Mike Cesario is a marketing genius. In a short time, he created the fastest growing water brand in the country - Liquid Death.
The canned water startup has 1.4 million followers on Instagram.
It cooled the water.
And think about it for a second. There is nothing interesting in the water. So it's not nothing. I mean, have you ever thought about following Dasani or Aqua Fina on social media?
Cesario has a background in marketing. He has worked as a creative director at agencies such as VaynerMedia, Porter & Bogusky, and Street League Skateboarding.
It was successful and fun, but in the end it was just a paycheck. It wasn't something he was really passionate about.
He has always been passionate about health and fitness and is fed up with all the unhealthy brands like the beer and energy drink companies running the flashiest ads.
What if he took something useful and gave it a fun twist?
Thus, Liquid Death was born. But it was a slow process. It didn't happen all of a sudden.
Cesario said: “A lot of people think these great ideas come to you one day while you're in the shower. I say, "No. It was just this piece of wood that I cut for a few years until I finally figured out what it was supposed to be and figured out all the details and thought about it. . It was done."
He had a great strategy to see if people would react to the brand.
He said, “We initially launched Liquid Death on Facebook, even though we didn't actually have a product. We shot this little commercial for $1,500 using a fake camera. And we first tested the idea. We wanted to see how people would react. We wanted to find an inexpensive way to test if it worked. And in 4 months, the video has garnered nearly 3 million views. And the page had 80,000 followers."
Cesario continued, “We are first and foremost an entertainment company. We don't want to do marketing. We want to make people laugh. And we want to be the funniest thing on someone's feed all day. That's our goal."
And it works. The company was recently valued at $700 million which is pretty amazing since the company launched in 2019.
Their branding is so good that they even have a huge merchandising company. They sell millions of dollars worth of merchandise in a year and their category has grown 100% year over year.
A water company selling goods is unknown. Have you ever considered buying a Poland Springs or Perrier hoodie?
Merch has punk rock imagery and a sound that doesn't take itself too seriously. It was a huge success.
Their motto is “Quench your thirst”.
In preparation for my interview with Cessario, I browsed through their wares and almost bought a hoodie, but had to wait because I hadn't tried their water yet.
It is good.
And I'm not the only one to think so.
They recently collaborated with Martha Stewart on The Dismembered Moments candle, as well as Bert Kreischer's Body By Bert brand.
But Liquid Death is more than a startup with a founder who can do some cool marketing and advertising. They genuinely care about the planet, so their water is only available in bottles.
According to Globalrecycle.net, only 9% of plastic in the world is recycled. There are 80,000 types of plastic resin, but only 4 types can be reused. The rest is quite difficult to recycle as they will all require different processes.
Cesario really wanted to put water in infinitely reusable bottles. They also donate part of their sales to the fight against plastic pollution.
Liquid Death is the perfect combination of a quality product with great marketing, while supporting a worthy cause.
I hope they never change.