The annual gathering
Matanga Experience
Once a year, the agency becomes its own client.
One evening, somewhere on the continent, we host a few dozen guests. We don’t tell them what we can do: we let them live it.
By invitation
Agencies talk about what they can do. We would rather show it.
The rest of the year, the brief comes from our clients. That evening, it comes from us: our teams, our means, our ideas, and no constraint but our own.
We treat our brand the way we treat yours — an intention, a territory, a voice, a production. What we sell you, we apply to ourselves first.
If we couldn’t do it for ourselves, we would have nothing to sell you.
A year in one evening
No lectern, no slideshow. The year’s work is seen, heard, and often touched.
The work
The year’s campaigns, with the starting problem, the route we took and what it changed for the brand. Figures included.
The innovations
The tools and methods we build in-house, shown running rather than on video.
The partners
The studios, producers, platforms and institutions we move forward with. An agency is also judged by who works with it.
The course
Where we stand, in how many countries, with which teams — and what we aim for next year.
The signature moment
We also show what went wrong.
It’s the part our guests remember most. A trade that only tells its successes ends up teaching nobody anything.
For each failure of the year: what happened, what it cost us, and the rule we took from it. Those rules are what our clients take home.
Being right doesn’t make you better. Understanding exactly why you were wrong does.
One theme per edition. Never the same evening twice.
From the invitation to the guests’ departure, everything is designed: the welcome, the light, the table, how the work is shown, what you take home. The mood is relaxed; the preparation follows the same rigour as a client production.
Serious, without taking ourselves seriously.
No fixed season, no fixed address
Each edition starts from an idea, and the idea chooses the time and place — Douala, or any of the countries we work in.
65–90
guests, never more
A table, not a hall.
Past a certain number, nobody lives anything: they watch from afar. Around the table: our clients, a few companies we would like to work with, our partners, the institutions that back us, and friends of the house.
Fully funded by the agency. No sponsors, no traded visibility, no paid speaking slots.
Past editions
Each edition had its own theme, and none resembles the one before.
Seats are rare. If yours is at this table, tell us.
Executives, brand leads, partners: every request is reviewed, and we answer them all.
What we can do, what we have done, what we will do: come and see.