In Mexico, underage drinking has increased an alarming 25%. The responsibility to stop this not only lies on the companies that produce alcohol but the small business owners and shopkeepers that sell it. In every neighborhood "Tienda" more and more kids lie about being of legal age to buy alcohol and sometimes even go to the extend of showing Fake ID's. No real effort is really put by vendors to verify their age.

As part of their responsible drinking initiative, Tecate needed to connect with these shopkeepers, raise awareness about the problem and make them commit to verify ages.

We found an innovative way to deliver the message by changing the doorway to our products; our very own website age gate.

We created Age Captcha: the first brand website age verification that cannot be fooled, turning the Google captcha into a fun trivia with dummy-proof questions only people 18 or older can answer. We then shared this experience across to over 15.000 shopkeepers that sell Tecate.

After shopkeepers engaged with Age Captcha, they were invited to sign a pledge: A commitment to be more strict and thorough when verifying legal age of drinking.

Traditional Trade and small businesses are key for Tecate's product distribution and sales. Neighborhood "tiendas" are also a crucial intermediary between the company and the end consumer, not only do they influence consumer choices, they are key to stopping minors from accessing our products.

So, as one of the biggest and most beloved beer brands in Mexico, Tecate had the mission to address underage drinking and put efforts to drive responsible drinking. Enlisting their database of more than 15.000 shop keepers to help, was a key first step.

But when addressing B2B for purpose, Tecate knew printed materials and brochures wouldn't cut it, they needed to emotionally connect.

Using Google Captcha challenge-response test, we turned our age gate into a fun trivia that worked as an age verification. With dummy-proof questions only people 18 or older can answer, we crafted more than 150 question per decade - from popular culture to everyday items and unforgettable fashion trends.

We incorporated it into our website and shared with thousands of business owners to raise awareness about their responsibility to better verify the age of consumers.

More than 15,000 key shopkeepers interacted with the experience and received an invitation to sign a pledge. And to better control the number of petitions signed, people could only do the experience once - with up to 3 questions per user.

To date over 9000 pledges have been signed by shopkeepers, thats 60% of B2B target response and still counting.

The highest Tecate has ever had when engaging their small business partners.

To top it off, organic website views have resulted in 15000 additional pledges signed.

All this within the first month, and with no media media spend.