Dos Equis tries to keep things 'Interesante' without Most Interesting Man

Dive Brief:

Heineken-owned Dos Equis launched a campaign, "Keep It Interesante," which encourages beer drinkers to embellish stories to keep their friends entertained, per news made available to Marketing Dive via email. The campaign includes the tagline, "When out with friends, you could tell the truth or a better version of it."
In the new ads, Dos Equis is touted as the "beer Abraham Lincoln kept under his hat," "the only beer with the cajones to serve at the battle of Cinco de Mayo" and an elderly Swedish couple calls the beer "Sweden's most celebrated cerveza." The press release also puts an emphasis on exaggeration and grandstanding, claiming the campaign was filmed on seven continents and also the moon, and that it represents something "groundbreaking in the fields of physics and astronomy."
The effort rolled out with a series of four digital video spots, with TV commercials debuting on March 14. The campaign also features digital and social media elements and retail and out-of-home activations, per the release.

Dive Insight:

Notably absent from Keep It Interesante is Dos Equis' long-running brand mascot the "Most Interesting Man in the World." The brand two years ago replaced the lead actor Jonathan Goldsmith with French actor Augustin Legrand, and last year switched agencies from Havas, which created the campaign in 2006, to Droga5, who's responsible for the new effort. It's possible that the change-up in actors and creative partners — or simply over a decade on air — dulled interest in the character, but the Heineken-owned brewer is still attempting to preserve messaging around light-hearted exaggeration and grandstanding with its latest push.

Pivoting from a long-term successful campaign and brand icon is a gamble for Dos Equis, and the company is looking to recover after sales volume decreased 5.8% year-to-date, according to a Beer Business Daily report cited in Ad Age. Consumers' tastes in booze have also shifted over the past few years. Millennials tend to choose wine, spirits and craft beer over major national brewers. By adding a new spin on a successful message, Dos Equis is attempting to freshen its place in the market, and combining TV spots with digital, social and OOH activations might help the brand broaden its reach.