spirits

Patrón Club Leveraging Content Partnerships

Patron social club homepage

Patrón has relaunched its online Social Club (patronsocialclub.com) around exclusive content and event partnerships with trendy media sites geared to the younger crowd.

In the first two weeks after its June 22 relaunch, the revamped site more than doubled its existing 20,000-plus membership registrants, reports Jennifer Long, brand director for The Patrón Spirits Company.

In essence, the brand is taking online media buys to a different level by aggregating and integrating the exclusive content and event opportunities.

Eleven site partners are currently providing exclusive content, refreshed monthly, for an area within the club site dubbed "The Agenda": Going.com, Urban Daddy, Thrillist, Pandora, Tasting Table, TasteSpotting, SPIN, The Cool Hunter, Revision3, Gen Art and Uncrate.

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Partners are responsible for generating articles relevant to the Patrón brand's core target audience and driving new, qualified members to the club site via whatever brand-appropriate tactics they believe will be effective. Some are teasing the content on their sites -- providing a lead-in to a story about a social or fashion trend or upcoming event that can only be read in full by registered Social Club members. Other tactics include teasing content in site newsletters and promotional banners.

As part of the partnership deal, the content-provider sites create and promote events, many of which are exclusive to Social Club members. The co-branded events, which in turn create more content, are also promoted in Patrón's member e-newsletter. Patrón segments its list to ensure that event invitations are matched to members' stated interests, such as music concerts, according to Long. (The club site and newsletter also promote Patrón's solo-sponsored events.)

Media sites, always looking for value-addeds to attract and retain visitors, get to tap into a young audience "passionate" about Patrón, as well as the partnership fees, says Long.

Metrics-wise, Patrón will be monitoring club sign-ups and engagement measures. The latter include click-throughs from sites, number of sections visited on the club site, time spent and actions taken, such as response to an offer or use of the site's newly expanded social capabilities (article forwarding, voting on articles and drinks, inviting friends to become club members, etc.).

So far, the combination of pumped-up content, more social features, co-branded events and a redesign featuring easier navigation are adding up to improved engagement, according to Long, who reports that average time spent on the site now exceeds five minutes.

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