Matriarch Marketing | Annual Conference 2018
An internal brand experience built around recognition, resourcefulness and team momentum.
The Matriarch Marketing Annual Conference was one of the first major corporate projects delivered by Monks Media, created for an activations and experiential agency at a formative moment in its own brand journey.
Recently rebranded from Hot Stuff Promotions to Matriarch Marketing, the agency needed an internal experience that could bring its team together, recognise performance and create renewed energy around the business. The brief arrived with a short timeline, a fixed venue and a clear need to make the experience feel considered despite practical budget and production constraints.
Hosted at the iconic Blue Waters Hotel on Durban’s beachfront, the conference was built around internal alignment, recognition and team momentum. The theme, Ready. Steady. Grow, gave the experience a sense of forward movement, while the venue itself introduced a strong architectural language that needed to be worked with rather than hidden.
The challenge was to create an experience that could respond to the room, not fight against it.
The gala dinner design was developed around contrast, colour and restraint. Rather than forcing a decorative theme into a venue with bold geometric features, a central water element and a powerful architectural backdrop, the visual direction used vivid green table linen, lit greenery arrangements and clean tabletop styling to create a fresh, confident and resourceful interpretation of growth.
Recognition became an important part of the experience through the inaugural Ellie Awards, named in reference to the elephant at the heart of the Matriarch identity. These were not approached as standard trophies. They needed to carry the new brand language, feel meaningful to the team and become something recipients could keep and display long after the evening had ended.
Gala Dinner Room, Matriarch Annual Conference 2018
The final award design brought together ceramic and perspex, bridging a sense of craft with a more modern and polished finish. This material language was echoed in the room through perspex chairs, glassware and clear tabletop elements, creating a subtle connection between the awards, the table setting and the broader gala design. The result was a simple, elegant recognition piece that reflected the new Matriarch brand while giving the team a tangible reminder of the moment.
Ready. Steady.
Grow.
The team energy, recognition and momentum behind the Matriarch Marketing Annual Conference 2018.
Matriarch Marketing Ellie Awards 2018 Highlights Reel
In addition to the category awards, a special recognition piece was created for Kerry’s 20 years of service. Designed as a more substantial commemorative award, it extended the Ellie Awards language into a personal milestone moment, giving long-standing contribution its own place within the evening.
The conference experience extended beyond the formal room into a location-led team build along Durban’s Golden Mile. With the team already based at the beachfront, the activity was designed to draw from the immediate surroundings rather than impose a generic format.
Mini Town, sand sculpture artists, promenade landmarks and Durban’s iconic spiced pineapple became part of an Amazing Race-style experience that encouraged collaboration, problem-solving and team energy while giving the day a clear sense of place.
The activity took place the day after the awards dinner, which meant the format needed to feel engaging and purposeful without being overly demanding. It allowed the team to reconnect, compete lightly and close the conference with shared momentum.
The event concluded with a team lunch and prize giving, bringing the conference, awards and team build together as one internal brand experience.
Kerry Dranias, 20 Years of Service Award
Location-Led Team Build, Durban’s Golden Mile
For Monks Media, the project became an early marker of the approach that would later shape the business more fully: working between brand development, design thinking, practical constraints and live experience.
It was not simply a conference, gala dinner or team build. It was a compact internal platform built around recognition, alignment and resourceful execution; and for an agency whose own work centred on activations and experiential marketing, it reflected an important truth: experience-led businesses need meaningful internal experiences of their own.
Photography and videography by Meva Media House.
