Liquid Death, a provocative canned water company, took a huge gamble on its branding, and it’s paying off. Now they’re using advertising, public relations and marketing to amplify growth.
For those of you who have not heard of Liquid Death, the idea is to “kill your thirst” and rid the world of plastic bottles by drinking your still or sparkling water out of an aluminum can.
There was certainly a potential that the brand would be off putting, but it has actually garnered a devoted audience, currently boasting nearly 700k followers on Instagram and 1.2M on TikTok today.
How did they do it? By having a good idea, of course, then taking a wonderfully unique approach to advertising, PR and marketing.
Bold ads? Absolutely. With headlines like “Death to Plastic” and “Murder Your Thirst”, these ads are attention-grabbing and unfortgettable.
They even partnered with Amazon’s The Boys star "The Deep" for a video ad, which has gotten exorbitant amounts of attention on YouTube for its jarring nature (we warned you):
The absolute absurdity of this brand has naturally brought it the kind of PR most brands would pay millions for. From Eater to Entrepreneur and media newsletters to hip hop blogs, news outlets are giving Liquid Death lots of love. Perhaps partnering with Wiz Khalifa to promote “bong water” created a newsworthy story…just guessing here.
And there have been numerous genius marketing campaigns. For one in particular, the brand did what we all wish we could — embraced the haters and their fans loved it. Posting bad reviews with the phrase, “The Internet Loves Us,” on their Instagram account has fans rolling in laughter and doubling their support. Seriously, 1600+ comments?!?! Amazing.
By remaining consistent with their brand, tone and overall weirdness, this canned water company is taking the world by storm.
Here’s what you need to know: this combination of advertising, PR and marketing can help any brand educate consumers and drive interest surrounding its products, resulting in more sales.
What does this mean for your brand?
As tactics continue to evolve and consumers increasingly determine their own buyer journey, taking a closer look at your advertising, marketing and PR efforts will become mandatory.
No matter the department, the No. 1 job is to build awareness of the brand and products and drive more sales. Of course, the roles have been traditionally different, and we certainly acknowledge that. While PR professionals focus on the company brand and how investors and the media view it, marketers are more concerned with the company’s reputation with consumers. However, both, as well as advertising, are responsible for improving sales numbers.
But most of this is being done online these days using some old practices and some newer tactics, which include PPC, content marketing, social media advertising, online press releases and influencers. Social media has created an uncertainty of department ownership since businesses latched on to it as a way to communicate with buyers. As the digital lines blur, so, too, do department lines.
Combining your advertising, marketing and PR efforts have several benefits:
This merging of efforts seems to be a natural evolution, developing right along with the digital world. Each department brings its own particular strengths to the table.
Now is the time to take advantage of combining those skills to tell your brand story and create the ultimate ROI trifecta, resulting in more leads, sales and profits with a considerable savings in cost.
