Vichy Laboratoires
Social Media · Global Advocacy
L'Oréal Paris — 6 Month Internship (2025)
The Role
As a Media and Content Strategy Intern at Vichy Laboratoires in Paris, part of L'Oréal's international DMI team operating across 60 markets, I was responsible for social media growth, content strategy, advocacy partnerships, and community management across TikTok and Instagram.
I also worked directly alongside two of the world's leading creative agencies: McCann on content ideation and Instagram, and Ogilvy on influencer sourcing and advocacy.
Key Projects
"Face the Frost" Holiday Big Idea
The month of December was handed to me. No brief from above, no set launches, no template to follow. Just a month, a brand, and the question of what Vichy's holiday presence should actually feel like.
Every year before, Vichy's holiday content was mostly product boxes, Christmas offers, and promotional posts. There was no story and no thread connecting one day to the next. I wanted to change that.
The idea I built everything around was "Face the Frost", face as in your skin, but also face as in confront. Confront the cold, confront the winter, show up for your skin when the season is hardest on it. That double meaning became the creative spine of the entire month. Every post, every brief, every visual decision tied back to it.
The content mixed product focus with genuine winter care tips, creative formats like Christmas ornament DIYS and holiday hauls, and a consistent icy, frosty visual identity that made the feed feel intentional. I benchmarked extensively, played with the look and feel until it was right, and briefed every creator myself or created the content directly.
It performed well. But what I'm most proud of is that it was the first time Vichy's holiday month had a story. Not just content, a story.
Studio Assets
Briefed or Created Assets
The "How To" Advocacy Campaign
This project wasn't part of my original internship plan. The e-commerce team came to us mid-internship wanting short instructional videos from real users for Vichy's hero products, the idea being that authentic content in product carousels builds more consumer trust than polished brand imagery. It landed on my plate and became the project I am most proud of.
Sourcing the 12 creators was where I spent the most care. Follower count was the last thing I looked at, what mattered was whether their life actually matched the product. Dandruff sufferers for the shampoo. Health-focused profiles for the deodorant. And throughout, a deliberate focus on diversity in age, race, and gender, so the final content reflected real consumers. Once confirmed, I worked with Ogilvy on negotiations, then wrote fully customized briefs for each creator, covering everything from usage instructions to lighting, attire, and camera distance. I also built storyboards with precise timing to keep consistency across all 12 videos.When budget and deadline pressure hit, I volunteered to handle post-production myself rather than outsource. I edited every single video. Today almost all 12 are live across Vichy's storefronts, including Amazon.
TikTok
I came into Vichy with a creator mindset,, and TikTok was where that instinct was tested the most. The platform moves fast, audiences are unforgiving, and Vichy's dermatological identity didn't always scream viral. My job was to find the middle ground: content that felt native to TikTok without compromising the brand's credibility or breaking L'Oréal's guidelines.
One of those guidelines shaped everything: no trending sounds or no original audio could be used. On a platform built around music and sound, that was a real constraint. So the challenge became creating content that felt current and engaging, educational but not boring, on-trend in format and energy even when the sound couldn't follow.
For UGC, my approach was mostly to scout, finding content that real users had already created and posted themselves, then gettign in touch with their country to request usage rights. Sometimes I briefed creators directly, but scouting existing authentic content was the priority. I really believed that real consumer experiences were Vichy's strongest asset on the platform, someone genuinely talking about their dandruff or their skin was worth more than anything we could manufacture.
Instagram was where strategy and creativity had to work together most visibly. I collaborated with McCann on content ideation and creative direction, which was one of the most valuable and at times most challenging parts of the job. There were moments when our visions didn't align, timelines didn't work, or proposals simply weren't right for where the brand needed to go. In those moments, I did not wait and instead produced content independently or briefed the Vichy photography studio for help. If I produced content myself, I used Canva, Adobe Platfrosm and Capcut to build assets for the global page and plan the months ahead.
What Instagram taught me above everything is that consistency is a creative decision. Every post exists within a larger story the brand is telling, and every caption, visual, and response to a comment either strengthens or weakens that story. I learned to think in systems, not just individual pieces of content.
I came into this internship with a creator mindset and left with a strategist's one. That transition was not easy or immediate, but it was the most valuable thing that happened to me in those six months.
Working within L'Oréal's global structure taught me that creativity without precision is not enough. Every asset, every post, every brief exists within a much larger ecosystem spanning 60 markets, each with different cultures, regulations, and consumer behaviors. I learned to ask questions I had never thought to ask before : How will this translate across markets? How might this be interpreted differently? That shift in thinking changed how I approach everything I make.
The project that taught me the most about myself were probably the most unglamorous ones: rebuilding the FAQ system for community management and customer inquiries, reorganizing the asset folders, and building an influencer database from scratch. Nobody asked me to do any of those things. I just saw gaps and filled them. I learned that taking initiative quietly, without waiting for permission, is one of the most powerful things you can do in a big organisation.
I also learned how to receive feedback. My manager Gaia created a space where criticism wasn't something to be defensive about, it was something to work with. I arrived someone who struggled with that. I left someone who actively looked forward to it.
In the end this internship showed me that good communication requires empathy, structure, and accountability in equal measure. And that growth comes from the moments that are hardest, not the ones that go smoothly.