Back in March of this year, Dos Equis sent the original Most Interesting Man in the World on a one-way trip to Mars, effectively retiring the 77-year-old actor who had portrayed him for nearly 10 years. Even though sales had tripled since Jonathan Goldsmith became their spokesman, the brand made it clear that it was time for a younger hero, who would appeal to a new generation of beer drinkers. The search and the wait for a new version of TMIMITW are finally over. A teaser was revealed on Wednesday, introducing little-known French actor Augustin Legrand in the role, with the full-fledged campaign expected to launch on October 19.

We employed our testing methodology to the teaser, testing it among a demographically and regionally balanced sample of over 500 viewers aged 21+ and made these most interesting findings.

Overall Ad Effectiveness

“Meet the New Most Interesting Man in the World” received an Ace Score of 501, a mere 3 points above the Beer category norm. The average Ace Score for the previous iteration of TMIMITW was 456 (45 ads tested since 2009), and the new guy out-performed 87% of the original character’s ads.

The new version is more likeable and attention grabbing than the majority of the previous ads, and also garnered high Watchability and Change scores. The Change score indicates viewers feel the brand is moving in a new direction. TMIMITW has always been a polarizing character, with people either loving him or hating him. With a Polarity Score of 59, the new version is slightly less polarizing than the old ads, which averaged 63. The norm for beer ads is 61.

Comparing this introduction to the farewell ad in March, “Adios Amigo”, scores are remarkably similar.

Core Beer Drinkers

Among core beer drinkers (imported and domestic) the new Most Interesting Man spot received an Ace Score of 600 vs. an average of 564 for Mr. Goldsmith and performs better than 67% of the previous ads. His Likeabilty and Attention scores are higher than the previous ads averaged. That said, “Adios Amigo” did perform better than the new spot among this audience, with an Ace Score of 654. Some of these viewers expressed sadness, along the lines of this comment from a 35-49-year-old woman, “I love the most interesting man alive commercials. I am sad to see them go. This was a funny and clever commercial.”

He is also extremely less polarizing among this group, with a Polarity Score of 44, which is also lower than 80% of the retiree’s ads.

The original Most Interesting Man does get some bragging rights among beer drinkers. On average, they named the Characters the Single Best Thing about his ads at 22%. For the new spot, the Visual Scenes were more often named the SBT, at 25%, with 15% saying Characters.

Making Gains across Demos: Biggest Improvement Among Gen X

 The new character brings a strong margin of improved effectiveness across demo groups, with the biggest gap among 36-49-year-olds. For this group, “Meet the New Most Interesting Man in the World” outperforms 94% of the old TMIMITW ads. Among Millennials, presumably a key target, that number is 61%. The younger version is also more liked by both women and men, by margins of 86% and 67% respectively.

Of all demos, the Watchability, Likeability, and Attention scores for the teaser spot were highest among Males 36-49.

Voice of the Viewer

Here’s where we really find out what people think about Legrand taking over the role. In response to an open-ended question asking viewers what they think about the ad, we see

• 22% referred to this being a new portrayal of TMIMITW.
• Of the comments acknowledging that this is a new Most Interesting Man, 75% viewed him favorably, with 25% preferring the original. Some examples:
  • “It’s funny and interesting and continues the tone of the previous character very well.” – M36-49/South/Ace Score 918
  • “Excellent re-boot of a very successful ad campaign.” – M50+/South/Ace Score 883
  • “I like the most interesting man storyline, nice to see the story continue.” – M36-49/West/Ace Score 835
  • “I will miss the last representative of this brand. I don’t think this one will be accepted as well.” – M50+/South/Ace Score 478
• Proving that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, in comments mentioning his looks, reviews for Legrand varied.
  • “Dude was hot.” – F21-35/West/Ace Score 918
  • “The guy is hot, and the things he does are different and exciting. I love this ad!” – F50+/Midwest/Ace Score 770
  • “It was cool and the man was very good looking (better than the previous one) and it was funny.” – F36-49/South/Ace Score 757
  • “He’s not nearly as handsome as the last guy.” – F50+/West/Ace Score 1
• In Dos Equis’ quest to reach a new generation of beer drinkers, we see mixed feelings to this approach.
  • “Really good ad. I don’t know if this guy will be as good as the last guy and the ads but it will be interesting to find out.” – M21-35/Northeast/Ace Score 739
  • “Might be a good replacement for the last guy, we’ll see.” – M21-35/West/Ace Score 622
  • “I think it’s sad that they’re going with the same ad concept but a younger man, if you want to rebrand as something for a younger generation you really need a new idea.” – M21-35/South/Ace Score 35

Not a bad reception for a man with some very large shoes to fill. Whether or not he has the staying power of the original remains to be seen. We’ll see how his legend unfolds in October.