Report on our partnership at Hyatt Place Taghazout Bay
More than 1 million views on Instagram for our pop-up created with the Hyatt Place Taghazout Bay.
On July 21, 2023, Machi Mouchkil launched its pop-up in collaboration with the Hyatt Place Taghazout Bay, the hotel located next to the Taghazout golf course. The objective of this collaboration was to energize the Hybar space for the summer season.
The Hybar is the panoramic bar located in the gardens of the Hyatt Place with a view of Taghazout Bay. The space, opened the previous year, was innovative and the idea was to continue to innovate with something new.
And it is towards Machi Mouchkil that the Hyatt Place Taghazout Bay turned for this season, for several reasons:
- Machi Mouchkil has a grandiose local and national reputation (10k subscribers in less than 1 at the start of the collab)
- The concept offers a strong culinary identity around Moroccan street food, ideal for allowing hotel guests to discover local flavors in a different way.
- The brand identity is strong
The challenge remained to create an offer that was in line with the standing of the hotel and at the same time without distorting the Machi Mouchkil concept.
Creating a suitable offer
The two brands are very different, on the one hand we have the Hyatt Place Taghazout Bay which is a 5-star hotel and on the other Machi Mouchkil with a very popular spirit with its street food.
The first step was to design the space and mix the visual identities.
On the one hand, we have the visual identity of Hybar which is brown with wood, rattan as well as plants with banana trees.
On the other, the identity of Machi Mouchkil in blue, white and black but also tinted with natural materials such as: brown wood like on karossa. So it was perfect, just had to add blue in different places.
The Hybar space
The space has been divided into 4 parts
The seats
For the seats we chose 4 different heights: Sofa in wood and rattan, high tables with the same materials, traditional Moroccan poufs and wooden benches for a shared table.
We kept the banana plants and their terracotta pots and added blue pots.
The structures
Two structures were added to the space, the bar and the DJ booth in wood and rattan. For the DJ booth, we integrated a brown console with a neon sign that takes up the name of the bar.
Show cooking
Machi Mouchkil’s karossa (food cart) was a major element of the space which was very Instagrammable. The chouwaya (barbecue) of the karossa where we grilled our ingredients live offered a visual show to customers.
Customers regularly came to take video of the karossa to share it on their networks. Which gave us visibility as nano-influencers.
Our second show cooking element was the traditional oven that was built with red clay.
This made it possible to explain to customers how the traditional Tafarnout bread that we offered to customers was made.
Food & Beverage
The K.O.B.
The Machi Mouchkil menu offers 5 K.O.B., as a reminder KOB is the acronym for “Khanez Ou Bnine” that means “Stinky and delicious”. These sandwiches are half moroccan bread but the 5-star standard of the hotel did not allow this to be offered. It was necessary to offer an alternative. This is why we opted for a miniature version which is reminiscent of Moroccan tapas.
The K.O.B. were served on a board with edible paper featuring the graphic elements of Machi Mouchkil.
The price of a portion was 25dh, deliberately low for a hotel such as the Hyatt Place Taghazout Bay in order to keep the Street Food spirit. However, sandwiches remain at a very profitable food cost of 17% on average (excluding losses and unsold items).
The Drink Menu
The spirit of the menu was intended to be 100% Moroccan, which is why the selection of wines and beers was uniquely Moroccan.
A cocktail also had to recall this spirit, which is why we added an Amlou Colada which is a Piña Colada with Amlou (a typical spread from the Souss region).
The non-alcoholic cocktail offering is reminiscent of souk drinks with a Panaché and a Detox, but also a Virgin Mojito renamed Limona3na3 to be more local (na3na3 means mint in moroccan dialect).
Physical communication focus instagrammability
The signs
To recall the collaboration, we created 2 panels, at the entrance and on the bar, which highlighted the two names Hybar x Machi Mouchkil
Le menu
The menu is a central element of our collaboration, because every customer will read it. We integrated both the colors of Hybar, the brown background combined with graphic elements from Machi Mouchkil: the two fish.
We also find the names of the sandwiches (Habiba, Titiza, Wili Wili, Ghazala, Koubeida) which create a smile among Moroccan customers as all name is cute name for lovers. We also had the Tirachrach board which included all of the K.O.B. on a single board with a free sandwich. Tirachrach means “make it rain” and it’s really local expression.
Digital inside our physical communication
We had a QR Code on the menu which links to a page on the Machi Mouchkil site. On the site there is a Pixel Meta which subsequently allows us to track customers in order to include or remove them from our advertisements.
Tee-shirts and bucket hats
In order to make it clear that we are in a different space from the hotel, the team had a cool uniform with a Machi Mouchkil t-shirt and an embroidered Bob.
Some customers even bought t-shirts as a souvenir.
Darija cushions
Another Instagrammable element integrated into the concept are our blue cushions featuring the 2 logos.
These cushions said with text in Darija
- “Katchouf, l’mnddar wa3er” (Look how amazing is the view),
- “Wili wili, daro khanez ou bnine fhotel 5 stars” (Oooh they had khanez ou bnine into 5 stars hotel)
- “Safi, radi nbka fTaghazout dima” (That’s it, I’m going to live forever in Taghazout).
We communicated little about it on social networks in order to have a surprise effect when customers discover the cushions. These cushions have been photographed numerous times and shared on social networks.
The music
On the music side, every evening we had a DJ who played an Old School Hip Hop set from the 90s.
The choice of music was in keeping with a street-culture atmosphere. While being accessible with classics known to everyone which target a slightly older population. We wanted to be different from the type of music that you can hear everywhere in Taghazout: Afro House.
We regularly received compliments on the selection. To extend the customer experience, an old school playlist was created available on Spotify.
Digital Communication
Once our offer was created, we moved on to promotion with a content creation strategy on Instagram.
Content creation and storytelling
The idea was to talk about the offer and the process we went through to create the offer. We include the hotel team in order to humanize the pop-up and understand the work carried out. The storytelling was : An early stage street food brand discovers how a 5-star hotel works, integrates its concept and creates activities around it.
With only 5 real ones, we reached 1.2 million views on Instagram and Tik Tok. The Machi Mouchkil account increased by +4000 subscribers over a period of 4 months
Influence marketing
The real ones helped create the interest of influencers who came to our Pop-up.
Many made stories, but two local influencers published real ones with a significant number of impressions: 237k and 21k.
The Hybar IG account
On the Hybar social media side, we have chosen to post content created in collaboration. Which made it possible to increase the subscribers of the @hybartaghazout account by +1.5k, going from less than 2k to more than 3.5k
Traditional media
Two national media were interested in the summer collaboration: Tel Quel magazine which dedicated an interview in the August 2023 issue as well as Luxe Radio with a report available for replay on their application.
Parties
To liven up the space, every Friday a themed evening was organized with DJ Makram on the decks. For these evenings, we kept the street culture theme with the spirit of Taghazout.
We had the opportunity to welcome:
- The mini ramp of the Taghazout Skate Park twice,
- A Hip Hop battle organized by Psy, member of the national team as Jury,
- 2 Street Art evenings which welcomed the artist Ouidad Samlali, Zakaria El Rharib and the tattoo designer Poponi who repainted the terracotta flower pots,
- 2 evenings with new à la carte dishes by Chef Mehdi Rguieg: K.O.B. Octopus Shawarma as well as K.O.B Tanjia,
- A 100% Woman evening with local creators and entrepreneurs from Coolshe Market organized by Hey Yallah!
- DJ Maria Malasangre and her Sound Sister Lab Collective
- DJ Key (pictured on the right with DJ Makram Riad) twice, pioneer of scratch and hip hop in Morocco who shook the Hybar
This Pop-up was a double achievement for Machi Mouchkil and Hyatt Place Taghazout Bay.
First of all, on a financial level with almost half a million dirhams made, 1/5 of which was in food with sandwiches costing only 25dh.
But especially in terms of communication with 1.2 million impressions and nearly half a million people affected in total.
For Machi Mouchkil, this pop-up was an exceptional adventure which made the brand grow and allowed us to have our first success in collaboration with one of the major players in Taghazout Bay.