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“Summer Made Sensational: A PATRÓN Pop-Up Series” marked the tequila company’s inaugural footprint in the metaverse. However, “PATRÓN has been playing in the tech space for a while,” the brand’s senior director of digital marketing, Serena Kolber, told BizBash. Following an augmented reality (AR) experience in 2020 where customers could virtually design a PATRÓN bottle, and the January 2022 launch of PATRÓN’s first-ever NFT, an event in the metaverse was a natural next step.
“Summer Made Sensational” was held over the course of two consecutive weekends—Aug. 12-14 and 19-21—and, as Kolber described, “embraced the ever-growing virtual reality of the metaverse with a premium bar experience that was immersive, interactive, and featured PATRÓN cocktails in a unique way.”
Serena Kolber, PATRÓN Tequila’s senior director of digital marketing, told BizBash that the greatest challenge in producing a metaverse experience was “educating consumers, particularly non-gamers and non-metaverse users." She resolved the issue with "user-friendly, step-by-step instructions” on the pop-up series’ landing page.Photo: Courtesy of PATRÓN Tequila
Thousands of international attendees aged 21-plus registered for the free, browser-based event on PatronTequilaverse.com, and later accessed the metaverse world via Decentraland. “Fans automatically arrived at the first cocktail-inspired location and were greeted by a PATRÓN host,” Kolber explained.
During the quests, eventgoers had to source ingredients to make the perfect PATRÓN cocktail. Mixed beverages included a PATRÓN Perfect Paloma, a PATRÓN Silver & Soda, and a PATRÓN Añejo Highball.Photo: Courtesy of PATRÓN Tequila
The PATRÓN Perfect Paloma, PATRÓN Silver & Soda, and PATRÓN Añejo Highball were the featured cocktails at each destination, respectively, and each came with “a whole new (cocktail-centered) mission.”
To accompany the pop-up experience, attendees were encouraged to roll up their mixology sleeves IRL and make their cocktail of choice at home. (PATRÓN’s website guided guests with recipes for each featured drink.)
And while assembling all the necessary ingredients for a mixed beverage in the physical reality merely won guests a buzz, gathering bottles of PATRĂ“N, fresh fruits, and garnishes for a drink in the virtual reality automatically entered scavengers for a chance to win a summer escape for two to Punta Mita, Mexico.
After completing all three quests, Kolber said that beyond the physical prize—which she said “enticed a larger volume of people to hit into the metaverse and engage with the brand”—PATRÓN also offered “a rare, mythic wearable within the metaverse.” Kolber also noted that one of the main challenges in producing an event in the metaverse was “thinking through how to compete for attention with other developments in the Web3 space,” and that incorporating wearable technology helped resolve that as “the main incentive for participation.” 
Attendees who completed all three quests also received a gold wearable (pictured). Formally an NFT, Kolber said the wearables provided the perfect "incentive for participation.”Photo: Courtesy of PATRÓN Tequila
The wearables, which are formally NFTs, “provide lasting value to the consumer [and] are increasingly popular in Decentraland,” Kolber said, explaining that PATRÓN leveraged that popularity. Plus, such an offering was also great for marketing as the wearables “provide PATRÓN with evergreen branding within Decentraland," she noted.
And although that was a win-win for attendees and the brand alike—something Kolber attributed to “what makes the Decentraland community unique”—she also said that “educating consumers, particularly non-gamers and non-metaverse users,” was the greatest challenge.
PATRÓN’s solution? The brand “created user-friendly, step-by-step instructions” on the pop-up series’ landing page “for first-timers in Decentraland who might be unfamiliar with the space.”
And as a lasting thought for other brands or event professionals who have yet to take their first steps into the virtual world: “Incentivization is still key within the metaverse, as consumers need an extra push to get them inside and to start exploring," Kobler said. "Fortunately, gaming is bigger than ever, so creating a fun, engaging-yet-doable challenge that provides a satisfying ending—along with both physical and digital prizes—proved successful in garnering engagement and play-through.”
Once in Decentraland, users were tasked with three cocktail quests in three designated locations: the Jazz Club, Flamingos, and Metaverse Festival. When attendees completed them all, they were entered to win a summer escape for two to Punta Mita, Mexico.Photo: Courtesy of PATRĂ“N Tequila
