Scholarship winners announced for IE University’s Marketing Challenge, held in partnership with Salesforce and L’Oreal-NYX

IE University recently hosted, “The Beauty of Marketing in a Cookieless World” challenge focused on the use of first-party data in the beauty industry in collaboration with Salesforce and L’Oréal.

The challenge was led by Professor Oscar Lopez from Salesforce and Leticia Montenegro from L’Oréal, who emphasized the importance of first-party data in creating an ultra-personalized experience.

“At L'Oréal we want to create the beauty that moves the world and we are immersed in a technological transformation that allows us to offer our consumers personalized experiences around beauty. And to achieve this, we have the strategic support of Salesforce.”

“It is always a real pleasure to be able to collaborate with educational initiatives that promote digital talent. And in this case, collaborate with the Marketing Challenge organized by IE and share our vision in data and relationships and experiences with consumers. We have also seen innovative and very creative proposals to redefine the future of beauty.” Leticia Montenegro, Head of CRM L’Oréal Spain & Portugal.

Participants were asked to create a relationship program for NYX, a professional makeup brand owned by L’Oréal, that could adapt to the new marketing, technology, and privacy changes in a cookie-free world.

“L'Oréal is one of Salesforce's biggest clients worldwide, so it seemed very natural to organize this challenge with them. Leticia's generosity and professionalism allowed us to complement the more theoretical masterclass with practical examples of how things are done in the CRM area of L'Oréal Spain and Portugal. This joint work also resulted in an exciting challenge, for which we have received numerous proposals, with an exceptional level of quality from the candidates." Oscar Lopez, Salesforce & Adjunct Professor, IE Business School

To take part in the program, participants were required to present a strategy of no more than 7 slides and create a video lasting between 3-5 minutes.

The top 3 finalists were selected to present their projects to the panel of judges and the winners were announced on April 26th.

Here is what the first-place winner had to say:

“I wanted to pursue a new challenge in my professional career by enrolling in the Master in Market Research & Consumer Behavior at IE Business School to gain a better understanding of consumer behavior for accurate business decision-making. During the application process, I came across this IE challenge (with Salesforce & L’Oréal) which offered scholarship opportunities. I was curious, so joined to participate. The classes were enriching, demanded creativity and overall were quite complex. I researched the brand, consulted marketing experts to create my consolidated 5-minute pitch.”

“I was able to present my ideas to the judges in a captivating manner despite being given limited time and slides to present. I also really appreciated that they showed us the work of the other candidates after they announced the finalists, I must say they had excellent submissions. I am very grateful for the opportunity, and I am excited to start this new personal and professional challenge in September 2023.” Francesca, IE Challenge Winner

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