Liquid Death is positioning its canned water as an eco-friendly alternative to plastic water bottles. As part of the #DeathToPlastics project, the company donates 10% of profits from each can to fight plastic pollution and deliver clean drinking water to those in need.
Liquid Death is not just water, but an entire lifestyle. It was with this idea in mind that Mike Cesario founded the company in 2019. It was his boldness and originality in his marketing approach that helped the brand gain the loyalty of its millions of fans around the world. Before starting his own brand, Cesario worked as a creative director at Netflix. So he knew better than most how to do the right advertising.
Cesario’s goal was to create a “healthy” brand that would be “just as exciting, if not more exciting, than energy drinks, sodas, alcohol, and candy,” and the emphasis was initially on cool advertising. Paraphernalia has also always been part of Liquid Death’s marketing strategy; the company began producing t-shirts just months after launch.
Liquid Death was designed to compete with conventional sodas and energy drinks by offering consumers a healthy and stylish alternative. Liquid Death appeals to its consumers with humor and the unexpected. They are doing outreach like real rock stars, offering their wares at rock concerts and festivals. Their social media is filled with memes and jokes, attracting the attention of millions of followers.
Advertising should be fun, unobtrusive, and even absurd – this approach is clearly demonstrated in the company’s first promotional videos, which do not resemble traditional water advertising at all.
From the first days of its existence, Liquid Death set itself ambitious goals – not only to sell water but also to change the world for the better, starting with the fight against the use of plastic bottles. This brand promises its customers not only to quench their thirst but also to belong to a certain social group that values sustainability, cares about the environment, and likes to stand out from the crowd.
But essentially, Liquid Death is plain or carbonated mountain water in an aluminum can, with an image of a skull and the words “Kill Your Thirst.” A pack of 12 cans costs $18.99.
What is Liquid Death?
Liquid Death is the name of an American manufacturer of water in aluminum cans. Liquid Death was launched in 2019 as a consumer-only brand and is now sold in more than 30,000 stores, including major American chains like 7/11, Whole Foods, and Safeway.
The company positions itself as a heavy metal brand for a healthy lifestyle: the can with the inscription “Kill Your Thirst” features a skull, and the new advertising campaign “Keep the beauty of the underworld” urges customers to save hell from plastic bottles. In fact, the entire visual identity is built on this very message.
Liquid Death sees its audience among musicians of alternative bands, representatives of the tattoo industry, and adherents of straight edge philosophy, who promote a healthy lifestyle, and rejection of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. This is the style of the laconic logo of the brand, which consists only of a black inscription in gothic style with softened contours of letters.
The sleek and a bit creepy inscription is accompanied by the “Mountain Water” tagline, written in the uppercase of a classy serif typeface.
Liquid Death’s mascot is a muscular barbarian with a jar instead of a head, easily killing with a huge axe all those who drink Liquid Death, sending them to hell.
The bold title case lettering from the primary logo of the Liquid Death brand is set in a custom gothic typeface, which is somewhat close to such commercial fonts as Fractus, Draculatrade, or Origen, but with significant modifications. As for the uppercase tagline, it is executed in a more traditional serif type, similar to Demosreg Next or Hawking.
As for the color palette of the Liquid Death visual identity, it is of course based on black, the color, which is the first in the list to be associated with the heavy metal and tattoo industry, where the brand believes to gain the most of its audience.