Conference Wrap: L’Oréal Pro.Connect 2024

With a mission to transform the industry and bring out the uniqueness in each and every salon, artist and partner, L’Oréal Professional Product Division’s 2024 instalment of Pro.Connect combined a record number of guests, with more than 300 putting their vulnerable business and personal brand forward for a greater level of connection, writes Cameron Pine.

Adding New Zealand salons to the fold and taking over the illustrious absolute beachfront Langham Hotel on the Gold Coast, L’Oréal New Zealand’s market director, Wesson Van Tonder welcomed the fold from each corner of the PPD camp – setting the scene while taking on the role as emcee throughout the full two-day business program.

“We’re driven by change in our business. We’re a future thinking organisation. We want to bring those changes to you today to enable your business and give you the power that you need to grow,” Wesson said.

As the ‘new PPD, the future of Professional Beauty’ slogan played in the background the group set out the expectations loud and clear by admitting their huge responsibility to guide, care and to further valorise the true power of professional hairdressing.

Beginning all things beachside and poolside, welcome drinks set the mood for a few days of a lot of information, connection and fun for every type of salon owner or artist, and what ensued was one of the most comprehensive salon business programs we’ve seen in a long time.

Three years ago, L’Oréal PPD made the strategic decision to digitalise their B2B ecosystem, enhancing their relationship with stylists and salons.

With the overall objective to better connect to each other and go home with coping mechanisms in a very stressful time for business owners, the program was designed to be centred around ways to enhance your profile physically and digitally, while being fortunate enough to have a dynamic duo from TikTok to share some insights into just how many consumers are out there waiting to be reached on the dynamic platform.

Omnichannel Commercial Director Cara Riley spoke to the overall vision and potential of the professional market.

“Can you believe as Carlos Figueiras, our PPD GM, mentioned, we’re actually nearly a third of the market within the professional haircare market, which is huge, largely so with many of our brands also in the top ten, but with that we have a massive responsibility, and with that responsibility is also tapping into the consumer,” Cara said.

“We know that about 63 per cent of prestige skincare consumers, that’s consumers that use like YSL or similar do not actually purchase premium haircare. So that means we have an amazing opportunity to recruit almost 2 million new consumers to the professional haircare market – and that is huge.”

As a company L’Oréal takes community, it’s partners and the environment seriously and this year have continued to announce their recent partnership with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation to show their dedication to environmental processes, having so far invested 46 million dollars into environmental projects. They can now proudly say that all of their products are made with 85 per cent recycled plastic.

The first speaker of the ensuing days was Erin Deering. Hosted by M Division’s David Mannah the duo spoke of her success, turning the Triangl swimwear brand into a 200 million dollar business and author of the book, Hanging by a thread. From treating every customer like your first customer to being comfortable with being uncomfortable and never cutting costs on things the consumer will notice, Erin’s story was one of self-belief and resilience.

L’Oréal’s very own education superhero duo, Sylvia Stewart and Jordan Kidner spoke of the resources that continues to help us better understand our customer. They were then joined to the stage together with Sandy Morgan and Kelly Li to talk through future trends and to uncover what the salon of the future really looks like.

“We know that in this phygital (physical + digital) world we live in, online and offline education both matter, so in 2024 and we wanted our face-to-face component of Pro.Connect – our very own business education program to be bigger and better than ever,” Jordan said.

“This year and for the first time we brought together our business savvy clients from Australia and New Zealand all in one place for Business Forum. Why? To strengthen our sense of community and to celebrate the incredible salon businesses that are part of the L’Oréal PPD family. It’s all about inspiring, connecting, and creating together.”

“We are entering a time of transformation where much seems to be going in the wrong direction – the shifts in climate, the economy and socio-political tensions are worrying but may also indicate a move to a promising future – the repair of a malfunctioning system into one that may work,” said Sylvia. “As am industry leader it’s our responsibility to shape beauty for the better. Beauty can bridge emerging communities and embracing new norms. The future is built on knowledge wisdom, technology and culture.”

Taking a look at the six macro beauty trends for the future, together the group delved deeper to understand the power of these trends and how together we create positive change. These trends include Singularity, Trust in People, Spectrum of Values, Medicalisation, Eco Systemic Wellness and Vital Escapism.

Heading over into social media, attendees heard from two experts at TikTok.

“With a top search being hair transformation videos that show others how they create content – people want to see the human behind it now and we really recommend posting twice per day on each day across both platforms such as Instagram and Tik Tok,” Tik Tok’s Stacie Poulos said.

From how to build a profile page to tips on the biggest trending reels, hashtags and engagement tools – the room was pumped to boost their TikTok offering, but also share content between multiple platforms to elevate their overall presence.

Redken Artist, salon owner and TikTok star Kaine Vakai then took to the stage to tell his personal journey, and how in just a 12-month period he amassed a following of over 291,000 – and more than 8.8 million likes.

“For us it’s all about getting clients through our doors, promoting individually in my salon, our personality and is the best way to truly showcase my point of difference,” Kaine said.

Continuing with brand immersion and education, each brand’s strengths and unique insights and strategies were leveraged. Sandy Garcia and Kelly Li – brand managers across both French and American brands – talked through the why and what to look out for different for the remainder of 2024. Karen Strano also educated on the power of the consultation, using the L’Oréal Professionnel consultation app.

Rebecca Broadhurst, Head of the Professional Channel, paid tribute to some of the key salon owners’ loyalty in the room, while shouting out to Maurice Meade for the immense 50 years with a birthday tribute. Attendees also heard from Sophia Hilton from the UK, a highly awarded salon owner of Not Another Salon, also famous for her Hilton One Hundred program and Not Another Academy modules, which have educated more than 12,00 students globally.

“I originally set out on my journey because I wanted to connect to young people in a way they haven’t been connected to before. I wanted to create an environment that was fully inclusive where young people could express how they previously weren’t able to in the workplace,” she said. “For the most part I’m proud to say it worked and I’ve made some huge changes in the industry in the last 10 years – we also changed the way gender has been seen in the salon.

Talking through how she lost sight of her original objectives as she grew too big, Sophia shared a vulnerable video she hadn’t shared anywhere else – breaking down and talking her way through how she was going to get her brand back after a huge salon walkout. Through rawness she created relatability in the room by discussing and not judging from things such as the self-employed revolution, which is 68 per cent of the market in the UK, and how every generation always speaks of the last as lazy or not motivated, yet it’s up to us to re-wire ourselves to make changes and not be victims of it. She also education on inclusivity and being informed on mental health so conversations can be had safely in the workplace.

From various initiatives and platforms, Head Up launched in 2023 to help salons with terminology and practices around mental health, strategies and boundaries that further realise L’Oréal’s mission to give you the tools you need to navigate where business is.

Keeping the salon conversation’s flowing, Mocha Group’s Jared Stedman then ran a panel to talk about ‘contextual truth’, a concept he made up from the idea of two salon owners or two people with different needs and how to bridge the gap and openly discuss and learn from the idea of somewhat conflicting truths.

“Two or more right answers for the same question allow us to not only understand other’s points of view but also be more open to learning,” he said.

The Panel featured well-known single and multi-salon owners Belinda Robb, Sam James, Brodie-Lee Tsiknaris and Helen Owens. Together they emphasised the importance of retention in their salon and how to prioritise it over creative work, how to motivate staff and create content with them to enter into awards’ submissions, the importance of creative work to the stylists but also discussing very serious issues such as community projects, domestic violence and how they have navigated some very difficult situations and created their businesses to be a ‘safe space’ for many.

The beauty industry faces numerous challenges, including sustainability, mental health, and collaboration. Sam James emphasised the importance of understanding the context of one’s business, while Helen discussed the challenges of staffing and growth. Belinda shared personal experiences with the pandemic’s impact on the industry, and Brodie emphasized the benefits of using L’Oréal access for education to name but a few.

Paul Frasca from Sustainable Salons spoke about the various sustainability milestones and achievements through the industry and the company but also how purchasing decisions are made based on values.

“Consumers are 38 per cent more likely buy a product or service based on values over any difference in product or service,” Paul said.

Janine Allis spoke to her incredible journey as an entrepreneur from Boost to the portfolio of brands as part owner and founder of Retail Zoo, but most importantly heartfelt questions around humanity, the why, stripping away the unnecessary expectations and being prepared to fail or for people to want you to fail.

“It’s not just about worrying about that profit the drops out the bottom of a business but also the affect it takes on you as a person if you allow any business to steer away from your goals and objective of why you set out,” she said. “As soon as you lose this, you start to feel a victim of your own reality. It’s important to always be the student and take accountability in everything that we do.”

Having a great passion for business over sales, a love for surfing and taking time to reflect – Janine is a true example of success by numbers doesn’t just come from crunching numbers, just looking at the more than 2 billion globally in sales she has helped amass as part of her entrepreneurship.

The professional setting emphasised the importance of embracing innovation, staying ahead of the curve, and prioritising culture and values. It also highlighted the need for agility and adaptability, and stressed the importance of being open to new ideas and perspectives before popping out to Cali Beach Club for the ‘Pro Chella’ party where guests had the entire rooftop bar to themselves to immerse in a booth and installation from each brand.

It’s also where we at INSTYLE interviewed guests on the many things they learnt, building hours of content under the guise of ‘Poolside With the Pros’. We just hope that all or any of this connect inspires you to do even just one thing better, and that’s connect like a Pro.