Brief:

• Patrón Tequila, the spirits brand co-founded by billionaire John Paul DeJoria, boosted consumer response to social media advertising with a Twitter campaign featuring a “Bot-Tender” chatbot that suggested ways to mix cocktails. More than two-thirds – 67% — of chatbot conversations happened on Twitter, according to a case study by the micro-blogging app.

• Patrón Tequila was one of the first brands to test Twitter’s direct message cards, a format designed to urge discovery of chatbots linked through organic sharing and Promoted Tweets, per a Twitter blog post in May. The best-performing direct message card ad triggered a 2.6% clickthrough rate, while the number of recipes served by the chatbot exceeded Patrón’s goal by more than 2x.

• Patrón observed that 39% of recipes served in direct messages led to website views that gave consumers more in-depth content about the premium tequila brand. The launch of the Bot-Tender chatbot and direct message card led to an 11,000% increase in direct messages on Twitter this year compared with 2016.

Dive Insight:

While more brands are investing in chatbots, driving discovery of the content with the right audience continues to be an issue. The Patrón case study reflects how organic sharing and promoted content can help drive trial while also positioning Twitter as a platform worthy of consideration by marketers in a space increasingly dominated by Facebook Messenger. 

Patrón was looking for new ways to reach the elusive millennial audience of legal drinking age and to showcase the versatility of tequila in cocktail recipes worldwide, Twitter said in its blog post. Twitter said its users have a “discovery mindset” and are accustomed to engaging with brands, making the “Bot-Tender” an ideal chatbot spin-off on the social platform. The chatbot engaged users with summer cocktail recommendations tailored to preferences and social occasion, such as a pool party or cookout. 

Per Twitter, Patrón's success reflects the brand's use of several key strategies. The brand created multiple creatives based on different flavors and moods to grab attention and then had four calls to action so that users could personalize the experience. Patrón was able to drive ongoing engagement because conversations live in Direct Messages, meaning users could return to their favorite recipes or find new ones be re-engaging with the chatbot in their inbox. 

Twitter, whose user growth has stalled the past few years to reach 330.4 million in Q3 2017, is intent on growing revenue that has declined every quarter this year from 2016. That means developing more original content to keep users engaged, policing abusive behavior and hate speech and expanding its range of ad formats to become a more compelling platform for mobile marketing.