Watch: L'Oréal's Asmita Dubey on the metaverse, e-commerce and digital transformation

Dubey became chief digital officer of L’Oreal more than a year ago. Unlike her predecessor, Dubey later added “marketing” to her duties at the biggest beauty marketer on earth and third-biggest global advertiser as ranked by the Ad Age Datacenter.

Dubey is helping L’Oreal manage change that even by the standards of the 21st century is remarkable. As the world struggles to recover from a pandemic and faces inflation higher than at any time in decades, the once-rapid expansion of e-commerce has given way to slower single-digit growth for the likes of Amazon and Walmart.

Yet L’Oreal proved consumers were willing to pay higher prices for its brands despite all this. It saw like-for-like sales soar 13.5% last quarter, which certainly looks like a sign that L’Oreal and Dubey are doing something right.

That has included thousands of livestream social commerce events, investing in startups and embracing forays into the metaverse. On Ad Age Remotely, Dubey will talk about how L’Oreal is navigating those things, including what the company’s experience with 10,000 livestreams has taught it about what works in social commerce.

Dubey began her career in advertising in India with positions at Publicis Groupe’s Starcom and Interpublic’s Universal McCann before becoming managing director at WPP’s Mindshare Shanghai. She joined L’Oreal in 2013. So Dubey certainly knows her way around media and the leading agency holding companies. And she talks about how, beyond digital and media, she sees her role in helping shape L’Oreal’s broader marketing effort.