Let’s talk about one of the standout brands of 2024:

LIQUID DEATH

Long story short, they sell water.

Yes, water.

BUT their marketing has made them a household brand…

Organic reach:

Liquid Death draws 500K-700K monthly visitors to its site.

64% of that traffic comes from the U.S., with 75% from mobile devices. You’ve likely seen them—their brand is everywhere.

65% of traffic is from organic search, led by branded keywords like “Liquid Death” & “death water.”

Organic search, not ads, drives the bulk of growth.

Which actually serves as a MASSIVE foundation for them to push paid advertising — they aren’t reliant on it, which allows them to experiment more with their creatives and messaging.

Let’s talk about socials…

Social media brings 8% of traffic, mostly from YouTube, where Liquid Death’s irreverent, viral videos thrive.

Founder Mike Cessario has been turning humor into brand fuel, and other brands are taking notice as well.

Brands like Dr Squatch have taken a similar angle with their advertising, and it’s working insanely well.

Their Amazon channel is thriving as well—$1.6M in sales from a single SKU in July 2024.

But they still dominate the retail aisle in-store, with unique branding and creative displays.

Sidenote: Liquid Death’s branding is so strong that fans pay double the price of competitors—and 300+ fans have tattooed the logo on themselves.

The high watermark of brand loyalty has been set.

In my opinion, Liquid Death has nearly perfected the idea of marketing-first products.

They built an ethos, an identity, and they happen to sell water.

This logic could apply to SO MANY brands out there, it’s well worth noting.

And don’t be surprised as other brands closely follow-suit.

Erik, Brett. “The rise of Liquid Death.” Received by Joshua Langley, 21 Nov. 2016.