Liquid Death
Murder Your Thirst
Founded in 2018, Liquid Death is a viral company known for its humor and darkness. They are a beverage company that specializes in water and sweet tea. Their “evil” mission statement is “to make people laugh and get more of them to drink more healthy beverages more often, all while helping to kill plastic pollution”. Their core brand values include eliminating plastic waste, selling healthier drinks, and just being a humorous brand in general. These values are very evident in their social media presence. In this audit, I will cover how Liquid Death uses social media, which posts do or don’t work for them and why, their social media brand voice, and the overall strengths and weaknesses of their social media campaigns.
Before analyzing Liquid Death’s social media posts, we first need to understand their target market
Due to Liquid Death being a more dark and humorous brand, their target market falls within the 18-35 age range primarily in the US but also internationally as it is sold in many countries across the globe. For social media usage, this target market tends to use three platforms in particular:
Instagram | TikTok | Twitter
Liquid Death posts on instagram the most out of the three platforms being covered in this audit. On average, they post 9-10 times a month depending on new products and promotions. In total they have 825 total posts and 2.5M followers at the time of publication.
Instagram is Liquid Death’s bread-and-butter and is one of the primary social media platforms for the beverage brand. They excel in three facets when looking at their instagram marketing campaigns:
Celebrity Branding | Audience Engagement | Promoting New Products
Celebrity Branding
Liquid Death loves bringing their favorite celebrities into their instagram posts. Many of their recent posts feature recognizable faces that their target market loves
This first post from October 6th 2023 features Courtney Parchman. In this reel, Courtney is pretending to audition for a movie as “drowning girl #3”. Comedically, she ends up pouring a whole can of Liquid Death all over herself and acts as if she’s drowning
This post really ties in with Liquid Death’s morbid humor and was very well received by its followers. It exemplifies the brand’s abnormal marketing strategies and shows just how effective it can be. This post is meant to spread between viewers via shares due to its absurdity; it is more about generating interest than driving sales. A downside of this type of post is that some may find it inappropriate or too morbid, however this type of thing lines up perfectly with Liquid Death’s brand image.
This second post from September 5th, 2023 features Steve-O. In this reel, Steve-O gets a Liquid Death vending machine then skates on and around it in his backyard skatepark.
Steve-O’s core audience and Liquid Death’s target market almost perfectly overlap each other. This is a prime example of a brand and a celebrity collaboration where their demographics both line up perfectly to create the perfect celebrity branding campaign. One negative of this collaboration is that Steve-O can be a polarizing figure but those that love him really do love him and everything he does.
Audience Engagement
Audience engagement is one of the most important aspects of social media marketing and Liquid Death is really good at it. They will often repost posts from their community and shed a spotlight on that individual. This really boosts goodwill towards the brand and helps to generate even more user-generated content.
This first post from September 8th 2023 features a man drinking a can of Liquid Death. The camera-woman asks him what he is drinking. He shows the Liquid Death and says he thought he was drinking something alcoholic to which she laughs.
It has become an inside joke with Liquid Death that those who don’t know what it is often confuse it aesthetically for something alcoholic. This post helps cement that inside joke and creates a stronger bond with those that are already aware of the joke. Something however that does not work for this post is that the caption is promoting a product that’s different than the one being shown in the video, creating no cohesion in the post. Another downside is that some may misinterpret the video and think the man thought it was alcoholic because it tasted that way and not because of its appearance. Clarification should be added to the video to help drive the message home.
This post from August 18th 2023 shows someone holding a Liquid Death in a brown paper bag with the caption “Lady at the gas station paper bagged me lmao didn’t even I.D. me”.
This coincidentally happens to be playing on the same joke that the last discussed post did. The universality of this joke among Liquid Death fans is very clear. Regardless, this post exemplifies how Liquid Death will shed a spotlight on their community to drive further engagement. They repost community posts quite often and the fans love them for it.
Promoting New Products
Even though Liquid Death mainly sells only water and tea, they regularly sell small batch products, usually satirical in nature, lining up with their brand voice and persona. They are often ridiculous or absurd and get people talking.
This first post from October 4th 2023 shows a new collaboration with MeUndies, an underwear company
This is one of the few new products from Liquid Death that is not completely humorous in nature. This however did not stop Liquid Death from putting their own funny spin on it. They are really good and pushing out new products from satire alone and this is not an exception. One thing to note from this is that the performance on this post isn’t as high as it usually is. This is because people often come to Liquid Death for dark absurdism and an underwear promotion doesn’t really tie in with that. For future promotions Liquid Death should really try to find partners that align with their brand more.
This next post from August 24th 2023 shows a new skate deck that they sold for only one day to their subscribed members.
This is one of those absurdist products that they make in small batches. The real magic of this post however is that only members could buy this if they wanted to. This is a great way for Liquid Death to collect more subscribers and more emails for their database. Even if those that were interested didn’t get to buy the skate deck, they could still sign up for future products to be sold. This type of marketing is a genius move and has worked really well for Liquid Death.
Instagram Synopsis
Liquid Death has really made its mark on Instagram and has used it as its primary social media marketing platform; many flock to their account for their dark humor. Liquid Death has maintained a large presence on the platform and has really used it to its advantage with celebrity branding, audience engagement, and the promotion of new products. One thing that may be a weakness for Liquid Death’s instagram is that the brand is too polarizing and abrasive with some of its posts however I would not recommend changing that as they are very much in line with the brand’s image and voice.
TikTok
Tiktok is one of the most popular social media platforms to-date. It is one of the most popular among Liquid Death’s target market, making it a prime target for social media marketing. On TikTok, Liquid Death has 4.4M followers and 19M likes with an average of 6-7 posts a month.
Liquid Death has the most following and reach on Tiktok. Because of this, they devote a lot of thought and effort into their TikTok account. Two things on Tiktok that they are really proficient in are:
Mascot ambassadors | Using points of difference
Mascot Ambassadors
Liquid Death has a recognizable and beloved mascot named Murder Man. He is most often able to be seen on their TikTok page and is a big hit with viewers.
This first post from September 29th 2023 features Murder Man dancing in London with the caption “Liquid Death: now available in all of your favorite UK locations”.
Fans of Liquid Death love Murder Man. It gives them a sense of familiarity and brings cohesiveness to Liquid Death’s tiktok as he is in a majority of their posts. This post is really effective in informing the audience that Liquid Death is available in the UK. One thing that may trouble viewers however is that some of the places that Murder Man dances include torture scenes and pictures of JAck the Ripper. This may offend some UK viewers and be seen as inappropriate internationally. I would recommend trying to avoid making fun of specified groups, especially if they are a new market you’re trying to get into.
This post from September 27th 2023 features Murder Man being a part of a TikTok where you hold your dog and spin around with them
This post wasn’t a great idea and the execution was worse. It didn’t get the normal reception that posts featuring Murder Man do. This is because in the post, the dog is scared of Murder Man and backs away from him in fear. This upset animal lovers as well as the trend that was being shown doesn’t really line up with Liquid Death’s target market. In general, Liquid Death should make sure that their mascot is only seen as positive to be fully useful in the future. They should also make sure that anything they post lines up with their target market.
Using Points of Difference
One of Liquid Death’s main points of differentiation is that they use non-plastic containers for their water. One of their slogans is “death to plastic”. They often use this to their advantage on social media to appear more eco-friendly.
This first post from October 12th 2023 shows Murder Man dancing in a store and mocking plastic water bottles
One of the main reasons that people buy Liquid Death is to be eco-friendly. Liquid Death prides itself on having a metal can and they use that to their advantage on Tiktok. Being eco friendly really helps their appeal and makes customers who buy it feel good about their purchase. Using your points of differentiation as a part of your social media campaign really makes sense and helps you distinguish yourself from the millions of people that are on the internet.
This final post is from May 23rd 2023. It's a satirical video of a plastic surgeon talking about how there's so much plastic polluting the Earth that they decided to use it for plastic surgery. The results look repulsive.
Liquid Death is really playing on the pollution and grossness of plastic waste to drive their sales. They are relying on the shortcomings of other water brands to boost their own image and make themselves seem much better in comparison. One thing that may detract from the message is the actual video being used. It's very vile and uncomfortable however it does help to drive the point home. I think less body horror and more focus on plastic pollution would be a better way of sending a less polarizing message.
TikTok Synopsis
With Liquid Death’s largest following being on TikTok, they really care about their TikTok account. They are very effective in using mascots and points of difference to their advantage as well as making exciting and engaging content on the platform in general. There is room for improvement on their account however as some of their posts don’t perform as well as others. Especially on the platform where they have their largest following, Liquid Death should make sure they don’t have any posts that make people uncomfortable or ones that can be seen overtly negatively. I would try to take less risks on posts on Tiktok and perhaps dedicate them to a different platform with a much lower following. This would allow for a positive TikTok account while still allowing experimentation and risk in the marketing mix.
Twitter is the final social media platform that will be analyzed in this audit. On Twitter, Liquid Death has 46.2k followers and posts 4-5 times a month on average, making Twitter the lowest follower and post count out of the three analyzed social media platforms.
Liquid Death uses much more tame, safe posts on their Twitter than anywhere else. This is where they could be considered the most “professional” and non-abrasive. Some things that they have mastered on Twitter are:
Using Retweets and Reposts | Toned-down humor
Using Retweets and Reposts
Twitter really lends itself for brands to incorporate user-generated content among companies as retweets and reposts are very prevalent on Twitter. Liquid Death often uses the retweet function to its advantage
This post is from July 5th 2023. It is a man talking about using Liquid Death as a hangover cure.
Liquid Death likes to retweet things from their community. It often boosts goodwill towards the brand and creates a better relationship between the company and the consumer. This case in particular is really great as Liquid Death is being promoted as a hangover cure. This could generate interest and future sales.
The next post is from June 11th 2023 where Liquid death reposted someone's oil painting of a Liquid Death can.
Once again, Liquid Death has given the spotlight to a community member. This time around, they are showing the talent of a particular person. This is much less about pushing any particular product or even generating interest. This repost is about showing their community that they care about them. This again helps build long lasting relationships and makes the company appear more caring and loving.
Toned-Down Humor
Being a much more professional and appropriate social media platform, Twitter doesn’t often lend itself to Liquid Death’s brand of dark humor. Liquid Death has recognized this and has chosen to tone-down their humor to appeal itself more to the platform
This post is from September 1st, 2023 advertises their Rest in Peach tea flavor
Liquid Death does very well at balancing its brand image and humor with the culture of the platform they post to. This is an example of them still being humorous but staying within their means on Twitter. Some consumers may view it as a sellout move but it makes a lot of sense for Liquid Death. Sure, they could probably insert more of their own humor into the post but maintaining the Twitter culture is very important.
This final post is from July 29th 2023. It features their regular liquid death with the caption “Murderers Wanted”.
Once again, Liquid Death has toned-down their humor but they have added some word play into their post. Their main slogan is “Murder Your Thirst”. In combination with the caption, Liquid Death is pretty much just saying “drink our water”. They are keeping their brand image while once again appealing to Twitter’s culture. This is a really good example of that balancing act.
Twitter Synopsis
Overall, Liquid Death does very well at using Twitter’s features to its advantage as well as appealing to the Twitter culture. The company exhibits a strong understanding of how the Twitter landscape works and uses that knowledge to its advantage. They could try to add a bit more of their full persona in their posts but it would be relatively risky.
Liquid Death’s Social Media Brand Voice
As seen throughout their social media posts, Liquid Death likes to keep things fun. They have a very humorous and absurd persona as well as having a dark and sarcastic tone. Linguistically, they are very nonchalant and fun. Their purpose in their voice is to be engaging and entertaining. Overall, they have a very well defined brand voice and they use it to their advantage.
Liquid Death’s Purchase Process
Liquid Death does not focus much on marketing for people at different points in the purchase process; They have a very non-traditional marketing approach. Some things they do stand out in are alternative evaluations as they like to use their points of difference to their advantage as well as standing out in post-purchase evaluation as those that are eco-conscious feel better being able to recycle a metal can than a plastic bottle.
Final Analysis
As a whole, Liquid Death really excels beyond in audience engagement, product promotion, and especially in having a well-defined, consistent brand persona and voice. Things they could work on are being less abrasive and polarizing as well as making more unique posts to each social media platform. A Lot of their posts across their platforms are repeated so a little more variety would go a long way.