Today’s big breaking news in the marketing world is that the best marketing campaign ever is ending. Sort of.

I certainly won’t be alone in saying that the Dos Equis beer brand’s ‘Stay Thirsty’ campaign, which will no longer include actor Jonathan Goldsmith as The World’s Most Interesting Man, is the greatest marketing campaign ever. But my reason for saying so may be more unique. I believe from its inception in 2006 to the end of 2015, ‘Stay Thirsty’ has produced the best ROI of any beer brand’s marketing campaign ever. I can’t prove this because I don’t have access to all campaign costs, but read on and correct me if I’m wrong.

2006 was the first year that the beer segment began to lose share of revenue in the US beverage alcohol market. Imports were ruled by the big international brands like Heineken and Stella Artois. Corona was the king of Mexican beers. Dos Equis wasn’t even top 10 in America at that time, selling less than 500,000 barrels (Bbl).

From 2006 to 2015 (the span of Goldsmith’s tenure), sales volume almost quadrupled to pass Stella Artois. Over the same period, Heineken lost over 20% of its volume–and bought Dos Equis in 2010. Mexico’s Modela Especial has also grown well since 2013, but that was with Anheuser-Busch InBev’s massive feet-in-the-street power and a 10% (or greater) price advantage over Dos Equis.

The creative concept seemed risky for the category. It used a 60-something unknown actor whose character actually admitted he didn’t always drink beer. But this was based on research that revealed a key consumer insight no one had previously asked about or was willing to act on: young and not-so-young males want their friends to see them as interesting people. The World’s Most Interesting Man needed some world experience to earn his title, which required Goldsmith to be ‘older’. This worked because research showed the target group felt threatened by men closer to their own age. Every competitive brand’s research said beer was not their target group’s only beverage alcohol, but Goldsmith’s age and hilariously contrarian persona gave him permission to actually say it. The shear volume of creative produced over the decade-long campaign makes it difficult to pick samples. If you need a refresher, here are two from the very early days:

I’m sure Dos Equis spent much less on their 10-year US market campaign than Heineken, Stella Artois and (maybe even) Corona, over the same period. Therefore, it generated the best ROI of the top 10 brands in the US. The creative was brilliant but so was the strategy upon which it was based and that is always the necessary condition for great marketing ROI.

Now Dos Equis faces a unique dilemma: maintaining momentum when you remove the brand character that’s bigger than your brand. Dos Equis has stated it is replacing Goldsmith, not the campaign, and the creative will ‘evolve’–hence my ‘sort of’ qualifier at the outset.

If you enjoyed this campaign, please watch the final episode which aired today. It includes some of the most popular characters from all 10 years of the campaign. How many brands can do that?

Note: the video for this keeps moving around YouTube (?). If this link doesn’t work, please let us know:


Not sure what the coyote is doing there at the end, but I like it.