L'Oreal targets ads based on hair colour in online photos

In an incredibly intelligent and innovative move in digital marketing, L’Oreal Ombre hair colour products — born last year from a project that mined YouTube data to tap into a hair-highlighting trend –– have become the first brand to use a technology that places ads on publisher sites based on the hair colour of women in photos.

The ad-targeting technology from in-image ad platform GumGum earlier this month began placing ads for L’Oreal Freia and Preference Ombre products within photos across its network of 1,000 news and entertainment sites from such publishers as Tribune Co., New York Times Co., and E.W. Scripps Co. Different products are featured based on the hair color of the women in the photos. The ads themselves appear at the bottom of the photo within editorial content, and in some cases within a “canvas” ad unit that temporarily takes over the image shown.

The Ombre lineup, expanded earlier this year, was the product of a brand research and innovation team that had noticed a trend toward celebrities using highlights from the jawline down to the ends. The team then turned to a Google research team to analyze the trend in a “social listening” project focused on YouTube, said Malena Higuera, senior VP-marketing for L’Oreal Paris. At-home kits were launched to help consumers recreate the look.