Over the last few years, the famous green bottle of beer with the red star bottle cap, Heineken NV, lost its U.S. market share to Belgium’s Stella Artois. Now it plans to look south of the border to its Dos Equis beer for a jump start.

Heineken acquired the Mexican Dos Equis in 2010 and has seen U.S. sales take off. Recently, John Nicolson, Heineken’s head of Americas unit, called it the company’s “shining star” according to Reuters.

In the last quarter through October, Dos Equis saw its sales jump 17%, while Heineken reported a 1% sales decline and almost a 2% decline industry-wide according to research conducted by Sanford C. Bernstein analyst.

Heineken has been trying to gain lost shares through a new global marketing campaign and a bigger push in bars and restaurants. It is successful in the Americas, including the U.S. and Brazil, representing Heineken’s second largest market after Western Europe, which represents 23% of the brewer’s EUR 8.36 billion ($10.9 billion) sales for the first six months of this year.

So while Heineken fights for market share, Dos Equis is taking off in the marketplace.

What contributes to Dos Equis’ success?

One factor is the popular ad campaign, the “Most Interesting Man in the World” which includes stories of one interesting man with the tag line, “I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.”

The ad has a cult following while interestingly, Dos Equis represents only 0.6% of the U.S. beer market by volume as compared to Heineken’s 2.2% in 2011, according to the research company Euromonitor. Heineken acquired Dos Equis and Tecate among other beers, when it purchased the Fomento Economico Mexicano SAB’s beer unit in a takeover.

It’s value is EUR $5.4 billion.

Banco Santander analyst Anthony Bucalo has said Dos Equis is an “awesome brand,” with its “very broad consumer base” helping the brand’s popularity. He added, “It’s not limited to hipsters in Vermont drinking microbrews, or blue-collar workers drinking Bud.”

With Dos Equis’s appeal, it could help Heineken grab back some market share. In the four weeks ending Nov. 26, the Heineken brand rose 3.9% in volume, according to a Nomura research note while Dos Equis Especial jumped 25%.

There’s skepticism that Heineken will improve a lot, given it’s long life cycle, said one analyst. It hasn’t received enough love later and will now pin its hopes for Heineken USA with Dos Equis.

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