Notable Marketing Campaign: Dos Equis’s "Most Interesting Man in the World"

The Dos Equis – Most Interesting Man in the World – campaign is noteworty.

The campaign was created by Euro RSCG/New York with Jeff Kling as Creative Director.

What Dos Equis have done is to simply take an existing and successful type of candid humor, and package it to create an advertising icon that will be associated with the product.

There are quite a few things to be noted about this campaign:

1. Strategy
The campaign makers were right to identify that the customer’s process of selecting a beer is not a serious, long drawn-out decision making process. For most beer drinkers it is an instant decision – they either stick to one beer or select one randomly from a list of names they enjoy.
The idea of the campaign was to ensure that Dos Equis entered that list.
With usual campaigns that aim to relate to a guy’s strive to look cool, Dos Equis knew that putting another, even hotter guy on TV, wouldn’t really give much headway.
They chose to create an icon that would hit a chord with every guy. They chose to be different. They chose to reach out and touch that little 9 yr old adventurer, who lives in us all.

2. Casting
The creators has their casting spot-on! A lesser known actor, with no popular past roles for the viewers to relate to, the grizzled look, the rugged charm and the don-mess-with-me-my-friend body language – the casting team deserves a pat on their back for selecting Jonathan Goldsmith.

3. Lines and Narration
Knowing that they were following along the Chuck-Norris-is-God genre of humor, the writers could very easily have gone overboard or turned just downright classless with the lines. However, they didn’t.
The lines are innovative, fun, quasi-serious and string together very well. The narrative of the first ad introducing the-most-interesting-person in the world were a little bland. The later ads, spoken by the man himself, had a narrative much better suited to the scene.
“He lives vicariously through himself.” – is just a masterpiece! It will crack you up, everytime! 🙂

The campaign even has a consistent and catchy product related line – Stay thirsty my friends.

4. Quality of execution
Each of the 15 second TV spots were exquisitely executed. Each shot was full of elements – lighting, location, people, tables, drinks, cards, people in conversation – yet, never once would you look at anything other than the man and the bottle of Dos Equis infront of him.
Without being boring, the 15-sec TV spots convey its message while leaving a healthy 5 to 6 seconds in the end to showcase the product.

5. Spread of the campaign
The campaign has a very healthy spread – TV, online, events, radio and print. The marketing team gave importance to each and every medium available. High quality TV spots, well-timed radio spots, marketing events, a website at http://www.staythirstymyfriends.com and online marketing with banners and adverts.
The website was more than an extension of the campaign. It reflected the world of the-most-interesting-man-in-the-world and invited you to be a part of it.
Though the novelty of the website does wear pretty quickly, the message is consistent, the features are innovative (arm wrestling with dictators!! 😛 ) and it doesn’t take long for the normal beer drinking online user to be sold.

Overall, the campaign does its intended job of capturing attention, retaining the attention, creating brand awareness and recognition.