19/08/2026
Pernod Ricard has a private island off the coast of Marseille called Les Embiez. And they handed us the keys.
Every year, their brand teams from across the globe gathered there. When we first went, everyone was doing the same thing: a drink, in a tent, in front of a hotel nobody loved.
So in April 2009, we took a derelict BBQ restaurant and turned it into a New York, warehouse style, apartment for four of their brands. Not a stage set, a whole building: one shared home with a separate world behind room space. Absolut had the bedroom. Havana Club had the living room. Jameson had the kitchen. Malibu had the terrace. Each brand its own character, its own crowd, all imaginary flatmates for 3 surreal, game changing nights.
Arctic trucks bringing the set, hung off the back of the small mainland ferry. A fake lift became the entrance into the apartment; sound and all, so they believed they’d climbed six floors into someone’s loft.
A thousand people came through, three nights running.
It was the first real experiential activation Pernod Ricard had commissioned on the island. Every brand in the group upped their game after.
We called it Apartment 54.
