7 Years of XXL Happyness · Bordeaux · Espace Marengo · 630 m²

For its 7th birthday, XXL Happyness didn’t settle for blowing out candles. The agency opened the doors of the Espace Marengo, unveiled its new identity and brought clients, partners and prospects together around a single conviction: events are there to be lived, not talked about.

The challenge

“Celebrating the agency’s seventh anniversary, a new brand identity, a new positioning, a new website and the reopening of a 630 m² events venue – all in a single evening – which is in itself the best demonstration of what we can do.”

Seven years is both maturity and momentum. XXL Happyness had several reasons to celebrate at once: the agency’s anniversary, a complete overhaul of its visual identity and positioning, the launch of a new website and, above all, the reopening of the Espace Marengo, 630 m² dedicated to events in the heart of Bordeaux.
The constraint was also the brief: the event had to be proof by example. No speeches about our expertise. One evening that embodied all of it, from the welcome to the last dance, so that every guest left having experienced, not just seen, what XXL Happyness has been building for 7 years.

When your clients, partners and prospects experience in a single evening what you offer to organise for them, the best sales presentation in the world becomes redundant.

What did we build? Our 10 Culture Makers Moments

The Espace Marengo: 630 m² as a playground

The venue that says it all before we’ve said a word. Reopened for the occasion, the Espace Marengo welcomed guests for the first time in its new configuration: a space designed for events in all their forms, from intimate evenings to large gatherings. Just walking through Marengo that night was enough to understand what the space can host.

Set design and furniture: escapism as the common thread, by BoBazar

Before the first activity even began, the atmosphere was set. BoBazar designed a set and furniture that evoked escapism: an invitation to step out of the working day and into something else. The décor wasn’t a backdrop; it was the evening’s first message.

Sound and lighting by Novelty

The event you don’t see, but that changes everything. Novelty orchestrated a soundscape and lighting that evolved over the course of the evening, from the warm welcome to the last festive hours. Light and sound didn’t follow the programme: they carried it.

Welcome by Mahola

First impressions are the ones that last. The Mahola team welcomed every guest with the precision and warmth that set the tone for everything that followed. Because a successful event is also decided in the first two minutes.

Tastings: oysters, cocktails, crêpes, ice rolls, gin and tonic & Lillet

The table as a meeting place. La Déguste for oysters, Cheers for cocktails, Les Anims de Freddy for crêpes and ice rolls, Archibald for gin and tonics, and a Lillet brand ambassador serving Lillet tonic tastings: a line-up of Bordeaux names and artisan expertise brought together to create a table that wasn’t a buffet, but an invitation to wander, taste and talk.

The Roaring Twenties escape game by Urban Quest / Escape Hunt

The format that breaks the ice better than any cocktail. A Roaring Twenties-themed escape game, designed especially for the evening, to mix the guests, build rapport between people who didn’t know each other yet, and remind everyone that the best activity is the one people want to play without having to be persuaded.

Blind tasting: a special Marengo quiz by Les Ateliers de Bacchus

The activity that educates as much as it entertains. Les Ateliers de Bacchus devised a blind-tasting quiz built specifically around the Espace Marengo: a way to discover the venue while creating a moment of collective play, where expertise and intuition count equally, and everyone learns something.

Photobooth and audio booth: keepsakes to treasure, by Wild Stories

Because a shared memory beats a sticky note. A photobooth for captured moments, an audio booth for personalised video messages: two formats that turned guests into active participants and built, in real time, the living archive of the night.

Photographer and videographer: the evening captured by a professional

So that the next morning, the images live up to the night. A photographer/videographer present throughout the evening to capture what happens when nobody is posing: the conversations, the laughter, the moments of connection. The raw material of what XXL Happyness knows how to produce.

DJ set with immersive visuals: dancing until the end of the night

The final act. A DJ set backed by immersive video projections to turn the Espace Marengo into a private concert hall. Because a party that ends too early is a failed party, and because the best way to show what a space can host is to push it to its limits

Behind the scenes

The evening as a living portfolio

Choosing to make this anniversary a large-scale demonstration of our expertise means taking a risk and owning it fully. Every supplier present that night was a partner we recommend. Every activity was a format we offer our clients. The Espace Marengo itself was the product on show. Nothing was decorative: everything was deliberate.

Partner curation as an editorial act

Bringing La Déguste, Cheers, Les Anims de Freddy, Archibald, a Lillet ambassador, BoBazar, Novelty, Mahola, Urban Quest / Escape Hunt and Les Ateliers de Bacchus together for a single event is a piece of artistic direction in its own right. Each partner was chosen for what it says about Bordeaux, about local craftsmanship, and about the way XXL Happyness designs an events ecosystem: demanding, rooted, coherent.

The Espace Marengo as a selling point in itself

630 m² dedicated to events isn’t a figure you quote: it’s a space you bring to life. Reopening Marengo during our own anniversary party was the best brief possible: show what the space can host, by pushing it to its full potential, in front of the people best placed to need it.

The new identity, revealed in action

New visual identity, new positioning, new website: each of these launches could have had its own separate communication. Choosing to reveal everything in one evening, letting guests discover the new identity within the context of the event itself, says something about how we think about brand coherence: it is lived before it is read.

A corporate event agency’s anniversary has only one real question to answer: do the guests leave with a better understanding of what we do, or having simply experienced it? If the answer is the second, the evening was a success. Otherwise, it was just a party.