Bringing together team members from across the country for a single major event has become a key challenge for multi-site companies. In early February,  Maxi Zoo France, a subsidiary of the Fressnapf Group, faced this challenge during its annual kickoff event.

The goal: to bring together headquarters teams and store managers, located remotely, for a unifying, engaging event that conveyed strategic messages. To achieve this, Maxi Zoo relied on the expertise of  Mediactive Events, with Mediactive Broadcast handling event production and Wisembly providing the digital and interactive experience.

Maxi Zoo is France’s favorite pet store chain, with a rapidly expanding network: more than 40 new stores opened in 2023.
This growth means teams are spread across the country, each facing very different on-the-ground realities.

The approach was clear: bring together headquarters staff and store managers at 12 regional gathering locations, all connected simultaneously to a central live broadcast. This ambitious hybrid format raised a key question: how can we foster a sense of connection and engagement when participants aren’t physically together?

Rather than a simple video conference, Maxi Zoo opted for a live broadcast format, one that is more structured, more engaging, and more immersive. This strategic choice was designed to hold viewers’ attention over the long term and give the event a truly collective feel.

The teams at Mediactive Broadcast worked with Maxi Zoo to design a custom solution that aligns with the challenges on the ground and the brand’s culture.

Editorial Work Focused on Building Connections

From the very beginning, the focus was on content. In collaboration with Ebra Productions, the teams developed an editorial strategy designed to address Maxi Zoo’s specific challenges.
The hosting was entrusted to an in-house presenter, who served as a true link between the Executive Committee and the front lines. This approach allowed for the concrete concerns of the teams to be brought to the forefront, while accurately conveying strategic messages.

Beyond traditional presentations, the content was enriched with on-site reports and interactive discussion segments to enhance participant engagement throughout the program.

A Visual Standard

The event was designed as a true talk show. Mediactive Broadcast handled the entire production: graphic design, jingles, animations, and live production.
The addition of a mobile camera and dynamic staging brought rhythm and a modern feel, resulting in a professional look and feel on par with television standards.

A studio transformed to reflect Maxi Zoo’s brand identity

The live broadcast was filmed at Studio Paradis, in Paris’s 10th arrondissement. For the occasion, the set was completely redesigned to evoke the atmosphere of a Maxi Zoo store.
Furniture, decor, video production, and sound: everything was brought together to create a cohesive and immersive environment. One symbolic detail illustrates this commitment to authenticity: Maxi Zoo’s CEO even brought his dog along to the set.

Wisembly, the engine of remote engagement

The final piece of the puzzle: Wisembly, which brought interactivity to life.
The platform centralized the entire experience: a dedicated landing page, live chat, moderation, tags, and interactive modules.

In concrete terms, this resulted in:

• more than 400 messages exchanged during the broadcast,
• more than 1,000 reactions sent,
• and more than 500 moods shared live.

Despite the geographical distance, employees were able to interact with one another and with management directly from their smartphones, transforming this hybrid event into a truly collective experience.

The live broadcast created for Maxi Zoo demonstrates how Wisembly can bring an audience together, even when participants aren’t physically in the same place. Thanks to a custom concept designed by Mediactive Events, the event successfully combined professionalism, a personal touch, and interactivity.

This diverse range of expertise within the Mediactive Group now enables us to deploy comprehensive and high-performance tools to meet all event needs.

For Maxi Zoo, our teams managed the production of a show from start to finish:

• Development of interactive content (creation of a script, modules, games, video testimonials, speaker coaching, etc.);
• Full production chain (rental of our Studio Paradis, set designer, motion design, jingles, filming of a “best-of” segment, etc.);
• Coordination of broadcast locations (technical recommendations for venue selection, pre-event and on-the-day testing, technical hotline).

A big thank you to the Maxi Zoo teams for their trust in this wonderful project!