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L’atelier de L’Hybride, business game

A day in the shoes of a marketing team.

Across the room, the other teams in the class are after the same customers.

Your teacher gives it to you at the start of class, with a link or a QR code.

L’atelier de L’Hybride is a business simulation game. For the length of a class, your students become the marketing team of a company still looking for its place in its market.

Before they spend a thing, they set their strategy, choose their customers and the promise they will make them. Then comes the budget, and with it the customers to go out and win, in replicas of Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, WhatsApp and Analytics. Every round tells them, figures in hand, what their choices brought in.

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A system to steer

A campaign never lives on its own. Behind it sit an objective, chosen customers, a message, and a budget that every other channel wants a share of.

The customer never sees the channels. They notice a video one evening, browse the website the next day and walk into the shop on Saturday. Depending on the scenario, the team runs that whole journey, from the screen to the counter.

Each team puts these pieces together in its own way. Then, round after round, it adjusts them to whatever the market sends back.

  1. 1

    Objectives and strategy

    A justified objective, customers, a positioning, products to feature and a price, revisited every round.

  2. 2

    Media plan

    The round’s budget, split across the channels to serve that strategy.

  3. 3

    Campaigns and content

    Ads, posts, videos, website, shop window and messages speak to the chosen customers and all say the same thing.

  4. 4

    Results

    What each channel really brought in, read in Analytics.

  5. 5

    Adjustments

    The team moves its budget around and fixes its campaigns.

The tools of the trade, as replicas

Your students work in replicas that keep the logic and vocabulary of the real tools, from Google Ads keywords to TikTok videos, from the shop’s website all the way to its till. And when the company decides so, AI takes on its share of customer support, content or market watch.

Every tool in detail

Google Ads

Someone types a search, and an ad appears, or not. The team chooses the searches where its own ad can show, sets its bidding strategy and hunts for the right words for its headlines.

Google Ads · Search campaign

Keywords (Keyword Planner)

SearchSearches per round
  • educational toy age 62,400
  • toy shop rabat2,200
  • baby sensory toy1,600
  • online toy shop1,900

Preview in Google

Sponsored · toupie-et-cie.ma

Early-learning toys picked by age

In-store advice in Rabat, free gift wrapping.

Estimate for the round

Estimated clicks290 to 340

Your class, from brief to podium

For each session you set the number of rounds, their length and the tools that open in each. The class then fits into a tight half-day, or takes the whole day, at your own pace.

  1. Preparation

    The brief on the table

    It all begins like a first meeting with a new client. Teams discover their market and give their company a name. Then they set their strategy, from the objective to the price, by way of the customers and the place to win against the others. You go from table to table.

  2. 1

    Round 1

    The first campaigns

    The round opens on a street coming to life on screen, in the colours of the season. Then the timer starts and the budget looks for its place across the channels. Teams write their first ads, and the project lead sends in the decisions before the last second, with a few lines to defend them.

  3. 2

    Round 2

    The first verdict

    Results land on every screen, ad by ad, with what each one cost and what it brought in. Teams revisit their strategy and their campaigns as new tools open up. And at your signal, the market has a surprise in store for them.

  4. 3

    Round 3

    The final round

    Two reports in hand and the competitors’ ads in mind, teams split their budget one last time. They know their market far better than in the first round, and they have just one chance left to show it.

  5. End

    Debrief

    The podium

    The ranking goes up on the big screen. Then comes the conversation, about the mistakes that cost dearly and the hunches that paid off. The grades can wait for later, when you have a clear head.

A team’s report after round 1 (demo data)

Report and ranking
A team’s report after round 1. The eight companies, two of them virtual teams, are ranked along a track, with their score out of 100 and their market share.

You stay in control

The game calculates the results, prepares the reports and suggests the grades. The tempo is yours, and so is the final word on every grade. Mid-round, for instance, you can set off a price war just as the teams thought they had found their rhythm.

Dashboard · Round 2

Market event

  • An e-commerce giant slashes toy prices.
  • This Christmas’s star toy is out of stock.
  • A wave of bad reviews hits a shop in the market.

Trigger for the whole class

Toupie & Cie’s team screen

Market news

An e-commerce giant slashes toy prices.

Discounts of 40% announced on the best-selling brands until the end of the month.

Market share, previous round

  • Toupie & Cie24%
  • Les Malins21%
  • Trombia.ma31%
The teacher’s controls in detailLearning outcomes

One market per scenario

Each scenario sets a stage, with its sector, its season, its customers and its competitors. Your students arrive the way you join a new company on a Monday morning, with a whole market to learn.

The scenarios in detail

  • The festive season

    Toy shops

    Independent shops in Rabat compete for families during gift season, in the window, online and on social media, against an e-commerce giant and a chain of stores.

  • Peak period

    Telecom operators

    Operators launch a roaming offer for travellers and their families, over a very short peak period.

  • All year round

    Language centres

    Language centres fill their courses from one term to the next, through back-to-school, exam season and summer.

  • An Africa Cup of Nations

    Hotels

    Upscale hotels court fans, delegations and visitors during the tournament.

  • Tailor-made

    Create a tailor-made scenario

    The market from your own courses, with its sector, customers and season, written for your institution and played with the same tools. It stays yours. Only you and your students play it, and it is offered to other teachers only if you decide so.

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The book L’Hybride by Ayoub El Machatt, standing, seen in three-quarter view. Midnight-blue and cream cover, with the French subtitle “Penser la stratégie, le marketing et l’intelligence artificielle générative comme un seul système”.

Born from a book, L’Hybride

The game is built on L’Hybride, Ayoub El Machatt’s book, which invites readers to think of strategy, marketing and generative artificial intelligence as one system. What the book sets out, your students live here, with a budget to defend and a timer that will not wait for them.

The book is written by a marketing teacher, founder of Wave Digital Agency, which he has led for more than eleven years. In Morocco, France and abroad, he has supported more than 60 organisations, from start-ups to SMEs and retail brands, from their digital transition to the adoption of AI.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a session last?
As long as you give it. When you create it, you choose the number of rounds and the length of each one, and the session fits into half a day or fills a whole day.
How many students and teams?
As many as your class has. Students form their teams in the waiting room, using the class code. To fill out the market, virtual teams bearing the scenario’s fictional brand names can join them. They appear in the ranking and give a yardstick for the level of the class.
Does the game use AI?
Yes, behind the scenes. It reads the teams’ content, suggests some of the scores, writes the round reports and plays the virtual teams. But the calculations remain the engine’s, and every grade goes through you. Companies in the game can also hand part of their work to simulated AI tools, paid for out of their budget. The AI tools in detail
What equipment do you need?
A recent browser and an internet connection are enough, and there is nothing to install. Plan for at least one computer per team to work in the tools, and a projector to show the opening of each round, the timer, the market news and the ranking.
Do you need to know Google Ads or Meta to play?
No. The replicas speak the language of the real tools, and every industry term is defined. You learn by doing, with no advertising account and without spending a single real dirham.
Does the game stop at online advertising?
No. In the toy shop scenario, the company can also open its website, as a showcase or an online shop, bring its store to life and run a TikTok account. A customer spots a video on TikTok, orders on the website, then collects the parcel in store, and the round’s results trace that whole journey. See the tools
How are teams graded?
Every round, each team receives a grade out of 100. It takes into account performance against the chosen objective, spending efficiency, content quality, targeting and how well the team reads the indicators. The game suggests the grade with its reasons, you decide the weight of each criterion, then you approve or adjust.
Which markets can be played?
From toy shops to hotels, by way of telecom operators and language centres, each scenario sets up its market, its season and its competitors. A scenario written for your institution stays private. Only you and your students can play it, and it is offered to other teachers only if you decide so. See the scenarios
How does your school get access?
Through an annual licence for your institution, from 14,000 MAD excl. VAT per year, with the exact amount set by quote. Write to us from the Contact page. Your teachers receive their invitation once the proposal is accepted. See pricing
What happens to students’ data?
It is used to run the game. Our privacy policy, written in French, explains which data, why, where it is hosted and how to exercise your rights.

Bring L’atelier to your classes

L’atelier comes to an institution through an annual licence, priced on request. Tell us where you teach and what you have in mind for your students. A proposal reaches you first and then, once it is accepted, the invitations for your teachers.

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