Brief:

• Tequila label Patrón is the first liquor brand to allow ordering directly through Instagram, Adweek reported.
• By swiping up on new Patrón ads in Instagram Stories, users can place orders that are delivered via third-party platforms Drizly, Instacart and Reserve Bar. Shoppers will input their age in Instagram's in-app checkout feature and have their ID scanned by workers delivering the package in person. The partners will receive customers' credit card information, not Patrón, according to Adweek.
• The Instagram-enabled delivery service is available in 48 states, per Adweek. The interactive ad units, which feature creative that highlights everything from the educational to the experience of drinking Patrón tequila, were developed with social video commerce agency MikMak. Patrón will measure the success of the ads based on clicks, purchase intent and conversion rate, the report said.

Insight:

Patrón continues to search out ways to leverage emerging mobile channels to position itself as an innovative brand. The tequila maker has in recent years experimented with augmented reality, messaging bots and Amazon Alexa-enabled voice skills, but social commerce will be a more powerful means to actually drive sales.

Instagram first launched in-app checkout in closed beta in March, and has steadily built out a roster of brands using the service to connect with its more than 1 billion monthly active users. However, many of the feature's early partners have come from categories popular on the platform like retail and beauty. Patrón's campaign with MikMak will serve as a test to see if appetites for in-app shopping extend to liquor, which poses some additional barriers in requiring age verification.

Instagram's fledgling efforts to break into the social commerce space have appeared successful. More than one-third of respondents to a recent survey by VidMob reported buying something directly from an Instagram ad. That was especially true of key younger demographics, with Gen Zers showing the highest proclivity to purchase through an ad. Instagram Stories, a disappearing photo and video collage format, has also proved to be a strong driver of user engagement and brand interest on the app.

Advertising via social media apps is appealing to liquor brands because of those apps' typically young user bases. But it's a strategy that carries some risks. Major beer, wine and spirits marketers paused some of their campaigns on Snapchat last year over concerns that the messages were reaching an underage audience. Snap has since introduced more stringent age checks for users and monitoring tools to see who is being targeted with ads featuring alcohol.

Working with established third-party e-commerce partners like Drizly and requiring age and ID checks both in-app and in-person could help Patrón avoid similar controversy.