We could have created a traditional holiday campaign for Patrón. Instead, we launched the brand’s first-ever original music video, blurring the lines between brand storytelling and soulful entertainment. Featuring renowned Latin American song Gracias a la Vida (“Thanks to Life”), the entire project was created to deliver music entertainment with a distinctly Patrón twist: a stripped-down a capella arrangement produced by legendary composer-producer Andres “Dre” Levin featuring the raw vocal talents of three award-winning singers, set against an artful visual story that seamlessly wove together this soulful performance with artistic footage of Patrón’s authentic tequila-making process shot in Jalisco, Mexico.

Though the top-selling premium tequila, Patrón has a reputation for flash without substance, particularly with younger drinkers (25-35) who today expect brands to have soul. With culture coming to embrace “less is more” throughout the pandemic, this holiday season was set to prompt an even further-heightened gratitude for the simple things in life. The time was right for Patrón to claim its authenticity and artistry, showcasing its culturally-relevant philosophy through memorable content meant to resonate at a deeper emotional level than the brand’s past transaction-focused holiday advertising campaigns.

Each bottle of Patrón is proof that simple elements, when masterfully combined, can create perfection. To showcase this, we chose three soulful voices—Jessie Reyez, Amber Mark, and Fousheé—to serve as a parallel for Patrón’s three simple ingredients. The use of a capella reflects our rejection for unnecessary processing that may distract from the elemental purity of the raw ingredients; in this case, our singers’ voices. The song’s arrangement, created by iconic Grammy-award winning producer-composer Andre “Dre” Levin reflects Patrón’s commitment to craft, lending visionary talent and masterful skill to shape these raw elements into an inspiring end product greater than the sum of its parts. The film fluidly blends the soulful, stripped-down musical performance with striking, artful footage capturing Patrón’s traditional tequila-making process, blurring the lines between multiple forms of artistry.

After a challenging few years that cast collective cultural priorities into new light, people had realized more than ever that quality is more desirable than quantity, that there is unique beauty in simplicity, and that less of better is often more.

The traditional Patrón process has always embodied that spirit, bringing together just three natural elements: Weber blue agave, the purest water, and the ancient volcanic rock used to crush the agave (known as the Tahona stone). This shared belief now offered us a new lens with which to connect with our audience and with culture.

But simply telling people about our process wouldn’t do our beliefs justice. So we decided to create a music video as a metaphor for our philosophy instead, showcasing what Patrón has always known to be true: when each element of a greater whole is remarkable alone, their masterful combination will inevitably yield something extraordinary.

The campaign launched on 11/22/21 with the Long Form music video of "Gracias a la Vida" on YouTube, PatronTequila.com homepage and Patrón Instagram – just as the Rolling Stone exclusive with Jessie Reyez and the Interview with Patrón CMO, Kathy Parker, went live. Jessie Reyez took to her IG and posted the music video on her feed and IG stories, attracting an extensive reach of followers.

Additionally, the music video was supported by paid media for :30s and :15s across Patron's social channels (FB/IG/Twitter).

Simultaneously, we employed a staggered approach for the additional "Gracias a la Vida" video cut downs (:60, :30s, and :15s), which were utilized across multiple platforms, as part of our cross-channel mix for launch: Linear TV (Live Sports and Standard Cable), Streaming TV, mVMPDs, and Digital, which rolled out throughout the flight of the campaign until it wrapped on 1/2/22.

The arrangement of “Gracias A La Vida” left fans wanting more, with thousands of requests for the song to be made available in music streaming platforms.

Sentiment was overwhelmingly positive and fans loved the power and beauty portrayed through the artists’ voices.

In the first week of launch, “Gracias a la Vida” had 18.4 Million total earned impressions and results to date show the campaign has garnered 175+ Million Impressions. (Source: Netbase)

Patrón managed to reach 91.5% of its target audience, adults 21-49 and the music video received a striking 84% video completion rate.