This start-up makes millions from canned water

“Liquid Death”: That’s the name of a US start-up that sells canned water with a beer look. The company is now worth around $700 million.

“No thank you. I don’t drink”: Anyone who says this sentence at a party often gets doubtful looks and mocking comments. But if alcohol is still an integral part of our everyday social life, show statisticsthat consumption is steadily declining. No wonder, then, that many brands are increasingly promoting non-alcoholic beverages.

Start-up sells water from beer cans

However, the US start-up Liquid Death is pursuing a somewhat idiosyncratic approach. Because the company sells water in soda cansthat look like they contain alcohol. The black, white and gold can resembles a classic beer can.

Liquid death marketing rethinks water

Of the marketing approach of the start-up is relatively simple: drinking water shouldn’t appear uncool. The company’s mission is to make people laugh and encourage them to drink water more and more often.

Above all, the advertising of the product differs from other soft drinks. in one Instagram post Liquid Death describes, for example, how customers quench their thirst by consuming beer can water:

Our proprietary thirst killing process begins with Liquid Death forming a rope of veins that wraps around your thirst’s head, strangling it. Once the “Liquid Death” reaches your Thirst’s brain, all memories of your Thirst are replaced by repetitive loops of its own imploding head. And that’s exactly what happens next, with Thirst’s head imploding and its brains spurting out of its ears.

Meanwhile, this tone runs through the various commercials of Liquid Death. In addition, the start-up also offers the right merchandise in its online shop, which seems to be inspired by rock music and horror films.

Start-up makes millions in sales with water

The strategy seems to be working. Because although the company has only been around since 2019, it is currently worth 700 million US dollars.

There’s a gap for fun and bold healthy eating marketing, says Liquid Death founder Mike Cessario. Usually you only know really funny stuff from junk food brands.

Canned water is going viral

Cessario came up with the idea for canned water as a student in 2005. But it wasn’t until 2017, when he was working in advertising himself, that he produced a low-cost commercial to test interest in canned water.

He published the video and a first draft of the can on Facebook. The post received more than three million views and beverage retailers contacted us because they wanted to include the product in their range. Cessario then attracted investors who invested a total of $1.6 million in Liquid Death.

Criticism of the canned water start-up

But not everyone is enthusiastic about the hip water from the can. Of the new Yorker criticizes, for example, the enormous manufacturing costs of the aluminum from which the Liquid Death cans are made.

Like the marketing platform OMR writes, huge areas of rain forest are being cleared for the mining of the ore bauxite, which is necessary for the production of aluminum.

In addition, the water for Liquid Death comes from Austria because there are no providers of carbonated water without preservatives in the USA.

From an environmental point of view, this raises concerns. And this despite the fact that Liquid Death also says about itself that it wants to fight plastic pollution.

Start-up attracts new investors

Despite criticism, Liquid Death is available in 60,000 stores in the US. Consumers can buy the canned water from the US supermarket chains Whole Foods, Target and 7 Eleven, among others. Also about Amazon customers can order the “liquid death”.

In addition, the company has completed additional investment rounds, raising more than $200 million in the “Series D” round.

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Founder Mike Cessario says Liquid Death is more than just a beverage company. The start-up sees itself as a pop culture factory. And marketing should be understood less as an advertising measure than as entertainment.

It looks like state-of-the-art marketing, writes OMR. Millions of followers and likes on TikTok, 90 percent positive ratings on Amazon and its own NFT collection with the associated Discord server seem to prove this.

Liquid death marketing is self-financing

According to Cessario, the complex marketing campaigns would often refinance themselves. For example, Liquid Death released a record on which the start-up set hate speech to music. “Greatest Hates” has sold 700 copies.

The merch made $3 million in sales last year, taking the company’s total sales to $45 million. In 2022 it should be 130 million US dollars.

If Liquid Death continues like this, it’s probably only a matter of time before the grungy water from the can spills over to Europe.

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