L'Oréal hunts agency for CRM task

L’Oréal, one of the world’s biggest cosmetics firms, is hunting a direct marketing agency to run its CRM strategy as well as to manage its customer data.
The “because you’re worth it” company normally uses agencies on a project basis, although these can often be substational accounts. However, it is now understood to want a single agency to handle work across a number of brands.
Back in 2011, Gyro was tasked with building customer engagement across the Garnier, Maybelline and L’Oréal beauty brands. The CRM programme, dubbed L’Oréal Insider, was worth a reported £20m, and included both direct mail and digital activity, supported by a major online presence.
According to the blurb, the loyalty club claims to give members an “access-all-areas pass to the glamorous world of L’Oréal Paris” and provides “backstage access to the latest beauty news, expert advice and member-only offers”.
Haygarth – the agency which was recently bought by Rapp – has also worked for the L’Oréal Paris division, while Maxus holds the UK and Ireland media account.
The move follows Panorama claims that Tesco had a major falling out with L’Oréal in 2013. L’Oréal disputed almost £1m worth of charges, fees and fines from Tesco over supplier agreements. It threatened legal action over the disputed amounts and said it would take its products off Tesco’s shelves.
Tesco told the BBC: “L’Oréal is a major supplier for Tesco in all our markets and we value our relationship with them. Differences do sometimes occur in the course of commercial relationships and we always aim to resolve them amicably, as we did in this case.”