MILAN — La Roche-Posay has found new ambassadors — and they are small, yellow and a lot of fun.
The dermocosmetics brand is launching an unexpected partnership with the Minions, looking to leverage the global success of Illumination’s animated franchise in the leadup to the release of the “Minions & Monsters” movie. Distributed by Universal Pictures, the new installation of the saga will hit the theaters worldwide on July 1, but La Roche-Posay will start unveiling the partnership on Friday.
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This will consist in an entertainment-driven campaign with a superior mission, as it was designed to make acne concerns more accessible and relatable by translating the brand’s scientific expertise into a more approachable and joyful language.
In an interview with WWD, La Roche-Posay global brand president Alexandra Reni-Catherine defined the skin concern “a central category within the world of dermocosmetics,” affecting millions across ages, genders and skin types.
“It’s the number-one reason to visit a dermatologist across the world today. But unfortunately, with the lack of dermatologists across the world, [only] 10 percent of the population is able to actually visit one. So there’s a huge gap of diagnosis and many questions,” said Reni-Catherine, adding that acne is currently the eighth most prevalent disease in the world and more than 650 million patients are struggling with it.
“Usually we all think that it’s just for teens — and it’s true that 85 percent of [people] between 12 and 24 actually suffer from acne — but it goes way above,” said Reni-Catherine, highlighting that 40 percent of adults also experience it, mostly due to hormonal imbalance.
The cross-generational aspect helps make acne the most discussed skin concern on social media globally, with people relying on online platforms to research on the disease and its treatment.
Psychological implications are part of the conversation, too. Through its “Scars of Life” study, La Roche-Posay learned that 73 percent of patients report a moderate-to-severe impact on their self-esteem due to it. For 80 percent of teenagers, acne is a barrier to social interaction and affects their digital presence, as half of acne sufferers find it difficult to go out in public during a flare-up and 92 percent of people with fluctuating acne edit or crop their photos before posting them on social media.
The scars and marks acne leave behind take a significant emotional and social toll also on adults, with 43 percent of them feeling these had negatively impacted their relationships and social lives.
“As a brand of public health, we needed to take action and educate better about how to see acne, how to live with acne and how to find the right solutions,” said Reni-Catherine about the collaboration’s mission “to empower people to feel better about their acne condition.”
Hence, the pitch to Illumination and Universal Studios, with were both given access to the insights La Roche-Posay gathered from patients. These were turned into relatable situations starring the Minions. “There’s always one insight, one frustration that a Minion experiences and then a La Roche-Posay solution,” said Reni-Catherine about the co-branded, custom-animated campaign, which is titled “Ready, Clear, Action!” and spotlights the brand’s Effaclar range.
“It’s all based on the parallel between us and the Minions. Sometimes all of us are a Minion in a way in which we treat and manage acne, often in a very bad way because we tend to over clean the skin or try to find too harsh solutions,” she said, adding that these animated characters were the ideal fit for the brand due to their global and cross-generational appeal.
The campaign will roll out across multiple markets worldwide in the leadup to the theatrical release of the movie, which is directed by Academy Award nominee Pierre Coffin and features a voice cast with the likes of Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg, Zoey Deutch and others.
The co-branded campaign will be supported by a 360-degree media strategy that will see the release of different formats of video clips as well as activations in brick-and-mortar retail and online. The strategy will be timed with the launch of new products by La Roche-Posay, such as Effaclar Supramolecular.
Reni-Catherine teased that this might not be the brand’s only tie-up with the entertainment industry. “Education is really part of what La Roche-Posay is. We are a medical brand first and foremost, but we believe that our role is really to educate. Entertainment is a key way to address and engage consumers today,” she said. “We are open to any kind of pop culture activity in order to really engage with consumers to change their behaviors and protect their health.”
The collaboration with Illumination fits into this broader strategy, which has seen La Roche-Posay active on several fronts. The company joined the America’s Cup as title partner of the French team K-Challenge, also to collect feedback on the athletes’ experience to co-build products in sun protection. It also has gaming initiatives to raise awareness around melanoma detection as well as a series of ambassadorships, including the one with tennis champion Jannik Sinner.
“More and more we see ourselves as a brand of public utility, so what we do is to choose topics where we think our health is critical to really change people’s behaviors.…But we can’t do it alone. We need to find partners or ambassadors that help us grow the public’s attention and their engagement,” said Reni-Catherine, who has held her position since September 2023, after piling up experiences at La Roche-Posay’s parent L’Oréal for two decades.
The company’s ultimate goal is to create more proximity, as La Roche-Posay evolves more and more from a pharmacy player to an internationally known name. “We’ve been perceived as a brand of medical edge, which we are. We are the number-one prescribed brand in the world today by more than 100,000 dermatologists. Somehow, it creates a sort of a distance. With this kind of partnerships, we want to get closer to our consumers,” she said.