1. L’ORÉAL BRANDSTORM

 L'ORÉAL BRANDSTORM (hereinafter the "Competition") is an international innovation competition organized by L'ORÉAL SA (hereinafter "L'ORÉAL”), a corporation with a capital of 112 016 437 40 Euros, registered with the Paris Company Trade Register under the number 632 012 100 with its headquarters located at 14 Rue Royale, 75008 Paris.

The aim of the Competition is to offer the students a pedagogical and professional experience and the opportunity to innovate within the beauty industry. This project is a part of the L'ORÉAL international human resources communication strategy and aims to enhance students' entrepreneurial skills, creativity skills, and perception of the L'ORÉAL business.

No participation fee or purchase is required.

2. WHO CAN PLAY?

L’ORÉAL BRANDSTORM is a Competition for undergraduate and graduate students who study in one of the participating countries and satisfy the conditions set up below (hereinafter the “Participant(s)”).

The final list of the participating countries will be accessible from the platform: brandstorm.loreal.com (hereinafter the “Platform”) on October 8st, 2018.

Students must be eighteen (18) years of age or older to participate. Any under-age Participant must have the consent of his or her parent or legal guardian to accept the Official Rules and participate in L'ORÉAL BRANDSTORM.

Students attending a post-graduate course (e.g. doctorate programme or MBA) cannot participate (except for post-graduate courses in India and Israel, please see article 20. SPECIFIC PROVISIONS FOR CERTAIN COUNTRIES)

Students eligible to participate should not yet have acquired considerable professional experience (i.e. not more than two years of work experience. Internships, apprenticeships, summer job experiences and auto-entrepreneurial work do not account into work experience). Students who have already played the Competition in a previous year and reached the international finals cannot participate another time.

Students who did an internship in the department of the brand concerned by the case study during the two (2) years preceding the Competition cannot participate in the current edition.

The Participants have to compose a team of three (3) students. Students participating in an international exchange programme, e.g. Erasmus or exchange students have to participate for the country they are studying in at the point of registration.

Participants are only allowed to register in one team.

The three (3) members of a team must be studying in the same participating country (hereinafter the “Team”). It is not possible to change the university during the competition. If a Participant changes universities during the Competition, he or she will still be registered under the starting university. 

All members of the Teams must have a valid e-mail address.

L'ORÉAL reserves the right to check the validity of the registration information submitted by Participants at any stage during the Competition and to ask for copies of ID documents and/or student cards from the school or university cited by the Participants. L'ORÉAL also reserves the right to refuse participation, or to disqualify, at any times during the Competition, Participants (and their Teams) without justifying it. Submitting incorrect or misleading information will lead to refusing or disqualification of participation.

3. COMPOSITION OF THE TEAM

 It is not possible to modify the composition of the Team after the submission of the pitch.

In the event that the number of Participants in a Team is reduced to less than three (3) members, the Team shall be disqualified. However, L’ORÉAL reserves the right, not to disqualify Teams in which a team member had a legitimate reason to leave their Team, as long as there are at least two (2) team members continuing the Competition. The reasons considered as legitimate by L’ORÉAL are the following: pregnancy, accidents or hospitalization.

4. DELIVERABLES REQUIREMENTS

 All the deliverables must be done in English.

The presentations must be submitted as PDF. The format of the presentation should be 16x9. No other elements like  music, videos, animations etc. should be included in the presentation.

 In case a video presentation is requested by the country selection process, Participants  hereby expressly declare that they hold any and all rights and all necessary authorizations required regarding these recorded elements.

For the National Selection round, a PDF or MP4 format may be required according to the country selection process.

5. THE COMPETITION FOR BRANDSTORM PARTICIPANTS

1. The schedule

 The Competition will start on October 1st, 2018 with the opening of the registration process and will end on May 24th, 2019 after the World Finals ceremony.

Based on local needs, countries might add additional stages between the Registration and World Final periods. Further details regarding the schedule in each one of the participating countries will be given between October 1st, 2018 and March 31th, 2019 through the Platform (brandstorm.loreal.com) or via e-mail.

1. Steps of the Competition

The Competition process consists of 3 main stages:

Step 1: Online registration

Step 2: National Selection*

Step 3: World Finals in Paris

*Additional steps might be added within the National Selection stage, which will vary depending on the country

Step 1: Online registration

 To register Participants should: 

• Go to the Platform: loreal.com;
• Click on [SIGN UP] to start the registration
• Follow the registration procedure and fill in the registration form, providing all mandatory information (first name, last name, e-mail address, password, country of origin, country of study, school or university, specialization, graduation date, field of study, linkedin account link and mentor’s email address)
• Click on [SIGN UP] to confirm their registration

Once registered, Participants will have the opportunity to use the Platform to register a mentor of their choice to support them throughout the steps of the Competition. Mentors will be approved and validated in each country by the local BRANDSTORM manager (Participants will refer to their local BRANDSTORM manager for further details regarding the eligibility of the mentors).

When completing the official registration form, the Participants will be asked to accept the Official Rules. Failure to accept the Official Rules will prohibit the completion of the official registration forms. Participation in the Competition is subject to each Team's online acceptance of the present L’ORÉAL BRANDSTORM Official Rules and the signature of the appropriate local documentation relating to the assignment of intellectual property and images rights, if any.

Release of the case:

 The release date may vary depending on the selection process chosen by the countries. For example, if a country is running the Hackathon selection process, the release of the case will be postponed to that date.

For the majority of countries, the case will be released on the countries Brandstorm pages on October 8th, 2018.

Additionally to the case, Participants get access to confidential data and materials to help them execute their pitch.

Stage 2: National Selection:

The national selection may consist of several different rounds (including both online and offline methods) each having different requirements. Please refer to the local country page for more information.

Countries will select one winning team but have the right to not qualify any teams based on the decision of the national selection jury. An additional runner-up team may be selected depending on the country.

Stage 3: World Finals

 The National winners will be invited to join the World Finals held in Paris on the 22nd -24th of May 2019.

• Submission of the pitch:

 The Teams will be invited to pitch the main idea of their project through a ten (10) slide presentation maximum.

The presentation has to be submitted online through the Platform and in a 16 x 9 format. 

• Form of presentation:

 Each Team has to present their idea in a five (5) minute maximum presentation. Afterwards, there will be five (5) minutes of discussion, where the jury will ask questions related to the idea for the Team to answer.

The exhaustive list of required materials for the fair will be given after the National Selection.

The official required materials must not be printed by the Teams themselves. 

L’ORÉAL and/or affiliate cannot be in any way held responsible should the Stage 3 winning Team and/or any of its Team members be unable to travel to France to participate in the World Finals.

The travelling expenses (flight tickets and/or train tickets, transfer costs between airport/train station and the hotel or offices) and the hotel accommodation will be covered by L’ORÉAL. L’ORÉAL will be in charge of the booking and payment related to the travelling expenses.

Teams will not be reimbursed for materials or resources used in the preparation of their presentation, or for any expenses related to trips to L'ORÉAL. 

6. JUDGING CRITERIA FOR BRANDSTORM PARTICIPANTS

 At each step, the projects will be evaluated out of 100, based on the following criteria:

 Please bear in mind the relevance of the project regarding the division and market’s needs, the team spirit and the general appearance of the presentation. In the case where there are several submissions with the same score, the priority will be given to the submission which scored highest in the innovative category.

 The judging criteria will be the same regardless whether the presentation is held in person or online.

For the World Finals only, in addition to the four (4) criteria mentioned above, the jury members will be able to grant a “special like” to the projects of their choice.

7. PRIZES

 At the World Finals, one prize will be awarded according to the 4 criteria mentioned above. This year, the reward will be a 3-month Intrapreneurship program. The winning team will get the opportunity to work at Station F as L’Oréal employees. There will be a deadline to begin the program until December 31st 2019. This award gives the opportunity for the winners to work on developing their Brandstorm project into a feasible business model. L’Oréal has the rights of all the intellectual property built by the students. L’Oréal will assign mentors and coaches to guide students throughout the program. The participants of the program will be paid according to L’Oréal payroll standards. More information on this will be given throughout the competition.

In the case of a legitimate reason (refer to the below) in which one member cannot participate, they will be given a money award of 10,000 €. If 2 members cannot do the internship, then each of the 3 members will be given 10,000 € and there will be no intrapreneurship reward. Each Team and/or Team member will be wholly responsible for the payment of any tax, contribution or amount of any kind due in respect of the award of a prize under the Competition.

 In case a disqualification of a team member occurs, he/she will not attend the intrapreneurship and will not receive any prize money.

L’Oréal will assist with visa and work permission requirements. The travelling expenses (flight tickets and/or train tickets, transfer costs between airport/train station and the hotel or offices) and the apartment accommodation will be covered by L’ORÉAL. L’ORÉAL will be in charge of the booking and payment related to the travelling expenses.

*The list of acceptable legitimate reasons are:

 Health Conditions (such as pregnancy, diabetes etc)

Accident

Hospitalization

School/Study Restrictions (formal proof by school must be given)

Visa Constraints (either from the departure country or from the French authorities)
 

8. PARTICIPATION AND INTERNSHIPS

 At any step of the Competition, Participants can be recruited for an internship in a division of the L’ORÉAL Group.

At any time during the Competition, Participants cannot be employees, trainees and/or interns of the teams of L'ORÉAL or of any of its affiliates assigned to the division and brand(s), which is/are the basis of the case study during the same aforementioned period.

Participation in the Competition cannot in any way be deemed to give rise to any contractual relations with L'ORÉAL SA or any of its affiliates and in particular any employment rights.

More information here