In the meantime, there are evidently plenty of places in the U.S. (“We aren’t catering to people who are obsessing over every last calorie,” he noted.) In an even more extreme gimmick, Cessario had the face of an avid Liquid Death customer tattooed on his arm.Īs for how the company’s strategy changes now that it has more products to push, Cessario told us that the focus remains squarely on building a brand “that’s about making healthy beverages as fun or more fun than junk food and alcohol brands.” Because its demographic skews younger and male, and because “young kids and most men have more of a palette for sweeter things,” observes Cessario, that means new drinks, which Cessario said are sweetened by agave nectar and feature just three grams of sugar and 20 calories per drink. The decks sold out quickly, said Cessario, but making the decks, as well as lining up a phlebotomist who could “legally draw blood and was willing to be on camera” took some time, he said with a laugh. Take a stunt last summer by Liquid Death and one of its handful of celebrity investors, Tony Hawk, who teamed up to sell 150 skateboard decks whose ink included some blood from Hawk. Some of these marketing pieces come together quickly, he said, in two weeks or less when “an idea comes out of nowhere.” Other times, a marketing piece can be a six-month-long process.
We don’t have $300 million to throw at something, so every piece of marketing that we make has to be interesting or entertaining so that people organically spread it.”
“I don’t know what other water brands spend, but we’re not going to have Coca-Cola or Pepsi-like budgets to spend. Indeed, asked how much Liquid Death spends on marketing compared with other beverage brands, Cessario insisted there is no comparison. Still, he’s particularly proud of Liquid Death’s organic growth strategy, one that has enabled the outfit to compete and even thrive in a world rife with other water brands. Its first three products? Berry It Alive, Severed Lime and Mango Chainsaw.Ĭessario has long credited the firm’s growth with its grimly funny phrasing, along with its packaging, arguing that aluminum is more recyclable than plastic (though, of course, no single-use container is great for the environment).
He thinks there is a lot of room to grow from here, including through flavored waters that Liquid Death is beginning to roll out with names that suit the brand’s punk-metal ethos. According to Cessario, Liquid Death is now carried in more than 29,000 locations throughout the U.S., including Whole Foods, Target, Safeway and 7-Eleven stores, and revenue reached nearly $45 million last year, up from $3 million in 2019 when the company sold its first can. Seemingly, there is a lot to boast about. We talked earlier today with Liquid Death’s co-founder and CEO, Mike Cessario, a West Coast agency creative-turned-entrepreneur, about the company’s growth. (Says Science co-founder Mike Jones, “I wish we owned more.”)
LIQUID DEATH WATER SERIES
The LA-based outfit, which sells canned mountain water from the Alps that will “murder your thirst,” has just landed $75 million in Series C funding led by the startup studio Science, which helped launch the company and now owns a “strong minority” position. Liquid Death, a water brand that began life in 2018 with a funny video to first test the concept, has grown deadly serious about its growth prospects.
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