The Creator of French Loft Story Vamps Sephora in China

Who?
Alexis de Gemini , ex- French ChannelM6 (Big Brother, Popstars, Bachelor and Pekin Express), founded his production company A2G creation in 2009. Laetitia Rambaud, Director, Media and Advertising EMEA at Sephora. Rémi Guigou, Director of the Image of Sephora.Project Managers: Anne Véronique Bruel, President Greater China Sephora, Laurene Dutartre, Marketing Image Manager at Sephora China

What?
The case study “Sephora Beauty Academy”, broadcasted summer 2011 on Dragon TV and the Web, presented at the first evening event China ConnectInTheCity event organized by Laure de Carayon.

How?
30 days of shooting with a team of five French and Chinese 90
10 episodes of 45 minutes broadcasted on primetime, with over 30% audience market share on the Shanghai region
15 million views of episodes on the net
25 million votes combined on the web
51 080 posts around the program on Weibo, one of the Chinese twitters
40,458 blog posts
A production cost equivalent to a programme on TNT in France, or, one third of a prime time on M6.

How?
Alexis de Gemini discovered China with Pekin(Beijing) Express. He moved in shortly after with his family and develops over ten concepts he pitches to brands and channels. “To go to China, it’s better to be small, agile, which many large audiovisual structures can not,” he says. Sephora was seduced by “Beauty Academy”, a format that allows to educate a population consuming more care products than makeup. “In Communist China, there was a total lack of makeup culture. The mother-daughter transmission does not exist. “Beauty Academy is a major competition in 10 episodes, looking for the country best “make up artist”. At stake: a two-year contract with the brand.

A 100% web broadcast was first thought of, before the main Shanghai region channel, Dragon TV, broadcasts the program, the first of its kind (reality TV with hidden mirrors). “In China, 15-35 years old watch video on computers. 35 and over, on TV. A TV broadcast gives coverage and amplify awareness. The Web can reach a younger population, with low purchasing power, but they are Sephora next customers”. Dragon TV took four months to give the agreement for the broadcast of the broadcast it has acquired for free, and wanted the format delivery 3 months after the signing! The local team was recruited in a month.

Chinese law is quite flexible on TV product placement: the main sponsor and its products can appear up to 12 minutes per hour. Sephora has given a list of products and brands to highlight, and the program was written to integrate them. The cast reflects the values ​​of the brand, highlighting a dynamic urban youth. A makeup artist from Benefit has come to give a masterclass, as well as Diane Von Furstenberg. Marc Jacobs held a fashion show specifically for the show. Make up Forever was associated with a challenge shot in Paris at the Moulin Rouge.

TV episodes were all available on video portals and on Yoka, a beauty portal. Rushes were used to design specific videos, around masterclasses and tutorials. The votes were exclusively online, legislation prohibiting voting by phone. Sephora now considers a broadcasting in other countries, and possibly a season 2, more digital, with the establishment of a true e-CRM strategy to maximize the ROI of the brand.

Article published on http://www.petitweb.fr/, http://t.co/IWIquoqq
by Benoit Zante and translated from French by the producer of China Connect in the City, Laure de Carayon