Day Of The Livestreamed Dead: Tecate Enters Virtual Concert Space With ‘El Patio’ Series

In the case of Tecate, the border town-based beer brand has taken matters into its own hands to produce the “El Patio Tecate” livestream series after its 2020 marketing campaign, “Mexico Is In Us,” which was set to come to life via music sponsorships and activations, was all but derailed.

“I must say we’ve reached more people than with a festival, had more engagement,” says Tecate Brand Director Belen Pamukoff. “For us, it has been even better than if we had the sponsorship at the festivals and other [physical] events. Usually our events have max 200-300 people, here we are reaching 

The series, fully organized and produced by Tecate, kicked off Aug. 21 with a regional Mexican and cumbia theme featuring artists such as Fuerza Regida, El Fantasma, DJ sets by Principe Q and more, garnering more than 1.7 million views via Twitter and YouTube.

For the second event, El Patio featured critics’ darling and Latin Grammy powerhouse Natalia Lafourcade for an all-female Dia De Los Muertos event streaming from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in West Hollywood Oct. 30. 

It was a decidedly progressive programming choice further designed toward moving Tecate’s image away from the machismo of the boxing superstars it had become known for sponsoring, such as middleweight champion and Mexican national Canelo Alvarez.

“We wanted to do a Patio with only women, because our previous campaign was only based on masculinity,” Pamukoff says of the Oct. 30 event, which also featured Tatiana Hazel, San Cha, Orange Calderon, Chiquis Rivera and host Natasha Martinez. “In this reinvention of the brand, we need to recruit new consumers – Mexican-American millennials, and need to be relevant and present the values they want to see,” Pamukoff adds, noting the feminine focus of the Dia De Los Muertos holiday and the eagerness of artists to participate.

The artist side seems happy with the results as well, after the event racked up another 1.5 million views via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. 

“The Tecate platform was a perfect fit for Natalia and their agency, (U.S.-based Latin media company) Remezcla, were brilliant in terms of understanding her essence and making her comfortable within the context of a brand-sponsored event,” says Lafourcade co-manager Kevin Lawrie. 

With the need to continue marketing brands, Pamukoff says the branding industry is ripe for change post-COVID.

“It’s going to be really interesting how the world of sponsorship is going to change after what is happening right now,” she says. “When you’re a sponsor for something like Coachella, you’re a sponsor along with all these other brands. These [branded] live events happen for just one day, but we reach far more people who are listening to our brand, listening to the performers say, ‘Thank you Tecate, I’m here because of Tecate,’ and they keep listening for two hours, ‘Tecate, Tecate, Tecate.’ At a [regular, physical] event, you get a banner. The performers aren’t talking about your brand.” 

For episode 3, El Patio will take place Nov. 20 with an Urbano theme, featuring Dalex, Mariah Angeliq, La Doña, Milk and more, with plans to take a break for the winter and start right back up in spring 2021.

“I think more brands are going to start doing this, at least for next year,” Pamukoff says. “You see the media is saying the pandemic is going to continue into the end of next year, and we cannot stop marketing the brand. Brands now need to think about creating their own channel even more – you have a Facebook and all that, but to invest more in your own property. That property has to be curated specifically to your brand because the competition is going to be there. Some brands are already doing it, but nothing like El Patio.”