August, we will be running a huge media campaign to drive people into salons for balayage, which is a top on-trend service,” says Freddie. “We want to drive people back into L’Oréal Professionnel partner salons to have French Balayage, a signature technique created by L’Oréal Professionnel Paris using Blond Studio and Dia Light to create a bespoke colour,” he adds.

How will the campaign support hairdressers?

L’Oréal Professionnel Paris is putting over £1m into the marketing and funding of the campaign with the aim of reaching over 12 million women** in the UK and driving clients into salons for a French Balayage service. The campaign aims to shine a spotlight on hairdressers’ unique expertise for delivering this technical service, as well as encouraging regular appointments with toning and topups every six to eight weeks. “The French Balayage technique can only be carried out by skilled pros and we want to highlight the creativity within the profession,” explains Freddie. “It’s important because it is only available in salons so we want to support all of the stylists working hard out there and get them back on their feet,” he says.

How does the campaign work?

All L’Oréal Professionnel Paris salons can participate in the campaign if they have purchased Blond Studio and Dia Light before 30 June 2021***, as these products are needed to create the service. Between 1 July 2021 until 15 September 2021, clients can visit lorealprofessionnel.co.uk/frenchbalayage-hair-colour where they can pre-register* and find a particpating salon to benefit from the promotion.

Clients pay the full price of the service to the salon and will need to use their receipt to redeem the money back from the pre-register platform.

How has L’Oreal Professionnel Paris supported the industry so far?

L’Oréal Professionnel Paris has introduced a number of initiatives throughout the pandemic to show its solidarity for the hairdressing industry. It was recently awarded the ‘Special Jury Award and Accolade’ by Marie Claire for outstanding contribution of solidarity and support for the hairdressing industry. Recent initiatives included the Hair The Love campaign, which took place in February in collaboration with fashion designer, Gareth Pugh, The Hair and Beauty Charity and Haircuts4Homeless to show support for the hairdressers within our industry who were struggling the most.

The future is bright

The pandemic highlighted the importance of our profession to consumers. “We’ve seen a huge appetite for salon services after every lockdown with searches for ‘Salon Near Me’ growing,****” says Freddie. “Salons were busy for several weeks and in the eyes of the consumer, the role of a hairdresser has been elevated because they’ve seen what happens when they don’t have access to a professional.”

This connection with salons will continue, he says. “Women view in-salon experiences as an important part of pampering and it supports their mental health*****, which has been an issue for many over the past 18 months,” he says. “It’s not just about having the haircut and colour, it’s everything else that comes with the experience of being in a salon, which is being enjoyed now more than ever.”

*Full T&Cs: https://www.lorealprofessionnel.co.uk/go-to-your-hair-pro-consumer-terms-and-conditions **Social Media Estimated Reach ***Full T&Cs: https://www.lorealpartnershop.com/uk/en/lp-cashback/lpcashback.html ****Google Trends, June 2021 - Salon Near me +1700% MoM *****YouGov, Nov 2020