Overview
Dos Equis, best known for its long-running “Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign, launched a new omnichannel initiative centred on American college football called “Go for Dos.” The campaign included sweepstakes, on-campus events, merch, and American college football-specific video creative.
To extend the campaign into programmatic streaming TV, Dos Equis wanted to appear in College Football Playoff (CFP) games and college football shoulder programming, without any NFL content, while maintaining strict CPM efficiency and geographic requirements.
Delivering that level of precision programmatically is challenging, particularly for live sports games where inventory is limited and demand is high. With additional category regulations for alcohol advertisers, Dos Equis needed a solution that could deliver linear precision across premium streaming TV environments, without sacrificing scale or performance.
Solution
Dentsu X worked with Index Exchange to activate Gracenote’s first-to-market content-level metadata across premium streaming supply via Index Marketplaces.
Through Index’s direct integrations with premium media owners like DIRECTV, dentsu X curated programmatic deals aligned specifically to CFP games and American college football shoulder content. Gracenote’s metadata, applied directly within Marketplaces, enabled a content-first activation strategy purpose-built for live sports.
This approach created a closed-loop workflow from activation through post-campaign reporting. Dos Equis received transparent, program-level reporting that confirmed exactly where impressions ran. The campaign delivered the precision of a linear buy paired with the flexibility, efficiency, and scale of programmatic.
“We needed programmatic execution that matched the precision of a direct buy, especially for live sports. Using Gracenote metadata through Index Exchange allowed us to confidently show up in the exact American college football moments we wanted, while maintaining efficiency and scale.”
Rob Walker, Chief Strategy Officer
dentsu X
Results
The campaign delivered strong performance across premium streaming TV environments, including live sports inventory on DIRECTV:
- 84% Of impressions aired during live College Football Playoff games (versus shoulder content)
- 7% Lower CPMs than benchmark
- 0% Of impressions aired outside of American college football content
Post-campaign reporting confirmed that Dos Equis reached the high-impact American college football environments it set out to target, without any spillover into other sports programming, including the NFL. The results demonstrated how applying Gracenote’s metadata across Index Exchange premium supply, including DIRECTV, can deliver contextual precision at scale.
“Live sports require a level of content precision that has traditionally been difficult to support at scale in the past. But by enabling more granular, content-level targeting through Index Exchange, we’re able to support brand needs around live events while reducing manual operational work internally, creating a more efficient experience for both buyers and our teams. This allowed Dos Equis to show up in the exact games that matter—delivering the power of live sports with the flexibility and efficiency of programmatic.”
Edmund Jules, Senior Director of Ad Sales Partnerships
DIRECTV Advertising
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