How Liquid Death’s 40-year-old founder turned ‘the dumbest name’ into a $700 million water brand

Let's look it: Water is boring.

Sure, it's indispensable to your wellness and fewer beverages tin beryllium much crisp oregon refreshing, but astir bottled h2o brands are reasonably bland and uninspiring — featuring the aforesaid interchangeable references to mountains, springs oregon both.

Over a decennary ago, Mike Cessario started wondering if helium could alteration that. What if helium could really marque h2o cool?

That's the comparatively elemental root communicative down Liquid Death, the ironically named canned h2o marque that Cessario trademarked successful 2017 and officially launched 2 years later. It mightiness dependable similar a gag astatine archetypal — and it benignant of was — but there's thing funny, oregon boring, astir however rapidly Liquid Death has go a ascendant unit successful a bottled h2o marketplace that's worthy up to $350 cardinal globally, according to Pitchbook. 

From its viral societal media posts to its Super Bowl commercial, Liquid Death abruptly seemed to beryllium everyplace — on with its cheeky tagline, "Murder your thirst." That societal cachet is reflected successful the leap successful its sales, which were $2.8 cardinal successful 2019 and are connected way to beryllium $130 cardinal successful 2022.

Cessario, a selling nonrecreational with a inheritance successful plan and the underground euphony scene, said helium initially thought his h2o would person lone a niche following.

"I didn't deliberation it would beryllium this big," Cessario, 40, told CNBC Make It. "I deliberation 1 of the astir astonishing things to everybody with this was however wide the assemblage truly was."

The Liquid Death CEO envisioned the thought catching connected with punk-rock musicians looking to enactment hydrated during agelong sets, and immoderate of their straight-edge — successful different words, sober — fans looking to support up portion drinking thing healthier than intoxicant oregon sugary vigor drinks.

Instead, it's recovered a wide scope of fans, from young radical who emotion the brand's "cool" sanction and plan to moms who privation their kids to portion thing healthy, Cessario said. Liquid Death packages its "mountain water" successful a 16.9 fluid ounce "tallboy" tin emblazoned with a melting skull logo reminiscent of trade beers oregon vigor drinks specified arsenic Monster and Rockstar.

Also taking announcement are deep-pocketed investors specified arsenic Live Nation Entertainment and Science Ventures and personage backers including comedian Whitney Cummings and members of euphony radical Swedish House Mafia. Collectively, investors person pumped astir $195 cardinal into Liquid Death, valuing the marque astatine $700 million, Cessario said.

Liquid Death's meteoric emergence successful conscionable 3 years makes the institution much than conscionable a clever sanction — adjacent though Cessario admits that mightiness beryllium his product's biggest selling point. 

"At the extremity of the day, we're truly creating an amusement institution and a h2o company," helium said. "We privation to really entertain radical [and] marque them laughter successful work of a brand. And if you tin bash that, they're going to emotion your marque due to the fact that you're giving them thing of value. You're really making them laugh."

The effect of the thought was planted successful 2009, Cessario said.

He was surviving successful Denver and watching immoderate friends execute with their set astatine the Vans Warped Tour euphony festival. Monster vigor drinks were a sponsor connected the tour, truthful the musicians were drinking retired of Monster cans, but they'd replaced the vigor portion with h2o to enactment hydrated during their sets, helium said.

"It started making maine deliberation about: Why aren't determination much steadfast products that inactive person funny, cool, irreverent branding?" Cessario said. "Because astir of the funniest, astir memorable, irreverent branding selling is each for junk food."

Then, successful 2014, Cessario was moving connected a nationalist work advertisement run astir the wellness risks of sugary vigor drinks. His idea, helium said: "Doing a canned h2o that was, benignant of, conscionable geared arsenic a stunt to poke amusive astatine vigor drinks."

The lawsuit didn't similar it, but Cessario kept tinkering with the conception successful his escaped time. It took him astir 2 years to hone the concept, helium said, and, astir importantly, settee connected a name.

Cessario knew that if helium launched his ain h2o brand, helium wouldn't person capable wealth to marketplace it to the masses successful accepted ways.

That meant the name, and the marque identity, needed to beryllium the cleanable premix of funny, edgy and chill — memorable capable for radical to stock connected their societal media feeds, creating escaped advertising.

"The lone mode the marque would person a accidental astatine endurance is [that] the existent merchandise itself has to beryllium truthful insanely interesting, wherever truthful overmuch of the selling is baked into the product," helium said.

So, Cessario turned to a selling instrumentality helium said his squad astatine Liquid Death inactive uses today: What's the dumbest imaginable idea? If you effort to deliberation of a astute idea, past your encephalon is hard-wired to deliberation astir palmy examples that already exist, helium explained.

"You benignant of person to instrumentality your encephalon to travel up with a atrocious thought to genuinely beryllium reasoning successful innovative territory," helium said. "It works truly good due to the fact that you commencement thinking, like, 'Oh, what's the dumbest imaginable sanction for a ace healthy, safest beverage possible? Liquid Death.' Probably the dumbest name."

Once Cessario trademarked the sanction successful 2017, helium felt that helium was connected to something.

"If idiosyncratic I knew saw that successful a store, I'm beauteous definite they're going to person to prime that up and beryllium like, 'What is this?'" helium said. "And erstwhile idiosyncratic picks thing up, you've fundamentally won."

Cessario hoped Liquid Death could make its ain marketing, but helium inactive needed wealth to crook it into a existent merchandise helium could sell.

Initially, imaginable investors and radical successful the beverage manufacture told him that the plan for Liquid Death's cans looked excessively overmuch similar beer, which could perchance confuse customers, and that "retailers volition ne'er enactment thing connected the support that says 'Death' connected it," helium said.

"Nobody was going to conscionable constitute a cheque for that idea, due to the fact that it was truthful retired there," helium said.

To beryllium Liquid Death was a viable brand, Cessario took a 3D rendering of his tin plan and created a Facebook page successful 2018 to marque Liquid Death look similar a morganatic product. He changeable a two-minute commercial starring his wife's histrion person that outgo him $1,500, and dipped into his savings to walk different "few 1000 dollars successful paid media" to beforehand it.

"Four months in, the video had 3 cardinal views," Cessario said. "The [Facebook] leafage had astir 80,000 followers, which was much than Aquafina connected Facebook astatine the time."

"We had hundreds of messages and comments from radical [saying], 'This is the top happening ever. ... Is this real?'" Cessario said.

People contacted the Facebook leafage to inquire wherever they could bargain Liquid Death. Beverage distributors got successful touch, looking for a salesperson truthful they could banal it successful stores, Cessario said.

That absorption was capable for investors. After 2 years of floating the thought to imaginable backers, Cessario landed $1.6 cardinal successful effect backing from Science Ventures successful January 2019. Liquid Death started selling cans of h2o to customers done its website that aforesaid month.

Today, Liquid Death has much than 250,000 followers connected Facebook and 1.4 cardinal connected Instagram.

In 2020, the marque expanded into Whole Foods stores, and it had astir $10 cardinal successful income for the year. That fig jumped to $45 cardinal past year, arsenic chains specified arsenic 7-Eleven and Publix joined in.

Earlier this twelvemonth Liquid Death launched a enactment of flavored carbonated waters, with irreverent names specified arsenic Berry It Alive and Severed Lime.

Now, the marque is sold successful much than 60,000 retail locations nationwide, including Kroger and Target, wherever the cans retail for $1.89 apiece. Liquid Death is Amazon's top-selling inactive h2o brand and second-bestselling sparkling h2o brand.

Cessario said Liquid Death is "definitely" expecting to treble its gross adjacent year, suggesting a full of astir $260 cardinal successful income successful 2023. But however acold tin a canned h2o marque based connected a bully gag go?

Many of the biggest bottled h2o brands are owned by monolithic conglomerates, specified arsenic The Coca-Cola Company, which owns Dasani and Smartwater, and PepsiCo, which owns Aquafina. Any of them could motorboat their ain irreverent h2o marque too, but Cessario appears unconcerned by the prospect.

"It's truly hard to replicate the marketing," helium said. "Really hard. People deliberation it's easy, and you'll spot radical travel retired trying to bash it and autumn wholly level connected their face."

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