No. 015: Liquid Death is a $1B media company that just happens to sell water🤘🏽🎸
plus, Cucumber Tok, Polly Pocket sleepovers, and founders vs. Saks
good evening!!!!! hope you enjoy this evening edition of Brandiose :)
🧲 OBSESSION OF THE WEEK
Cucumbers are having a moment on TikTok. They are my favorite veggie, so I am indeed obsessed with this trend, which was started by 23-year-old TikToker Logan, who now has almost 5 million followers.
Like most TT trends are, it’s simple & consistent. In each video, Logan uses a mandolin to thinly slice a whole full cucumber into a plastic container, where he then adds garnishes as varied as soy sauce and sesame seeds to lox and cream cheese.
I really don’t know why it’s trending, but I’m obsessed with the fact that seemingly anything can go viral these days, if you’re consistent enough.
Also curious how brands will participate in this trend?!
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🍿 BRAND NEWS
Sofia Richie Grainge is launching a baby line with Amazon. I get that Amazon has the distribution, but it just feels off brand for the “inventor” of quiet luxury and slick backed buns. To me, this is purely about revenue but at what cost to her personal brand? It would have made more sense to go with Target or maybe Nordstrom (they need a win).
Also, a big week for the Grainges, it turns out — Sofia’s husband Elliot Grainge has been named CEO of Atlantic Music Group, which is the rival of his father’s company, Universal Music Group. We need a TV show.
It’s been a while since I heard anyone say “the playa provides” in a while, and it makes sense, because apparently Burning Man is over
Mars is acquiring Kellanova (who makes iconic brands like Pringles, Cheez-Its, Starburst, M&Ms, Eggo, and Poptarts) for a reported $36 billion. Apparently they don’t see “any antitrust issues.” The FTC will be the judge of that.
Coca-Cola and Oreo came out with a new collab — cookies with a “fizz” sensation and Zero Sugar Coke with “hint of Oreo — hmm. who is buying this?!
I cannot keep up with the drama around Meghan Markle’s American Riviera Orchard, but it’s delayed due to “production issues”. OK…
The former Chipotle CEO, Brian Niccol (who was mocked all over TikTok earlier this year for his POV on portion sizes) is now CEO of Starbucks. The brand needs a turnaround, and bringing someone in with a restaurant background makes sense. We’ll be watching…
IG carousels can now be 20 photos instead of 10, so you no longer have to choose which photo makes the cut for your ‘summer 2024’ dump.
Barbie and Stanley are both trying to stay relevant and are launching a collab. I don’t know, this reads a little desperate to me.
Dolce & Gabbana launched a $108 perfume for dogs, and I’m 100% sure people will bite (pun intended)
I really love this new launch from Airbnb as a part of their Icons collection, where you can stay in a life size Polly Pocket house. Obsessed.
🎯 DEEP DIVE: How Liquid Death built a $1B business taking on Big Water
Context
If you’re a brand nerd, you probably love Liquid Death. Makers of canned plain and flavored sparkling water, iced teas, and hydration powders, the brand has made its mark on culture by offering a cool, larger-than-life way to enjoy what is otherwise one of the most commodified products on earth: water.
The brand has only been around since 2019, when they launched on Amazon, and got into their first offline retailer in 2020.
And founder & CEO Mike Cessario didn’t have a CPG background; he was a Creative Director at Netflix and had worked on campaigns for shows like “House of Cards” and “Stranger Things.”
Since launch, they’ve grown 200-300% every year, and are now officially a unicorn 🦄
Yup, casual. Let’s find out how.
Why Now?
a challenger brand: there’s so much power in coming in as a challenger brand and, for lack of a better term, blowing sh*t up. Liquid Death knew this, and they built an entire brand around this ethos, calling out plastic bottles as bad for the environment with #DeathtoPlastic. Their About page tells it like it is: “We’re just a funny beverage company who hates corporate marketing as much as you do. Our evil mission is to make people laugh and get more of them to drink more healthy beverages more often, all while helping to kill plastic pollution.” 10/10, no notes.
brand > product : Liquid Death knows that supercharging growth means creating a brand universe outside of just big campaigns — to that end, they put out amazing content, launch fun collabs, and throw world-class events (more on that below). Above all else — they think like a content company: “We’re setting out to be an entertainment company that monetizes via beverages,” says Cessario.
cultlike following: Liquid Death knew that to build loyalty, they’d have to go all in on their target audience, punk rock fans. Says CEO Mike Cessario, "at first we knew the easiest crowd for us is anyone into heavy metal, punk rock, and that kind of world because they immediately get the joke and get the humor and have never seen anything like it. What makes this appealing for such a large group is that it feels like a niche thing." 120 fans have Liquid Death tattooed on their body. Sounds culty.
the decline of alcohol: I’ve written about this before, but we’re seeing large declines in alcohol consumption. Liquid Death may not have foreseen this 4-5 years ago, but they are perfectly positioned to grasp that opportunity given their packaging design, intentionally in 16oz aluminum cans that look like “tall boy” beers.
brands as status symbols: more than ever before, we’re in the era of brands as status symbols — where what you consume says much about what you value (
has talked about this a lot). Liquid Death understood this, and was incredibly intentional about creating loud packaging that would inevitably start a conversation at any party, event, or gathering. Holding a Liquid Death can says something about you.retail expansion: it comes as no surprise that in 2024, DTC alone is not a strategy — especially not for a CPG brand. The brand does $263 million a year in scanned retail sales and is sold at 113,00 retail outlets across the U.S. and U.K, up from 60,000 two years ago.
The Details
Liquid Death is the king of content (which tracks with the ethos of thinking like an entertainment company). There are few brands that nail tone, messaging, and authenticity in the way that they do — and it’s no surprise, given the CEO’s brand marketing background. Here are just a few top hits:
Van Leeuwen x Liquid Death Hot Fudge Sundae Sparkling Water
Just yesterday, the brand announced a collab with popular ice cream brand Van Leeuwen — a “Hot Fudge Sundae” flavored sparkling water. They launched it with a signature tongue-in-cheek ad mocking beer companies. Sounds gross, but that’s besides the point?
Sell Your Soul: The Liquid Death Country Club
I love the way the brand positions their loyalty program — telling customers to “sell your soul” and sign up. It feels authentic & refreshing, and I’m sure leads to more opt-ins.
The Boys x Liquid Death
To promote The Boys on Prime, Liquid Death teamed up with character The Deep (Chase Crawford) to “fire” him as Chief Sustainability Officer in a hilarious spoof ad, where he offends children left and right.
Ozzy Osborne x Liquid Death “Death Dust”
Ozzy Osborne stars in a hilarious ad to announce the brand’s new “Death Dust”, once again offending teens by telling them how not to use the product. It ends with a great tagline: “It’s Drink Mix. Not Drugs.”
E.L.F. x Liquid Death Corpse Paint Kit
Earlier this year, they teamed up with E.l.f. Beauty (another Brandiose fave!) to launch the Corpse Paint gothic inspired makeup collection, which sold out in an hour.
Liquid Death x Bad Birdie Golf Uroclub
Ok, frankly this one is disgusting but I felt the need to include it because I think it showcases the brand’s commitment to authenticity, experimentation, and irreverence. They collaborated with golf brand Bad Birdie to launch a “Uroclub” which is a golf club with a removable cap that lets golfers urinate into it. Towel included. I told you it was gross, but it also sold out, so I’m clearly not the target audience.
Hot Take 🌶️
It’s no secret that I think Liquid Death crushes it and is leading the charge for a brand who wants to think more like an entertainment company than a product company. It feels very similar to Dollar Shave Club’s strategy; in fact, founder Michael Dubin is actually a Liquid Death investor. Makes sense.
If I were to sum it up, here’s the playbook:
Start niche, go wide: So many brands are scared to start with a strong positioning for fear of alienating potential audiences. But as we all know, if your brand is for everyone, it’s really for no one. Liquid Death knew this, so they decided to target punk rock loving dudes. The result? They truly captured this audience, who then influenced others to join the club — which actually felt more authentic, since the growth came by word of mouth, not from the brand. This actually creates stickier, more loyal customers in the long run.
Expand slowly & strategically: Liquid Death has only released 4 products in the 5 years since they’ve started, and they’re all squarely in the beverage category. I’m sure they’ve thought about entering many new categories, but doing so may dilute the brand. In my view, they’re rolling out with intention, and using collabs as a way to test new potential expansion opportunities.
Use collabs to bring in new audiences: I’ve said this in so many deep dives in the past, but I believe the smartest brands are the ones who use collabs to reach new audiences, rather than simply doubling down on existing ones. From just the examples above, it’s clear that Liquid Death wants to reach golfers, comic book lovers, and makeup enthusiasts — people who may not otherwise be fans of the brand.
Entertain above all else: Liquid Death doesn’t sell water; they sell humor, personality, and a POV. People seek out their ads and their content (they even showcase it as an entire section on their website called the Timewaster 5000.) It’s why, no matter how they choose to expand, audiences will likely buy in. It’s not easy to build a cult, but I think brands like this show us that it’s possible.
Last week, only 9% of you thought Ref’s commitment to sustainability felt genuine, while 43% are you are “not buying it” and 48% would want to see more.
Free Ideas ☁️
It’s tough to provide recommendations for a brand so immersed in culture right now. Here goes:
category expansion: would love to see Liquid Death expand into product categories that are totally outside of their comfort zone, especially leveraging their learnings from collabs. For example, if their North Star is hydration, skincare makes a ton of sense, but finding the right partner is a must.
founder focus: it feels like there’s an opportunity for Founder & CEO Mike Cessario to be more front and center with the brand (can he start a Substack already?!). Would love to hear more about his journey and how he became such a masterful storyteller.
Liquid Death-istval: this one is a little out there, but I’d personally love to see the brand sponsor an alcohol-free music festival. I think they could go big with nostalgia and get some punk bands from the 90s and 2000s — they’ve curated an album before, so this doesn’t feel like that much of a departure.
🆕 TREND REPORT
Very Mindful, Very Demure. This is the phrase of the month (coined by beauty influencer Jools Lebron), and honestly, I couldn’t tell you why, but it sort of applies to every situation. Basically, you use it as a descriptor for the way in which you do things — aka, ‘the way I write this newsletter is very mindful, very demure."
It Ends With Us. It’s hard to avoid the drama around Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, costars in It Ends With Us, the movie based on Colleen Hoover’s famous book. No one really knows what happened to cause a riff between the costars, but there’s much speculation. Blake Lively really needs a better PR strategy, and apparently Justin Baldoni is calling in reinforcements.
Diet Coke Breaks. Gen Zs are taking Diet Coke breaks to maintain their sanity, and are very particular about the way they consume their beverage of choice. As a millennial, it feels very Brat (almost contrarian?) to enjoy Diet Coke, or soda in general, but once again again, Gen Zs aren’t millennials.
🎲 ONE LAST THING
A few weeks ago, the founder of Jolie showerhead filter, Ryan Babenzien, wrote a LinkedIn post sharing that his brand was owed $15k in late checks from Saks Fifth avenue.
His post went viral and was picked up by the Wall Street journal — so of course Saks had to pay up.
Instead of taking the money though, Babenzien offered to help another brand riddled with debt from Saks by gifting them all $15k, no strings attached.
Pretty amazing.
I love this because it leverages the best of social media — the ability of the masses to expose “the bad guys” and putting action behind your words as a founder.
Truthfully I think that $15k will come back to Jolie in terms of customer loyalty, media impressions, and general goodwill. (I mean, I’m talking about them right now.)
More of this!!!!
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have a great week.
- Sabena
Interesting! The Liquid Death skull thing looks disgusting to me. Guess I’m not the target market. 😆
The Sofia x Amazon baby line is such a cash grab, but then again it’s part of Amazon’s push to be seen as a viable luxury eCommerce platform. Perhaps using Sofia’s quiet luxury “brand” will help them build trust with GenZ to also purchase luxury skincare, makeup, etc on Amazon. 🤔