‘We’re having fun with the healthiest beverage on earth’: Steve Nilsen, Liquid Death’s VP of Cult Indoctrination
A still from Liquid Death’s ‘Big Game Commercial’. Credit: Liquid Death
Liquid Death is bringing humour to the usually dry (ahem) water category. Its recyclable cans look more like a beer or energy drink than water, and some hilarious advertising and fame-grabbing stunts have made the brand impossible to ignore while annual revenues hit nearly $45m in 2021 — particularly impressive when you consider the company sold its first can just three years ago. We spoke to Steve Nilsen (also known as Stix), VP of Cult Indoctrination, to discuss tackling the plastic problem, the strategy for growing the brand on a near-zero budget, and his advice for marketing sustainability.
In-store merchandising, Liquid Death-style. Photograph: Liquid Death
Hey Stix, can you tell us how the company started?
Mike Cessario, our co-founder, worked in the ad agency world as a creative. He worked on major brands like Nike and Netflix, and he would churn out these really good and funny ideas for clients. One day, he pitched to a major brand, and he told me he just snapped. He was in the conference room, and he said, ‘You picked the safest, most vanilla idea, and I had the best stuff that would have taken you to the next level. You might as well give me $100,000 in a suitcase, and I’ll go and set it on fire in the parking lot.’ The other thing was Mike noticed that it’s only unhealthy products that are cool and have fun, and he thought: ‘why can’t a healthy product like water be fun?’.
How did you come to join in 2019?
Mike respected my work and did his due diligence, and we got on the phone and talked for hours. He’s from the East Coast, a skater and a snowboarder. He loves punk rock and metal. All the things that I cherish. And he said he loved what I did at Pabst because I had no budget, and if I went to Liquid Death, I wouldn’t have any budget either. He saw how I got Pabst into a tonne of places without paying through credible relationships, and he wanted me to do the same thing at Liquid Death. But at Pabst, our audience had to be drinking age of 21+. There are no excuses now because I’m selling water. There’s no reason we can’t be everywhere whilst still having fun and keeping an edge.
What is the company’s mission?
The plastic problem on this earth is horrible, and it needs to be brought to everyone’s attention. We’re calling the petroleum companies that make all the plastic bottles out. They’re F-ing the planet, and we will call a spade a spade. They claim that plastic is recyclable, but it isn’t really being recycled. Only a small percentage of all the plastic ever made has been recycled. Yet 75%+ of all the aluminium produced since the turn of the century is still in circulation today. Aluminium is that recyclable! And we’re putting our money where our mouth is by donating 10% of our proceeds to charities that help clean up the oceans of plastic. And the other thing is people don’t hydrate enough, and we’re a 100% pure mountain water. It’s the healthiest drink in the world.
What inspired the brand identity?
Liquid Death’s limited edition Greatest Hates album on vinyl made up of the company’s bad reviews on the internet.
We want to spread this message that people don’t hydrate enough, and there’s a big plastic problem. But we’re going to have fun getting that message out there. People need to smile and pump the brakes a little bit, especially with what’s happening in the world right now. And if we can add a little smile to your day and help keep you healthy at the same time, that’s a pretty tough equation to beat.
The artist and creator of Mr Pickles, Will Carsola, did our crazy cartoon branding. Mike trusted him out of the gate, so he’s ingrained in the brand. We’re just having fun. And, again, not taking ourselves too seriously. And remember, many of these bands, musicians and artists we work with have chosen a healthier lifestyle or are sober now, and they’re happy to go on stage with our water. Because from a distance, it looks like a beer or an energy drink, and they still look like this rocker badass, and they’re partying, but it’s water. People are catching on to that, which is good.
How is Liquid Death breaking with category expectations?
No one’s done anything in this water business. And it’s a perfect platform, because it’s massive, to do it our way. We’re going up against these huge behemoth brands, and it’s like David and Goliath. We probably have 1/1000th of the budget they do. But everyone in the water category in the United States seems to stay in their lane. If you’re Voss Water, you’re wearing a black turtleneck, and you’re at fashion week in New York City. And then there’s SmartWater with Jennifer Aniston, and again, it’s just about the packaging. There’s Core Water in this huge bottle with this big blue cap. It’s regular water, right? So much of the water game comes down to packaging and how it looks. All the other water companies use clear plastic bottles, and consumers can see the liquid. Our packaging looks like a beer, and these kids think they’re doing something naughty. We’re not owned by a major corporation telling us what we need to do. We don’t care about the competition. We’re playing by our own rules, and we’re going to do our best to bump competitors out of the cooler.
Liquid Death created a limited edition skateboard infused with real blood from pro-skater Tony Hawk.
In terms of events, let’s use Coachella as an example. It’s hot as heck out there. You have to have water in the desert. The product itself will cost me $1000s, and then there are the freight costs. We’ll provide 100% spring water in an infinitely recyclable can, and I’ll say to the organisers do you want it or not? These other water brands are writing cheques for $10,000 to be there. But it’s like the rich kid in high school with a pool who has all the parties but that no one respects. You’re like buying your friends, you know? So we’re not going to play by anyone else’s rules. We’re not writing cheques to say ‘presented by...’, and everyone’s like, wait; you're not letting anyone use your logo, and you’re not sponsoring events!? And they just can’t believe it. The other water brands love to be seen as the presenting sponsor, and they love to puff their chest out. And that’s basically saying: I paid to be here. And that’s one of the reasons I don’t let anyone use our logo because people want what they can’t have.
What can you tell us about the company’s growth strategy up against much larger and better-funded competitors?
We are credibly integrating Liquid Death into scenes and getting in front of people where other brands try to pay their way in. That’s our secret sauce. My team’s job is to build the brand equity as such, so the salespeople are taking orders; they do not have to sell. I want us to be in the fabric of music, art, and action sports. That’s what I know best, but it’s not limited to just that; there are all sorts of scenes. One of the peeps on my marketing team is the lead singer of a punk band, and she’s getting us doing a lot with the homeless in LA. That’s super awesome. Another is the bass player for Ozzy Osbourne, and he and his wife are foodies, so they’ve been getting us around food trucks. Another is a pro-skateboarder, and he’s getting us involved in the woodworking scene. It may sound silly, but it’s huge. Who would have thunk it? Right? We’re trying to push our team to get out of their comfort zone and look at other things. So that’s getting into a lifestyle. What are people passionate about? Let’s make sure Liquid Death is there.
What’s your advice for marketing sustainability effectively and in a way that engages?
People want to be able to digest information easily. They’re very lazy in this day and age. They want to be spoon-fed. So your messaging needs to make clear to consumers exactly what you’re trying to do, and it needs to be positive. Make consumers smile or think you’re funny or intriguing. You’ve got to keep thinking that way.
And you constantly have to push your team internally. It’s not about checking boxes. We’re not box checkers here. We want to see things happen. So we ask ourselves whether we did it the Liquid Death way. And so I think whatever the brand is, if you’re going to sustain your momentum, you’ve got to one-up it. And that takes a lot of time, and it’s stressful. So you’ve constantly got to be pushing.
Finally, everybody wants what they can’t have. So my third thing would be to create something people feel they just have to have. Look at what Nike does with the sneaker drops. People are camping overnight to get the latest Air Jordans. We make limited runs of shirts or hoodies, and we’ve done a few projects where consumers can’t even buy our products. I did a run of snowboards with the epic brand Capita that only went to the top independent shops in North America. The idea was if kids would go into demo the board and post about it on social media, they’d get a free case of Liquid Death. It brought people into the independent shops to support them, and it was a win-win for everyone. Everybody wanted that deck, and we left it up to these retailers to decide what they wanted to do with it. Did they want to raffle it to raise money for their shop? Or give it to their top employee? I didn’t care. What mattered was everyone wanted that Liquid Death board. It’s creating that brand equity where people just have to have the product. I don’t know one person who will wear a water company brand while we have celebrities and athletes asking if we can send them our t-shirts to wear. We’ve built the equity to a point where they’re proud to wear our brand.
Jude Bliss is Research and Content Director at eatbigfish — a global strategic consultancy dedicated to challenger brands and the challenger mindset.
