> THE FACT

After the Make-up Bar trial in Carrefour Planet stores which allowed people to virtually apply their make-up after having taken their photo, L’Oréal-Paris is now offering an iPad app which lets you test an exclusive selection of the brand’s products directly on your digital face, such as: foundation, eye-shadow, lipstick etc. The app also provides access to coaching videos from professional make-up artists and to educational software designed to teach best practice. Lastly, it has created a user community, the “VIP Club”, where consumers can share ideas and benefit from advice and offers.

> THE ANALYSIS

Following on from sites, blogs and other Facebook pages, now it is apps that are providing brands with new opportunities to get their message across, enabling them, at the same time, to break out of the strict confines of their product sector and to offer their customers new experiences. Here, product awareness is working to spread new knowledge and the sharing of comments via social networks that are being stimulated by the brands personalising offers. By becoming teachers and “activators” of exchanges on social networks, are brands not thereby also helping to transform each of their customers into media?