The Most Interesting Man in the World? Not Online.

You’ve probably seen the ads with this guy — Dos Equis beer’s “The Most Interesting Man in the World.” The two-year-old ad campaign is very clever.

On Self Defense: “The proper look should suffice.”

On Careers: “Find out what it is in life that you don’t do well, and don’t do that thing.”

Sound advice, my friend. Sound advice.

You want more? Get ready to go hunting …

Questions for The Most Interesting Man in the World:

• Why is your microsite so bloated with Flash animation, silly games, and unnavigable navigation?
• And why aren’t you in it?

Staythirstymyfriends.com is the microsite arm of the whole Most Interesting campaign. It’s good that the campaign has a microsite, but the most interesting thing about the campaign is missing — the Most Interesting Man, himself.

He’s the linchpin of the entire campaign, yet he and his wisdom are conspicuously absent from the microsite. The real opportunity of a site like this is to expand upon the content being served up at the mainstream level (TV and radio). People are going to visit to get more of the Most Interesting life that’s teased in the brilliant TV spots.

Why then must visitors suffer through tedious bluffing games and “The Hirsute — A Study,” which is simply a collection of different beards. Even so, where is the share button for these?

Dos Equis has some great online content, but they’re not producing it

The Most Interesting Man in the World’s Facebook profile is where the really good content is happening … created by the community, no less! His fans have been creating Chuck Norris-esque pieces of biographical information about him, filling in holes, covering areas you might have expected the microsite to address:

He decided to call his beer XX because he can hit the spot twice.

His guardian angel quit … on account of him not ever needing protection.

He knows Victoria’s Secret …

With little good content coming from Dos Equis themselves, Facebook offered fans a great opportunity to create it for them. This demonstrates that real online opportunity for the campaign does indeed exist.

A comprehensive but disjointed web campaign

In internet time, two years is a long while. The campaign itself is showing its age, and the microsite in particular is built around dated technology (Flash fades fast) and content offerings (games and contests). Social media links and user-generated content — mainstays of web campaigns today — are buried as text links (the Facebook page) or minimized to the point of pointlessness (users can create a profile, and that’s it).

The microsite content is static. Its infrastructure is static. Without a strategy and mechanism for frequent, high-quality content creation, the microsite just kind of sits there. Not what you’d expect from the Most Interesting Man in the World.

So many opportunities

Giving it a few minutes of thought, I imagine that staythirstymyfriends.com could function better as a daily blog from The Most Interesting Man in the World. Remember the silly bluffing game I mentioned earlier? The Man could pick a different, interesting theme each week and provide more relevant content.  Perhaps one week’s theme could be card games. Here’s a sample calendar:

• Monday: The Basics — Counting Cards
• Tuesday: Impress Your Friends — Card tricks
• Wednesday: Money — Card Games with the Best Odds
• Thursday: From Around the World — Rare and Obscure Card Games: Belote, Skat, 41
• Friday: Food & Drink — Make poker night more … interesting

Verdict

Dos Equis has stumbled a bit in translating their very clever offline ad campaign to the online world. They either didn’t anticipate or didn’t recognize how much value the character would have. Nor did they plan to be fluid enough to meet the content needs of their visitors.

I still find The Most Interesting Man in the World interesting, and I would love to see Dos Equis continue the campaign with a lot more interaction and content generation.

Tips for next time

1. Microsites, if part of a larger media campaign, should show a strong connection to the overarching subject matter but build upon that through two-way communication. The content flows both ways online, unlike on TV.
2. Prepare for the future. Content should be frequently updated, and the infrastructure should be malleable enough to meet the ever-changing trends and technologies of web content consumption. Otherwise, you run the risk of becoming a zombie. Nobody wants to have a beer with even the most interesting of Zombies.

Spot On throws light on trends in online marketing to highlight how content and context lead to a success, a near miss, or an embarrassing backfire.

About the author

Brad Schwarzenbach -

As an analyst on the Tippingpoint Strategy team, Brad explores new opportunities for clients to build relationships with their customers. He’s always testing new social media channels, poring over analytic data, and identifying emerging trends. He also speaks at conferences & events about uncovering powerful messages hidden within brands' unique values.

Brad’s research has contributed to the development of content & contributor strategies for such clients as Breville, Rodale, Long’s Jewelers, and Fusionapps, as well as being a frequent contributor to the Tippingpoint blog. He’s been “listening” to the way we communicate online since the old AOL People Connection days and watched the way that digital communication has evolved.

An English and Creative Writing major at the University of Connecticut, Brad’s spent most of his career creating web content and becoming intimately familiar with web theory for Bayard, Inc. and TomTom Inc., giving Brad keen ears and eyes to what, exactly, makes web content valuable.

Outside the office, Brad feels most at home with his beautiful wife-to-be Kristina, or on the golf course. “There’s a distinct pace and rhythm to the way people communicate online.  Understanding and taking part in them yields amazing opportunities for my clients to not only grow but to improve their business. I’m constantly looking for those opportunities.”