$1.4B from a dumb idea

G’Day Sellouts!

My close friends know my obsession with Liquid Death.

My fridge is full of ‘Severed Lime’ sparkling water and funny enough my quest to stock up on the cans one random Saturday evening was the catalyst for how I met my girlfriend outside the supermarket that stocked them.

If you haven’t yet heard of Liquid Death, they sell the most boring product imaginable, water, but turned it into a cultural phenomenon with pure marketing genius.

In just five years, they've gone from a $3 million startup to generating $333 million in revenue in 2024.

That's a casual 110x growth since their launch in 2019 and a valuation of $1.4B.

And they did it by selling... water. In cans. With skulls on them.

Let's break down how a former Netflix creative director murdered the brand strategy and what we can learn from their absolutely unhinged marketing.

Dumb Branding from Brilliant Branders

Founder Mike Cessario describes Liquid Death as "the dumbest possible name" for his brand.

The first lesson: a good idea and a smart idea aren't necessarily the same.

After years as a creative director in advertising, Cessario had a problem: smart ideas were all taken.

Particularly for small businesses, standing out is the ultimate goal. But how do you stand out when every obvious approach is already backing monolith brands with massive budgets?

"You kind of have to trick your brain to come up with a bad idea to truly be thinking in innovative territory," Cessario explained in a 2022 CNBC interview.

Cessario noticed something interesting: while energy drinks successfully marketed themselves with extreme sports and aggressive branding, water remained... boring.

The gap was obvious: nobody had tried to make water cool.

Not just refreshing. Not just healthy. But actually cool.

The result of this insight was to mock wellness culture while selling one of the healthiest beverages possible.

They’d use death metal aesthetics to promote hydration.

Not a good idea, but a smart one.

Big competitors don't want to take risks with their brand. They don't want to alienate sectors. They have too much to lose.

You don't have this problem so dumb down and get bold.

You're Never Selling a Product

Next lesson: make the brand impossible to ignore.

How do you improve on water? If it's clean and safe, water is all basically the same.

Liquid Death's approach to marketing is less about the hydration benefits of water and more about gaining attention amongst $50B worth of competition.

Their name alone generates buzz. "Liquid Death" for water? It's so absurd it demands attention.

They lean into punk rock aesthetics with skulls, aggressive typography, and deliberate over-the-top messaging.

The can itself easily be confused for a 16oz beer.

"If I saw that in a store […], I'm pretty sure they're going to have to pick that up and [ask a friend], ‘What is this?’ And once someone picks something up, you've basically won” Cessario said of their strategy.

By accident or not, by doing so, the brand allowed itself to play wider a role in social environments.

For example, the first time I saw a can of Liquid Death it was at Webster Hall, a music venue in New York. Trying to avoid alcohol, I opted for the Liquid Death can…seamlessly blending in with the beer crowd.

Which is more relevant to drink around other beer drinkers? Liquid Death or a water brand named after a cold spring somewhere you've never been?

I know which one I'm choosing.

You Don’t Need a Product to Build a Brand

Lesson three: brand before product.

Liquid Death prepared to launch with a $1,500 commercial called Deadliest Thing on Earth, featuring a profanity-laden script with a waterboarding punchline.

If it succeeded, they would know the brand was a winner before ever producing a product.

It earned nearly a million views per month as they prepared to launch.

Cessario said, "Social media is like this superpower where you can actually see how people respond to things in the market without actually having to put the product in.”

Then they made $100K in sales in the first month.

We recently discussed David's Protein Bars, another brand that built social media campaigns before launch to massive market impact.

• Buy cheap ads and A/B test marketing, packaging or messaging well before your product is made.

• Create a commercial and verify your approach

• Use your learnings to engage and excite influencers – or even regular consumers – in the lead up to your launch.

Anti-Marketing Marketing

The final lesson: keep the surprises coming as your brand grows.

Eventually, just being edgy gets old. The joke wears thin. What now?

Liquid Death's viral collaborations keep breathing new life into the brand, exposing it to new people.

The crazier the partnership, the better!

Last year, Liquid Death did seemingly dozens of collaborations, including a leather "mosh pit" diaper in partnership with Depends that briefly broke the Internet.

Another was with E.l.f. Cosmetics: "Corpse Paint". The heavy-metal inspired makeup collection sold out in just 45 minutes.

As they've grown, brand collaborations have increasingly been the center of their strategy:

• A casket-sized (and shaped) cooler with Yeti

• A "plunge to death" cold water tub with Plunge 

• Multiple punk and metal albums with lyrics written from hate comments they've received online (featuring big musicians from Alkaline Trip, Anti-Flag, Rise Against and more)

• Hot Fudge Sundae sparkling water with Van Leeuwen ice cream

Notice that these collaborations are always with serious brands. It's about creating the "this is too dumb to exist" moment that generates chatter.

That benefits both brands.

The collaborator (E.l.f., Yeti, etc) can borrow the irreverence of Liquid Death without any of the brand risks, isolating the partnership away from their regular brand activity.

Liquid Death earns wider awareness of their product through press and buzz they couldn't get alone.

Most importantly, the partnerships are genuinely surprising.

Legitimately entertaining your audience will always help you stand out.

The Sellout Take:

Every brand can learn from Liquid Death's journey, even if not every brand wants to follow the same path.

1. Spot the Untapped Opportunity The beverage industry was missing attitude. Water was missing personality. Liquid Death filled both gaps at once.

2. Stay In Character They never break character. Every touchpoint, from their website to their customer service, maintains their irreverent tone.

3. Make Entertainment The Product Their content is so entertaining that people share it voluntarily. The actual product almost becomes secondary to the brand experience.

4. Know Your Audience They understand their core demographic so well that they can push boundaries without alienating them.

5. Don't Fear Polarization They're okay with some people hating their brand because that hatred only strengthens their appeal to their target audience.

If you've built a brand that has a serious personality, look for ways to partner with the Liquid Deaths of the world.

If your brand is as fun as Liquid Death, look for ways to use a serious brand to stand out.

Remember: “too dumb to exist” doesn’t mean you need to be death metal

A function-first shoe brand could partner with children’s creators (maybe even…Elmo?) for some unexpected cultural moments.

Chainsaws, AK47s, bedazzled trucknuts are some free ideas to get started… (okay, maybe not these but you get the idea…)

Would your brand benefit from following the Liquid Death collaboration playbook?

Hit reply and let me know what unlikely partnerships you think could work for your business.

Until next week, keep selling out,

Luke