This Branding Genius Has Made Millions SELLING WATER (His Branding Strategy) | My First Million

because everyone was like, this is such a silly idea, and they raised all this money.

So I mean, I guess at the heart of what Liquid Death really is, we're really just completely trying to change the way healthy food and beverages are marketed. At the end of the day, most of the most hilarious, memorable ad campaigns that you ask most people about of the last 10 years, they'll tell you Bud Light, Dos Equis, Snickers, Doritos, Skittles, like all junk food and alcohol. That's the funniest, most memorable kind of youth culture owning, and energy drinks like Red Bull. That's like the most—

let's not leave Old Spice out.

Well, it's not really a pooter beverage, but yes, uh, but yeah, it's like all the— it's all junk food and alcohol that does all the funniest, coolest youth culture marketing, whereas healthy food is traditionally marketed to like mom and it's quiet and it's responsible, or it's like, look better, wear, you know, show, you know, fitness models, you know, drinking bottles of water. Like, it's a very different— they don't use fun to market, whereas unhealthy beverages, stuff like that, like, they want to own fun. So we're basically doing that with water. So we want to be able to take the healthiest thing you can drink that most people don't drink enough of and brand it and build a, you know, a cool, you know, thing around it where it's something that you feel totally comfortable drinking a Liquid Death in a bar or at a house party, right, at a music festival or at work or in the gym, and just making it more fun to walk around and have a water, right?

You definitely made headlines when you raised all that money because everyone was like, this is such a silly idea and they raised all this money. I didn't— I I mean, it seems like an awesome company and totally worthy of going big. But so it kind of worked, right? Like, you definitely ruffled some feathers, and I think that's good.

No, yeah, I think, you know, I always bring up, you know, I listen to the Reid Hoffman podcast a lot. Master of Scale. Master of Scale, yeah. And it's like, I love that he always pushes. He's like, truly innovative ideas are almost comical at first, because if it seems like it makes a lot of sense right now, it probably means there's 4 other companies that have been working on it for 5 years already. It's like the things that are truly unique and innovative, like, almost don't make any sense at first or seem laughable. And I think like that's kind of the case of Liquid Death. I think it's like we're really trying to disrupt a category in a way that's not just disruption for the sake of disruption. You know, I think it's like we strongly believe that, and I don't think it's something hard to understand, in a, in a category where almost all the products themselves are perceived as the same, you know, people aren't assuming, I only drink Fiji because it's got 0.75 more electrolytes than Smartwater, which has 0.5, and the pH is 7.7 instead of 7. No, it's like Most people assume water is the same. It's more of a brand play. And we believe if we can make you laugh, we have a way better chance at you giving us your $1.69 than the faceless brand next to us who's trying to shout at you, electrolytes, you know, they're like, guys, this all seems like snake oil to me. Like, I feel like there's real human beings behind Liquid Death that I'd want to have a beer with. So I'd rather give you my $1.69.

Right, and let's talk a little bit about the form factor. So it's a tall can is what I've seen. Are there other form factors or no?

No, it's just the tall can.

Tall can, which is cool. The branding of it is sort of like, you know, almost like heavy metal or punk rock. How do you describe it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, I think at the end of the day you would, you would say we're like an alternative punk metal inspired design and vibe. I think the way I like to think about our brand is like we're a professional wrestler Like, it's all theater and fun, and no one thinks it's trying to be real. Like, no one thinks The Undertaker is really an evil guy from the dead who likes metal. No, it's a character, and it's fun to like have a character. Yeah, and that's kind of what— that's how we think about it. Like, we're just playing this fun— sorry a second— we're just playing this fun character.

It's fun to choose to believe that, yeah, that this is what it is and, and not take it too seriously. And you're right, like, you know, if you're at a bar or a music festival and you choose water, you feel like you're choosing, you're opting out of the fun. And in fact, they'll sort of, you know, they'll make you feel that way. You know, you'll get the small plastic rinky-dink cup with a baby straw, right? Versus if you ordered an alcoholic drink or something else.

It's kind of, that's actually a good point. I mean, I don't drink and I still go to bars and I always felt like I used to order Sprites with lime in it because I was like, uh, I don't want to—

looks like a gin and tonic.

Yeah, I'm like, I don't want to make people feel uncomfortable. What— so I'll just— even though I don't like to drink soda, like, I'll drink it anyway. And I don't want to have an O'Doul's because I'm like, uh, then everyone's just gonna like— it's just gonna come up. And so it is a great alternative to that.

And so Mike, I'm curious, where does this idea come from?

So I think this was really just like a culmination of all my passions and experience sort of like converged into one, you know. It's like I grew up in high school playing in punk rock and metal bands and skateboarding, and, you know, I would do all the show flyers and album art and stuff for our bands, which kind of got like the entrepreneurial probably side of things because like, you know, we're booking shows and we're selling merch and like we're pressing records and doing all that kind of stuff. Then I got into a career of like graphic design, which led into advertising. So then I was like an advertising creative director for a long time, and I worked on big brands like Nestlé and Toyota and Volkswagen and Naked Juice and all this kind of stuff. So I think I got a good sense of where I think big companies, uh, screw up, I guess, like where I think they're short-sighted. Like, I can't tell you how many boardrooms I've been in where I'm trying to convince people that Social media isn't some like niche little thing you add on to your business. Like, it is the internet now. When you say I'm going on the internet, 9 times out of 10 you're going on social media. Yeah. You know, it's like, I think a lot of brands are just way behind the ball to understand what it really takes to be successful in the social environment. Like, your little social posts aren't just competing against other beverages. You're competing against influencers who are uncensored and can do crazy off-the-wall stuff. You're competing against— you're competing against everything awesome on the internet when you're scrolling through your feed. That's what your marketing is competing against. So when you really think about it that way, do you really think your little ad that seems like a typical beverage thing is going to actually stand out in someone's quick scrolling feed amongst all this other amazing stuff? Probably not. So I think the bar for what stuff needs to be is way higher. And I think that's what I built Liquid Death around. Like, we think about marketing like entertainment. I don't ever wanna put something in your feed that feels like marketing. I want it to feel like actual entertainment that made you laugh, or it was the funniest thing that you maybe saw that morning that you wanna share with your friends or whatever. That like, we're never just sticking marketing in your face. Like, it's always gonna entertain you. Or it's gonna do something of value that it gives you.

I've got a question. I've got a question.

Hold on one sec, Sam. I'm looking at their Facebook ads right now, and what you're saying is true. So here's the two ads I see. I wish I could show this through a podcast, so I'm gonna show this to your ears, but there's a giant can of Liquid Death in front of a mountain, and it says, "This is dumb, don't buy this." And then there's another one that's like, I don't even know what you would call this. It's like the Mountain from Game of Thrones, but instead of his head is a can of Liquid Death.

Liquid Death erupting from his muscular body, and he's standing in a grocery store aisle holding an axe, and it just says, "Liquid Death is available nationwide in Whole Foods." So I wanna ask a question about that, but first, is there any indication, is there anything you can give me that shows, or the listeners, how big this business is? Like what size you guys are?

Yeah, why should we care about what you say? Is it working or not?

I want you to like impress people.

Yeah, I mean, I can't get into like specific kind of sales numbers, but since we launched national in Whole Foods, basically we launched the day the pandemic started. So we went into Whole Foods March 15th. And basically even though we've been in a pandemic where they've had like 80% decreased store traffic and everything else going on, We've had insane growth in Whole Foods and we're now the fastest growing water brand in Whole Foods right now.

And you've raised like how much money to make this? 9, 10 million?

So far? Uh, grand total since the very beginning of everything, I think we've raised around, uh, $12 total right now.

So great. Okay, so we kind of have an idea a little bit about sizing. When you look at— when you were looking at this business and what to start, was that your perspective? Which is, what is something that— I mean, it sounds like you're into health and that type of stuff. What is something that is like good for you but has shit marketing and how can I build a business around that? Was that your perspective?

In a nutshell, I think it really came from, you know, when I grew up playing in punk bands and metal bands and stuff like that, I was still, and a lot of my friends in that world were very much into health. Like, I was a vegetarian at age 16. A lot of my friends in that scene were. More of my friends were even vegan. A lot of them, like, you know, didn't drink alcohol. I do, and I think that's one thing that we've been, like, misbranded as, like, Liquid Death, it's water for the straight edge crowd. That is not what we're trying to do. I think it's something that's been adopted by them for, you know, the reasons of, yeah, it is more fun to walk around in a bar if you don't want to drink. Than something like this. But I think another thing that the health food industry does that I don't think we want to do is we don't want to be preachy to people. We don't want to say, "You should be doing this, and you shouldn't be drinking this, and you shouldn't be doing that." We're like, "Hey, you want to go rip some shots at a bar? Fine, but maybe take a break and have a water for an hour." Or like, "Hey, you want to smoke weed or whatever? It's like, great, maybe hydrate while you're doing it." Even if like, hey, you want to go buy a Monster energy drink or whatever, great. Maybe buy a water too and have a water after you just pound a bunch of sugar and caffeine.

That's the good news. Anybody who does any lifestyle also drinks water, and so you compare to any lifestyle that you want. It sounds like you guys are trying to do that.