From Advertising to Entertainment; How L'Oréal's Short Series Proved Storytelling is the Ultimate Marketing Weapon?

The company L'Oréal, through its cosmetics brand Urban Decay, has tested a different advertising approach. Instead of creating a conventional ad for its beauty products, it partnered with the ReelShort platform to produce a six-episode short film series titled Ghost Hunter Hotline. This series tells an engaging, fictional story while showcasing the brand's products within the plot's events. According to the brand's own figures, the series was viewed 3.8 million times in the first five days. But why is this campaign important? Because Urban Decay, rather than simply delivering an advertising message to the viewer, attempted to create content that people would watch voluntarily. For example, in a regular ad, someone might say: «Buy this product because it is good.» But in this approach, an engaging story is presented first, and the product becomes a part of that narrative. This relates to a significant shift in marketing, where brands are moving away from traditional ad creation and towards producing entertainment content. In other words, the brand is not merely trying to sell a product; it is trying to connect the viewer with a story. However, those 3.8 million views, reported by the brand itself, do not alone indicate how many people actually purchased the product. Or in one short verdict: «In a world where people can easily skip ads, a good story can make them stay and watch of their own accord.»