Please, Please, Please Tell Me What to Buy This Time...

"It's never too early to start beefing up your obituary"
--MIM

In a fit of insomnia this morning, after a session of filing, I decided to do a little research on my new favorite ad campaign: The Most Interesting Man in the World. EuroRSCG, the company that spawned the ad, analyzed the product thusly:

The Dos Equis brand represented a small, thriving beer franchise. The flavour, authenticity and distribution potential of the brand meant that there was a huge opportunity to expand sales and penetration. However, qualitative and quantitative research showed a lack of a distinctive identity other than Mexican-ness.

t I think they hit the nail on the head. I always just thought of it as "the other Mexican beer." The challenge, as they saw it:

The beer category is one of the most competitive categories in advertising with over $1 billion in spending and myriad new products, flavours, seasonal variants and packaging innovations adding to the noise. For Dos Equis to succeed it needed to do more than just create awareness, it needed to extend its media dollars by generating conversation among the target audience. Euro RSCG needed to find a way to insert the brand into culture, to present Dos Equis in a way that would spark chatter and pique curiosity, and, most importantly, look beyond the conventional Mexican imagery of beaches, burritos and burros.

The CBI (Creative Business Idea):

Our idea was borne out of a simple truth: Dos Equis’ drinkers may be pretty average in their habits and attitudes, but most want to be seen as unique and different, and are terrified of being perceived as boring. Here was the opportunity for Dos Equis: as a brand with an unusual, original and underground status, it could become an outward sign that its drinker was decidedly not average. Dos Equis could become the symbol of a life more interesting. And we would share this truth through The Most Interesting Man in the World.

The strategy:

We introduced the eccentric, swashbuckling, charismatic character of The Most Interesting Man in the World (MIM). Seasoned in years, deserving of respect and grey-haired enough not to be a viewed as competition, the Most Interesting Man is a magnet, rather than a mirror. He is a man rich in stories and experiences, much the way the audience hopes to be in the future. Rather than an embodiment of the brand, The Most Interesting Man is a voluntary brand spokesperson: he and Dos Equis share a point of view on life that it should be lived interestingly.

The results:

Full year case sales are up 20% and total dollar sales are up 33.7% vs. YAG - significantly exceeding the 2.7% category growth rate (Nielsen). Sales in TV markets are outpacing sales in non-TV markets, 21.1% and 15.7%, respectively. Velocity gains for the Dos Equis franchise are 45% and an incredible 85% for lager, which is featured in the campaign. Distributors, the most critical and important constituents, are calling the campaign ‘the strongest work in the [beer] industry’. Plus, Millward Brown LINK places the spots among the top 5% most enjoyable ads ever tested, for any category, and the ads doubled the norm in both AI and persuasion.

[ source : EuroRSCG ]

Lest we forget, here is the original Most Interesting Man in The World: