Maria Schools
Maria Schools, based in Paris and named after Maria Montessori, is reinventing continuing education for professionals—and helping clients like L’Oreal future-proof their marketing approaches. In January 2023, they asked MarketSmiths to give a 1-hr masterclass to a large team of marketers and copywriters at the cosmetics giant. We packaged together an array of copywriting inspiration, education, and tactics—and empowered the global audience with fresh ways of thinking, creating, and communicating. With over 500 L’Oreal marketers in attendance, our master class ended up being Maria’s most well-attended Marketing Talk yet.
Challenge
How do you inspire an iconic brand to break new creative ground—without forgetting where it’s been?
Having viewed our founder’s TED talk, Maria Schools reached out to us about co-creating a copywriting masterclass for their client: L’Oreal.
As a beloved global beauty brand built on more than a century of innovation and success, L’Oreal is no stranger to what it takes to lead the way forward. But there’s always room to push the envelope. And in this case, they wanted to advance in the discipline that so happens to be our specialty: copywriting.
The ask? A 1-hour webinar that was both inspiring and practical. The angle? The Art of Creative Bravery. The goal? To share insightful, actionable copywriting teachings with a global audience of L’Oreal marketers that would encourage fresh thinking and spur daily application.
With a resounding yes on our end, a new partnership was born.
“The Game of Thrones theme was lovely—it was truly a success!”
— Mathilde Durr, Maria Schools
Shared Success
“Your participants were very much engaged and happy to take part in this inspirational and practical class!”
Leaning into the theme of creative bravery, our facilitator Paul, a veteran content strategist and leader at MarketSmiths, led participants through an “epic” journey centered around defeating the 5 Dragons of Creativity—fear, distraction, apathy, ignorance, and judgment. These forces can stop people from thinking imaginatively, daring boldly, and doing their finest work.
Using a “Game of Thrones” theme, we provided a wealth of insights into the creative process, practical copywriting tips, and inspiring examples from across the marketing and advertising landscape—as well as other creative disciplines.
Along the way, participants actively workshopped a real-life project (unique to each person), engaged in a lively interactive chat, shared their work with fellow participants, and enjoyed some Q&A, in which Paul answered questions on everything from the creative process to how he tackles specific copywriting challenges and dilemmas.
Shared Success
“You really succeeded in connecting with [500+] participants!”
All in all, more than 500 people joined in from around the world, including countries like India, Germany, France, Prague, Africa, the U.K., Poland, the U.S. and many more. It was the largest Marketing Talk sponsored by L’Oreal yet—and a resounding success for all.
“You really succeeded in connecting with the participants and conveying good vibes,” says Mathilde Durr, key account training manager at Maria Schools. “The Game of Thrones theme was lovely—it was truly a success!”
We had a blast and we look forward to the next collaboration. In the meantime, we’ll be busy bravely creating the future of humanized copy.
Here is a screenshot of some participant feedback from the event:
