If you’re in marketing, you cannot NOT afford to check out Liquid Death’s marketing strategy - the brand that single-handedly made water cool.

They’ve kicked clichés to the curb and waved the flag that reads, 'It’s not the product that’s boring; it’s YOU who's not willing to make it fun.'

Every piece of content they produce screams, ‘You’ve gotta check this out,’ compelling you to take the action the brand desires.

Here’s my somewhat daring attempt to dismantle their out-of-the-box strategy and put it into the not-so-out-of-the-box, digestible buckets for anyone and everyone aspiring to do something of the sort.

* This analysis is from June to Mid-December - and it’s deathly ;)

Overall Theme:

Their entire Instagram presence is about playful and entertaining content to 'win the day' and bring smiles to faces.

As Pearson, the Vice President of creative strategy, says, 

And it’s exactly what Instagram is all about.

Campaigns

People love cat videos. You show them cat videos. They watch them. They comment. They share. They follow.

Liquid Death does the same. 

They create fun campaigns with quirky names like Recycling Gloryhole, which, by the way, is a green initiative. They roll them out. People watch, love and comment.

These campaigns have nothing salesy about them. Liquid Death instead chooses a playful twist to show their products, poke fun at negative comments or highlight their initiatives.

Here are the campaigns they’ve launched over the last six months:

• Chest Blaster Challenge

• Recycling GloryHole

• Water Iced Tea vs Sweat

• Plastic Surgery Parody

• This is very demonic

• Greatest Hales Volume 3

Each campaign is mind-blowing and deserves a study of its own. Picking favorites is tough. 

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User-generated Content

Bold brands inevitably attract both admirers and haters. Liquid Death graciously gives both camps a space on their page.

They don’t play favorites with positive or negative emails or comments; they proudly share whatever catches their eye. This makes the brand more relatable, authentic, and human.

• Reviews

• Comments

• Reposts

• Recipes

• Customers emails

• Clips from Offline Events

Promotional 

This was certainly the easiest category to sort through. Liquid Death lets the followers know about their expansion efforts - announcing availability in new stores and launching new products.

Some content includes:

• New products

• Available at Tesco

• Available in UK Stores

• Product launch: Reusable bottle

• Iced tea flavor launch

Every now and then, the brand launches quirky merchandise, often in collaboration with other brands and creators who share similar values. These merchandise are very on-brand, speak to their audience and create a sense of exclusivity and identity within the community. 

A few of these collaborations and merchandise include:

• Holiday Sweater by @willcarsola: Season’s bleedings

• Watch with @nixon

• Deathtrap Snowboard with @burton

• Underwear with MeUndies

• All-Natural Steve-O Voodoo Doll

• Laid to rest beach towel with @slowtide

Creator & Brand Collaborations

Successful influencer and brand collaborations involve partnership with those whose values, energy, and personality vibe with yours. Liquid Death create merchandise, record videos or do fun challenges with brands and influencers who are either directly or indirectly akin to them, which directly helps the brand to increase ROI on each collaboration. 

Entertainment

They put their spin on the generic content that floats around the internet and make it more relatable to the audience. Motivation Mondays morph into mundervational mantras, with Liquid Death’s quirky quotes.

• Comics

• Bad reviews

• 90s yearbook

• Liquid death horoscope

• Mundervational mantras

Topical

They rarely post for holidays. The two I remember are Halloween and Father's Day.

Final thoughts:

Make your content the best thing your audience will see on the internet and there you got the strategy. Liquid Death knows this and does exactly what brings results: get people hooked and click that button they wish them to click. It’s phenomenal.

It’s an inspiration hub for anyone who wants to break the mold or launch short mind-blowing jaw-dropping campaigns.

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